Recently in Sales Performance Management Business Case Category

In a recent sales performance management Webinar with Ritu Thakur of Smart Tech Inc., I provided an overview of how to select a sales performance management vendor.  The first step in the process of selecting a vendor is to make the business case for sales performance management.

The benefits of sales performance management are myriad; but benefits alone don't make a business case.  Hard numbers and real problems are what build a business case.  Let's take a look at the do's and don't's for building a business case.

Do's

• Do...build comprehensive Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) across sales people and processes and existing technology.
• Do...include tangible benefits and expected hard costs.
• Do...know your current sales metrics (including quota, territory, product, etc.,) and future target sales metrics.
• Do...set short-term and long-term return-on-investment (ROI) measurements.
• Do...understand the implementation model options for sales performance management and how they will fit within your organization.

Don't's

• Don't...focus only on the technology solution.  The most effective sales performance management solutions use enabling technology to change processes and improve the performance of sales people. 
• Don't...ignore intangible benefits and soft costs. 
• Don't...forget to consider your organization's culture.  Understand that a general rule of thumb for change is that 1/3 of the people will be enthusiastic about change, 1/3 will not be enthusiastic but will go along with change, and 1/3 will resist change.
• Don't...forget to identify automation opportunities.  Think about your current sales performance management and incentive compensation management practices.  This is the opportunity to eliminate duplicate spreadsheets, implement workflow and alerts and streamline any number of manual processes. 

There are many approaches to building a business case for sales performance management.  Some organizations pull together cross-disciplinary teams, some organizations hire consultants, and some use a combination of internal and external resources.

Ultimately, whichever approach you use, it is vital you focus on why your organization needs sales performance management; what is currently not working in your sales measurement process and incentive compensation management process, and what is working? 

Selecting the right sales performance management vendor is as much about your people, your organization and your business goals as it is about identifying the best technology solution.