探索销售补偿模型的成本情况
This story was originally posted on the Intangent blog asThree levels of maturity for sales compensation plan cost modeling.
Incentive compensation plan changes are a reality that organizations face every year. Sometimes plan changes are structurally significant and made in response to exciting new business initiatives. In other cases, these changes are mere tweaks to a model that is already operating well. In any case, change means entering into the unknown and one aspect of the unknown is the expected cost of the new incentive compensation program.
自动化激励薪酬管理流程的组织在建模新计划变更的成本影响方面具有优势（单击推文). These organizations可以利用他们现有的投资准确地使用他们已经熟悉的工具和数据来对未来激励薪酬计划的更改进行建模。
在这里，我们将回顾三种方法销售补偿计划成本建模可以帮助您的销售组织设定对明年激励计划的期望。
Good: Basic incentive plan modeling
了解新激励薪酬计划更改的成本影响的一种常见方法是简单地测试与去年数据的新更改。根据所使用的工具，这可能是一个非常简单的过程，分为五个部分：
- 创建一个沙盒环境。
这通常是您的生产环境的副本，您可以修改，而不会对实际生产操作产生任何影响。 - 把e the sandbox environment with the new plans.
For basic changes, this might be building out the new rate tables, territory assignments, and quotas. For more complex changes, the new plans may need complete configuration within the application. Either way, the quality of the output will depend on the quality of the input, so we recommend a clean and accurate implementation based on the information available. - 准备预测数据。
在这种基本方法中，预测数据完全由以前的时期数据组成。例如，如果我们在2017年9月对2018日历年进行此分析，那么我们将在2017年1月至2017年8月至2018年1月至2018年8月之前将其复制到2016年8月。其余的年度将是2016年9月至2016年12月的副本。在此阶段，大多数组织都会操纵入站数据，以反映新年销量的一流增加。
4。Analyze the results and make adjustments
Once your initial configuration is complete, you can begin your analysis of the results. Since we’re using a complete ICM model, all field rep, manager, and administrative reports should populate with representative data. Analysis using built-in data exploration tools or through existing reporting in the ICM solution can also be used to understand the forecasted impact of the plan changes. As the analysis is performed, adjustments to the plan can be made to refine the incentive program changes. This ensures best alignment between sales incentive programs and corporate strategy.
5。促进您的变化
Once approved, application administrators can quickly migrate the new incentive program configuration to the production environment in time for the new selling season.
The advantages of this basic approach are that it’s quick, it’s easy to control, and it’s reasonably accurate. The primary drawback to this approach is that sales plans are often modified to generate a business result, which is not considered in the forecast data as prepared above.
Better: Incentive plan modeling and forecasting
One way we can improve on the above is to model forecasted revenues along with plan changes.
复杂的组织能够连接详细的销售预测, often maintained by Finance, to the incentive compensation model. This allows the sales operations team to directly link the new incentive program to next year’s forecast sales results. Forecasts will not build out to the detailed transactional level, however planning and analysis tools make it easy to push down forecasts to the levels required to compute valid incentive results.
影响的另一个领域是面向rep的活动。营业额，开放领土和新员工人数对销售激励成本和销售有效性产生了可衡量的影响。与REP活动相关的详细预测也应纳入明年的计划，以组装更好的整体成本图片。
Incentive compensation reports will now show results that use much more accurate forecast inputs, including the impact of rep-level changes. These additional steps will dramatically increase the accuracy of the cost model.
Best: incentive plan scenario modeling
Top tier organizations seeking the best answers on what the new sales programs may bring should extend their analysis by building multiple scenarios to understand the potential cost of their sales programs. With the right software package, scenario modeling is an inexpensive way to uncover undesirable results that stem from sales program changes.
场景建模意味着修改预测以反映来年的潜在结果。通常，我们会看到客户对销售的“最坏情况”，“可能的情况”和“最佳案例”结果建模，这应该导致“低”，“中等”和“高”销售委员会预算。我们还建议组织分析市场数据和CRM数据以识别潜在方案。例如，如果新产品被积极地销售和激励，那么如果许多销售团队成员深入加速器，销售预算会影响什么？或者，如果我们的计划扩展到APAC会延迟几个月，该怎么办？
More than just good budget guidance
There is a lot of hidden value in compensation plan cost modeling when it’s incorporated into an incentive compensation management solution. By modeling upfront, sales operations can identify a flawed incentive plan before announcing it to the sales team. Also, because the plan is configured in advance, the plan configuration can be more thoroughly tested and rolled out sooner. Finally, with scenario modeling, sales operations will have the data and forecasted results needed to向销售团队展示新计划是有利可图的，可实现的. This boosts team morale, increases trust in the new targets, and gets the team out selling faster.
销售激励预算设定的范围从简单，孤立到复杂，高度可见。销售运营和金融集团应考虑使用与计划奖励计划更改的目标，影响，风险和敏感性相匹配的成本建模方法。
同时考虑是否sales commission structure适合您的组织，考虑销售计划机械师和销售行为之间的相互依赖性。下载研究简介，“使用补偿机制来推动销售行为。”