In football, it goes without saying that unless the ball makes it to the endzone, in your hands, then you don’t get any points. In sales, we have to remember that we also cannot celebrate until the sale is done.
It takes a lot of effort to prospect, pitch, and ultimately get someone to agree to buy your software. It often takes a significant amount of more time to get through the contract negotiations. But – none of this is a sale. A sale is only a sale once the money is in the bank.
1985 was a great year for me.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about compensation plans as I start to get ready for 2009.
As I’ve been planning all of this, I’ve been watching the chaos unfold on Wall Street and I’ve seen these articles blaming much of it on highly paid people in Wall Street firms. Its always been my opinion that if a compensation package is designed correctly, then if the salespeople or executives are making a lot of money – well then the company must be doing well. Simply saying that “compensation is top heavy” doesn’t always tell the whole story. It is true that a poorly designed compensation plan can pay out too much money relative to effort, but I’ve been wondering if this was the case for many of the firms that have gone bust lately.
