I get asked all the time, especially today, what will sales force compensation look like in the future. One of the benefits of the current upheaval is that it gives management a chance to look at all important issues and I think sales compensation is a big issue.
Why? Because the market is clearly saying today that the sales person has a fiduciary responsibility to its customer. A big way to making the sales person accountable is to hold them responsible for the quality of their own production. The sales person would then be paid for the performance of the assets over some period of time. The days of paying completely for production upfront should be gone because the sales person can just walk away from their tie in to the asset. The financial industry needs to recognize that the sales person has to be accountable for what is originated. It doesn\’t make sense to me when we have the technology to do track their portfolio–why this is not done? Sales managers and owners need to take a stand on this issue— too much is at stake to ignore it.
So what are your thoughts on this issue?