How Does Your Sales Comp Plan Compare?

The annual SalesGlobe/Staffing Industry Analysts Sales Force Compensation Survey is open until April 17. This survey is an exclusive benchmark of pay practices for the staffing industry. Leading organizations in the industry participate in this confidential survey.

PREMIUM RESEARCH: 2012 Staffing Industry Sales Force Compensation Survey — Executive Summary

The survey covers major sales and recruiting roles, pay practices, and performance data for the industry’s leading companies and is the only survey of its kind for the staffing industry.

Topics include:

• Key sales job roles for new customer acquisition and account management
• Hybrid sales, recruiting, operations, and branch management roles
• Target and actual compensation levels
• Pay ranges
• Incentive levels and pay mix
• Upside earning potential for high performers
• Performance metrics and priorities
• Commission and quota mechanics practices
• Pay thresholds and caps
• Measurement and pay frequency
• Quota practices
• Productivity levels
• Year-over-year analysis – Comparison of results from the 2011, 2012 and 2013 survey

Participating companies receive a detailed report that includes statistics on roles, pay levels, and performance levels by job type. All statistics are reported at a multiple company level and preserve the confidentiality of participating companies. The report also includes information on key challenges and trends around performance and compensation.

Key findings from last year’s survey include:

• The majority of companies surveyed have sales roles that focus on account management, customer acquisition, blended functions (e.g., selling recruiters), and sales management.
• Among the front line sales roles measured, average base pay and incentive was highest for Major/National Account Managers. Account Executive II roles have second highest average incentive pay.
• Actual total compensation in 2011 was on average 13 percent higher than targeted compensation across all roles, company sizes, and product focus areas. Overall, actual base salary was approximately 3 percent higher than target salary and actual incentive was 12 percent higher than target incentive, on average.
• Only 54 percent of roles provided target and actual pay data. The remaining 46 percent did not have target data communicated for their roles.
• In 2010, 43 percent of companies reported no anticipated change in base salary for 2011. However, with the strengthening economy and increased competition for staffing talent, only 28 percent actually had no salary increase in 2011. The percent of companies anticipating no base salary increase in 2012 is even less at 22 percent. Staff turnover for sales roles was 33 percent in 2011, an increase from 24 percent in 2010. Turnover for recruiting roles was less at 22 percent in 2011. Approximately one-third of the turnover is voluntary.
• The most common performance measures across sales jobs are gross profit and revenue. Often, performance to these measures is recognized upon billing or collection and is predominantly paid on a monthly or quarterly basis for sales roles. Other performance measures include gross margin, placements, net operating income, and accounts receivable.

Access the survey link now until April 17.

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