SalesCompInsights

Joining or assuming leadership of a new sales compensation group brings its own set of challenges and opportunities.   The structure of the program, sales model, company leadership and team culture all come together to determine the right approach and priorities.  Through our consulting work we’ve observed many situations where this transition has been managed successfully (and unfortunately some less successful ones as well), from the perspectives of both the company and the person taking on their new role.     

Christy Roberts leads the sales compensation program at high tech firm AMD.   Christy had the opportunity help the industry leading company transform the way sales incentives are designed and managed.    We recently caught up with Christy to hear her thoughts on what it takes to build out a successful sales comp competency. 

SalesComp Insights: It is a bit unusual to find such a large company without a solely dedicated owner of sales compensation; can you provide some background on the situation?  

Christy Roberts:  AMD is an engineering company at heart, and continues to be to this day.  In the ongoing process to ensure AMD’s competitive edge our executives looked internally at our sales organization.  We have dedicated ourselves to a sales transformation and with that journey AMD saw the need to engage a subject matter expert in the area of sales compensation.   

SalesComp Insights: What did you observe as the biggest differences moving from an established sales comp organization to creating a new one?   

Christy Roberts: The biggest difference is speed of adoption.  It is imperative that your vision and philosophy are quickly introduced when creating a new organization.  It seems with more established organizations you must move slower and be more cognizant of the political ramifications of making changes.  With a new organization, you must immediately frame the way you want your organization to work.  It is a small, yet very open, window that you must take full advantage of.  If you hesitate the window will close very fast.

SalesComp Insights: With such a unique opportunity to create the function from the ground up, what priorities did you decide to focus on first?

Christy Roberts:  We decided to focus on two areas:  tools and governance.  Our tool is antiquated and does not meet the goals of our sales organization; we needed something nimble that can change with our fast paced business.  So the first thing we looked at doing was implementing a new sales compensation incentive system.  The second priority was that of governance; we needed to ensure our policies were not only documented and distributed, but adhered to.  This creates a large change management effort that although seems easy on the surface, can be very complicated and sensitive when implemented at a global level.

SalesComp Insights: Looking back, are there any tips/techniques you can share that have really helped?

Christy Roberts: Prioritize the tactical items separately from the strategic items.  When you are trying to build a new organization, it is easy to get lost in the day to day tactical work that needs to be done.  Ensure that you prioritize them separately and ensure you keep your eye on the strategic items to ensure movement on that front.

SalesComp Insights: What about any expected, or unexpected, challenges?  

Christy Roberts: I think my biggest challenge was creating the culture that sales compensation can be a controlled, non-stressful event.  I think we tend to look at things from an emotional level since it deals with employee’s pay.  It was important for me to back up claims with actual data so we can prove that this can be done in a way that deals with the issues without being a fire drill. 

SalesComp Insights: What’s next as you start to prepare for 2011?   

Christy Roberts:  Ensuring our data can support the design that we want to launch.  I find the biggest pitfall is designing a sales compensation plan that your data cannot support.  I am also a large advocate of gaining input from the field level sales force, so I will be creating a global sales compensation committee to help with the design phase. 

SalesComp Insights: What advice would you offer for someone going into a similar situation or thinking about transforming their sales compensation function?    

Christy Roberts: I think going in with an open mind, and making sure you do not come across as the “know it all” but as the subject matter expert.  It was top of mind that I did not say anything negative about current design or process as it was most likely one of my co-workers that created that work.  Let go of preconceived notions of what you have done in other companies, as many times those ideas might be good but not perfect for the new company you have joined.