The effectiveness drivers how-to
We define effectiveness drivers as the decisions sales leaders make, as well as the processes they use which determine the composition of a sales job and the essence of the sales team. These type of decisions will ultimately affect subsequent components of your sales management system. It is good practice in any sales department to divide effectiveness drivers into five categories:
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The Definers
This category includes all the effectiveness drivers and decisions like the sales strategy, go-to-market strategy, and the sales force design, which define the sales job. This category should answer the questions to whom will you sell? What will you sell? And how will it be sold? Make sure to define your marketing channels as well as the sales roles, sales territory alignment and sales organization structure.
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Shapers
As its name says, your sales team’s skills, capabilities, and values are shaped in this category. You should take into account effectiveness drivers like your hiring process, coaching plan, and strategies for company culture formation. Remember that commissions also play a role in shaping your sales force, since they influence the type of sales people that are attracted to the sales job.
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Enlighteners
This is where you provide your sales force with customer insight and research. Your sales reps should have the suitable effectiveness drivers to understand the marketplace better, identify opportunities, solve all customer problems and manage their time more effectively.
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Exciters
This category includes all the effectiveness drivers related to decisions and programs that have influenced the sales organization’s motivation. It is really important that sales leaders inspire their team members and fulfill the nature of the work. It is another effectiveness driver category where the compensation plan and its tracking play a critical role, which can easily be achieved with Blitz!
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Controllers
This category includes all those effectiveness drivers related to performance management defined by success, expectation setting and performance tracking. Your sales commission plan is also part of this category; if you pay a higher commission rate for strategic products or customers, your sales reps will focus their energy on those.
All of the sales effectiveness drivers have consequences on the overall management system because sales people, sales activities, customer results and company results may be affected or benefitted by them. Commission is always present at all categories, therefore you should use tools such as Blitz to enhance your commission strategy. Last but not least, if your sales effectiveness drivers’ decisions are made correctly, your sales team is much more likely to succeed.
Source
The Complete Guide to Sales Force Incentive Compensation: How to Design and Implement Plans that Work. Authors: Andris A. Zoltners, Sally E. Lorimer, and Prabhakant Sinha. 2006: New York, NY. Amacom Editorial.