How to Set Up Your Sales Organization for Next Year

Almost every year, changes are made to the organizational structure of the Sales department.  You probably have some of these things on your list right now. 

• Realign smaller Sales territories.
• Tweak the compensation plan to change rep behavior.
• Adjust quotas based on next year’s number.
• Add or subtract a few heads.

   

Most of these changes are incremental.  This is because the Sales Leader fears disrupting or upsetting his Sales team.  This approach is a mistake. Incremental modifications rarely move the needle. Sales Leaders who want to thrive have to change at the pace of their market.

Here are several big trends that every Sales Leader should be adjusting their organization for:

• Buyers are becoming more self-directed and comfortable engaging with companies virtually.
• The US is in a state of economic recovery. Finding and retaining “A” Players is getting more difficult.
• Certain US regions are growing at an incredible pace. Others are languishing.
• Nimble upstarts are challenging dominant companies with more agile, self-service solutions.

   

How are you incorporating the reality of these new trends into your Organization?

Download our Sales Report “How to Make Your Number in 2015.”  Starting on page 35, there are 11 pages of valuable Org Design content.

Sales Performance is based on two things:

• The talent of your team.
• The conditions you put them in.

   

Your organization’s design is a critical component of the second component.

In our report, we’ve broken down the Six Phases of Organizational Design:

• Sales Org Design: Design the appropriate Sales organizational model. Determine the proper headcount.
• Channel Optimization: Select, sign, and enable the right partners.
• Talent Program: Source, hire, onboard, coach, train and develop the talent required to execute the sales strategy.
• Territory Design: Create balanced territories and put the right rep in each one.
• Quota Setting: Translate the corporate revenue goal into sales quotas that reflect territory potential.
• Compensation Planning: Develop an incentive compensation program that stays within corporate budget, attracts /retains top talent, and motivates the desired behavior.

   

As you approach next year how many of these components will you change?  Let’s say you are launching a new product that will make or break your year. Organizational design will be critical to almost every facet of the launch. Think about the implications:

Sales Org Design:  How many people will I need to hit the product revenue goals?  How many managers will I need to ensure they are completing the right activities? Will they need support to offload administrative issues?  Should I use my existing Sales team, or hire more heads?

Channel Optimization:  How do customers prefer to buy from us?  Am I using the right channel to engage them? Could we use a more efficient channel and reach more people? What are the pros and cons of each Go-To-Market method?

Talent Program: Where can I find the talent I need to grow?  How can I ensure that new hires ramp to full productivity quickly? Once they are here, how can we continually improve their performance?

Territory Design: Which territories need to be re-adjusted to ensure full capacity?  How much production can I expect from each territory?  Which territories are growing and shrinking by geo?

Quota Setting: Which territories deserve a larger share of the quota?  Which territories do we expect the most growth from?

Compensation Planning: How do I incentivize my team to align with this corporate strategy?  How can I incentivize this product to ensure it gains traction with Sales?

If you’re changing sales strategy, don’t think you can get by with organizational tweaks.  Look through each of these lenses and consider a broader approach.  Download our 2015 report to see artifacts and projects of top sales organizations.  Give your team the conditions they need to be successful.