BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - January 8, 2008) - As the pressure to increase market share
continues to mount, companies are burdened by increasingly complex sales
compensation plans developed out of the need to increase sales
productivity. Often times, valuable selling and administrative time is lost
in the endless calculations and questions that result from sales
representatives struggling to predict their commissions and understand
their pay statements. As a result of this downtime, Best-in-Class
organizations are focusing resources on increasing sales productivity
through improvements in compensation management. A recent study, "Sales
Compensation Management: Coin-Operated Productivity," conducted by the
Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company (
NYSE:
HHS), revealed that 100% of
Best-in-Class companies have a compensation plan design initiative in
place. The study reveals the measurable strategic value of developing
compensation management plans and automating the calculation and reporting
processes.
A survey of over 250 respondents revealed that the need to increase market
share and the increased competition for talented workers are two of the top
pressures causing companies to focus resources on compensation management
initiatives, 42% and 38% respectively. Best-in-Class companies indicated
that they currently utilize CRM/SFA systems (71%), legacy databases (65%),
reporting tools (65%), and analytics tools (47%) as key components of their
compensation management strategy. Furthermore, Best-in-Class companies are
2.2 times more likely than Laggards to replace spreadsheets with an
automated solution, thereby reducing the amount of time spent on laborious
manual processes.
"Sales compensation management is a cycle of planning, implementing,
administering, and back to planning. Companies are never 'done' designing
compensation plans, just as the sales force is never 'done' selling,"
explains Gretchen Duhaime, a research analyst at Aberdeen. "When tackling
incentive compensation, all firms must remain flexible, understanding that
today's top metric may be irrelevant tomorrow. By building on a strong
foundation of formalized processes to ensure payment and report accuracy,
Best-in-Class companies are achieving double-digit growth in key metrics."
The report demonstrates the value of blending key organizational
capabilities, such as centralized information repositories and formalized
compensation processes, with crucial technology enablers to provide a
roadmap for successful compensation management plans.
The research educates readers on how to grow market share and increase
sales productivity through technology implementation. The report also
provides the results that Best-in-Class companies achieve across key sales
metrics after implementing a compensation management plan and compares
these results to the Industry Average and Laggards who have not yet pursued
a similar strategy. A complimentary copy of this report is made available
due in part by the following underwriters: Makana Solutions, Xactly
Corporation, VUE Software (a division of Computer Solutions & Software,
Inc.), and Centive. To obtain a complimentary copy of the report, visit:
http://www.aberdeen.com/link/sponsor.asp?cid=4562.
About Aberdeen Group, a Harte-Hanks Company
Aberdeen is a leading provider of fact-based research and market
intelligence that delivers demonstrable results. Having benchmarked more
than 30,000 companies in the past two years, Aberdeen is uniquely
positioned to educate users to action: driving market awareness, creating
demand, enabling sales, and delivering meaningful return-on-investment
analysis. As the trusted advisor to the global technology markets,
corporations turn to Aberdeen™ for insights that drive decisions.
As a Harte-Hanks Company, Aberdeen plays a key role of putting content in
context for the global direct and targeted marketing company. Aberdeen's
analytical and independent view of the "customer optimization" process of
Harte-Hanks (Information - Opportunity - Insight - Engagement -
Interaction) extends the client value and accentuates the strategic role
Harte-Hanks brings to the market. For additional information, visit
Aberdeen
http://www.aberdeen.com or call (617) 723-7890, or to learn more
about Harte-Hanks, call (800) 456-9748 or go to
http://www.harte-hanks.com.
© 2007 Aberdeen Group, Inc., a Harte-Hanks Company
260 Franklin Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02110-3112
Telephone: (617) 723-7890
Fax: (617) 723-7897
www.aberdeen.com
Contact Information: Media Contact:
Gretchen Duhaime
Aberdeen Harte-Hanks
(617) 854-5350
Gretchen.duhaime@aberdeen.com