In the current, ever-changing environment of sales, incentive compensation(IC) leaders have to consider the effects of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and uncertainty (VUCA) when they develop their strategies for their businesses. In particular, they must be prepared for unpredictable industry ecosystem shifts. Reps aren’t certain about returning to the field, and complex IC plans due to local issues. Uncertain market conditions in the near term. It’s been a long time since when incentive compensation plans were the same for several quarters. In addition, IC leaders expend time and energy creating plans. Therefore, it is essential that the leaders create IC best practices for operations for smooth, efficient design implementation.
In general, an effective IC operations program must exhibit the following seven traits accuracy, timeliness, and flexibility, as well as useful insights, effective communication, cost-effectiveness, and innovation.
A successful IC program should include all of these elements
It can be difficult to manage all of them simultaneously. For instance, it could be difficult to keep a balance between:
Continuously on time in addition to adjusting to constantly changing demands due to changing marketplaces and business situations and
Regularly and quickly providing thorough incentives compensation plan explanations and business insight While not overwhelming IC users with details.
“While juggling all these competing business goals may seem impossible, leaders can achieve them by returning to the fundamentals.”
It is essential to create a solid foundation of quality, project management, and change management as well as stakeholder communication to accomplish these objectives. Ovik Mkttchyan
Project management that is effective
To ensure that leaders are able to effectively manage process management for their projects, they need to be focused on the process of planning. The intricate and complicated characteristics of IC projects call for strong end-to-end management. Leaders must think about the following:
Am I anticipating the unanticipated?
Have I thought through all dependencies and hand-offs?
Have I met regularly with different stakeholders? And do team members know their responsibilities and roles?
There is a myriad of important elements in managing projects. Risk management is a multi-faceted process but we can reduce IC the management of risk into the steps below: Ovik Mkttchyan
The process of identifying risk
Teams are they evaluating the risk? Are all team members aware of the different types of risks they could confront within the course of an IC operational program, for example, the ones involving quality processes, people, or timeframes?
Risk mitigation
Did teams plan risks mitigation plans and share them with the key people?
Maintaining documentation:
Although document creation is simple but regularly updating them isn’t easy. Managers need to maintain the documents that are in use and work with the key stakeholders to ensure that the documents are up-to-date and that they are regularly reviewed or audited. The process of updating the documents should be a part of the procedures’ standard operating procedure.
The key indicator of performance tracking is
What should be measured? There should be a consistent schedule of important reports on performance, like timeliness delay, mistakes, field inquiries, and adjustments. Leaders should hold regular business meetings, or quarterly, for discussing these numbers in-depth with the most important people.
Continuous improvement:
Process enhancements and improvements provide benefits to all parties. Regular process audits and value stream mapping can help managers identify ways to reduce unnecessary waste and identify the need for process re-engineering. Every IC operations project must include a separate workstream that is focused on:
Opportunities for automation: If the task is manual and repetitive the process can be automated.
Enhancements to reporting When it is possible to be improved in its intuitive and easy to understand, it can be enhanced with more knowledge and value.
Quality is achieved through the culture
Quality is created through the way we live our lives. However, creating an environment of quality — and living it each day takes a lot of work. These three steps will help in making it happen:
Planning for quality:
The most important thing is to put a quality procedure in place and everyone should be informed of it. When you are planning your quality initiatives take into consideration:
The project’s RACI matrix which means Responsible, Accountable, and Consulted and Informed, promotes the clarity of work ownership. In many cases, a lack of clarity can lead to nobody taking responsibility for crucial work.
Implement several quality control layers, also known in the form of “makers” and “checkers,” to ensure that critical deliverables are delivered. Choose the proper rigor to the correct kind of deliverable.
Test changes, exceptions and implement a successful sign-off procedure.
Quality management:
Once leaders have established their quality procedures and procedures, everyone must follow these processes. They must:
Use a thorough quality checkpoint and ask questions to establish the validations for each stage.
Develop robust, precise, and well-documented checklists that are well-documented and detailed.
Check periodically and make updates to checks and Validation.
Looking for quality that lasts:
A quality-oriented mindset is essential for long-term success.
The quality management approach will ensure solid quality control. However, the planning process and a quality control attitude, or a proactive process design that is designed to keep the highest quality, will ensure quality over time.
Communication is also crucial for ensuring high quality. The leader must create an environment of open communications where team members feel at ease discussing and sharing any suspicious signs. Establishing a culture of openness will reduce risks and help drive a quality process.
Team members should record the external and internal causes in an error tracker. They should then conduct a thorough Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and implement results. This will allow team members to understand every issue and develop short and long-term strategies. It will help establish a system of learning from mistakes made in the past and aid teams in avoiding repeat problems.
A solid framework for managing change
The only thing that is constant in life, and having a well-constructed change management process is crucial to success. The majority of quality mistakes stem from changes that are not properly implemented. As the first step. You can ask whether a change is really necessary by asking:
Which are expected results (or ROI) and do they justify the effort, or cost of making adjustments? For instance, certain field investigations might require analysis and updates that may be more costly than the advantages of correcting.
If the amount of effort is excessive are there any other inventive ways to satisfy stakeholder needs without having to undergo a change process?
The new governance model is in place now however leaders have to challenge it.
If change is needed and leaders must work with the requester to verify the request. The impact must be made known to all the relevant stakeholders. Leaders should keep an ongoing tracker of changes. All key stakeholders must be connected to the tracker to verify the approval and monitoring of any changes. Make sure your reporting tools follow the most effective implementation methods to ensure any parametrized changes is able to be revised and implemented quickly.
Communication with stakeholder stakeholders that is strong
George Bernard Shaw famously said that “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” The confusion is usually evident in IC programs where there are significant differences between the intentions of the leaders and the sales team’s understanding of the program.
In order to ensure their communication is relevant and compelling to all stakeholders, leaders should:
Find all participants and their requirements.
Customize content and communication channels to meet the needs of these stakeholders’ diverse needs and goals.
Your team should be challenged to go beyond the traditional methods of communication. Do you have more powerful field insights reports? Are you using interactive artifacts and videos, or playbooks to generate curiosity? What is the best strategy for simplification for complex communications? How do you measure the understanding of your stakeholders and their engagement?
Design and implement annual and quarterly communication plans using efficient methods of communication.
In conclusion the issue, incentive compensation is always a delicate procedure, and the emergence of the pandemic has raised the stakes. IC processes can be complicated and expectations can be extremely high. However, with a solid base of quality management, project management changes management, communication with stakeholders, leaders are able to manage VUCA and effectively manage the competing goals of the business.
