Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

Carole,

I usually recommend that marketing have some "skin in the game." In my industry, complex B2B Software, the sales cycle is usually pretty long - sometimes years. For that reason, I don't usually recommend tying the incentive plan to sales.

Instead, I recommend that sales and marketing work out the definition of a "qualified" lead and determine the number of qualified leads that marketing needs to generate in order for sales to reach it's goals based on close-ratio. (or 3X pipe is typical in this industry if you don't know their close ratio) That becomes marketing's quota and, just like the typical sales manager, they are put on a base plus incentive comp plan.

I made that sound amazingly simple, but clearly it can involve some complex negotiations between the sales and marketing teams to bring everything into alignment.

Good luck!

Melissa Paulik

Instead of incentivizing with money, work with the team(s) to better support their passion for their work. If you haven't already, I suggest reading Daniel Pink's recent book Drive. He gives a great overview of internal/external motivation, and why creative people need better support for internal motivation not commission for external motivation.

Absolutely! In my previous company, the marketing group received a % commission off the sales on those accounts the marketing manager generated leads for and managed once the sales directors had closed the sale.

It depends on how long your sales cycle is as mentioned earlier.

If the team is reallly selling then absolutely they should have commissions.

If it is a more traditional marketing group, I recommend quarterly bonuses based on targets.

NO commissions, only incenteives so everyone works together as a team and they all enjoy the fruits if they reach the targets.

Cash is always nice but other bonuses could be new laptops, 3 days holiday cruise in the bahamas etc. Get creative, look for X deals with othyer companies so the 3 day cruise deal for instance can actually be very cheap from your perspective but a great bonus break for the team.

Good luck,

Matthew