According to a recent article from Reuters, “Optimistic Forecasts for 2010 Drive Sales Force Staffing, Compensation Design, Watson Survey Finds,” although there may be light at the end of the sales tunnel for 2010, there are still many obstacles and concerns that need to be addressed in the mean time.

“Optimistic forecasts are good news, which means fewer layoffs and potentially higher compensation,” said John Bremen, global director of sales effectiveness and compensation at Watson Wyatt. “Yet with budgets still tight, companies will look to get more out of their salespeople next year.”(Reuters)

Although 83 per cent of company’s project revenue growth in 2010, 48 per cent still believe that sales force quota and goal setting is a concern. (Watson Wyatt)

This is a big problem for sales managers. Sales people need to achieve sales goals and the solution is simple- goal setting technology.



I Love Rewards recently created SalesCentive, an available application built for Salesforce.com on the AppExchange. SalesCentive is an innovative non-cash incentive solution created to motivate sales teams to accurately log and perform prospecting activities in order to fill their sales funnel and maximize ROI of their Salesforce.com investment. The application encourages sales teams to make calls, secure meetings, negotiate contracts and build a healthy sales funnel. SalesCentive allows sales managers to set prospecting goals, track progress online and reward goal achievement. Once sales people meet their prospecting goals and fill their funnels they can redeem their points for hot ticket items such as brand-name products and travel experiences from the I Love Rewards online catalogue.



I Love Rewards believes that rewarding and recognizing employees with points-based incentives positively changes behaviour and creates patterns in the workplace. Engaged and motivated employees drive the results most important to the success of your company.

We understand the pains of a sales manager. (Aug 14 Blog) SalesCentive helps keep your team motivated during longer sales cycles, get sales reps to accurately update Salesforce, encourage sales people to do prospecting activities required to fill their funnel and provide managers with accurate sales reporting and forecasting.

Why not just stick to the non-cash incentives I was previously using?
• SalesCentive will free up your time from administering non-cash incentives seamlessly.
• Companies looking to drive long-term performance through incentives will find a much higher ROI using rewards than just with cash commissions.
• Compensation is very important but isn’t the only factor to consider when it comes to employee motivation and engagement- rewards bring the results that lead the funnel before the close.

“Although the outlook for sales forces seems to be improving, there are still bumps ahead in the road to recovery,” said Joe Clarkson, U.S. practice leader for sales effectiveness and compensation at Watson Wyatt. “As companies move forward, it will be critical to motivate, coach and focus their sales forces to be more productive. Companies have the resources at their fingertips to accomplish what they need to – now they need to marshal those resources and position themselves for the long run.” (Watson Wyatt)

It is inevitable that cash is king for a commission based sales teams, but in order to for revenue to grow between now and 2010, it is necessary for sales managers to turn to innovative ways now to motivate their sales teams to fill their funnels for the future.