When more and more sales are achieved partially or even exclusively on internet, a large number of salespeople are struggling with the development of the digital sales channel, perceived as an additional competitor. Indeed, the implementation of an omni-channel strategy involves a diversification of sales channels, upsetting the daily lives of salespeople.
The omni-channel strategy gives an increasing role to the web and mobile tool, forcing companies to deeply transform their compensation system in order to allocate sales according to their origin. How can omni-channel sales be paid? Why adapt your variable pay system to different sales channels is essential to the success of an omni-channel strategy?
OMNI-CHANNEL ALLOWS CUSTOMERS TO MULTIPLY BUYING JOURNEY
"Rules are to be established according to the omni-channel strategy of the company. There is no ready-made formula. The scenarios are multiple. The sales person can be paid for the online purchase of a customer in his portfolio, or conversely, for signing a physical contract when the customer came from the Web. Hervé De Riberolles, International Director of Primeum, specialized in incentive compensation.
The omni-channel strategy requires adapting to the customer's profile and its need to purchase
The implementation of an omni-channel strategy is based on the idea of encouraging all sales forces to use and optimize all existing sales channels. The management of commercial information from different channels, emails or incoming calls drastically increases the opportunities for salespeople who benefit from "qualified leads". In contrast to outgoing calls, project identification via incoming lead optimization allows the salesperson to be more efficient and thus to spend less time prospecting. The omni-channel strategy is therefore to optimize all incoming business information, regardless of their channel of origin. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the implementation of an omni-channel strategy requires an adaptation to each type of client. Indeed, depending on the customer, the contact support and commercial exchange will be different. The "commercial" channel will essentially depend on the products or services that you offer as well as the profile of the latter, more or less digital.
Example of an omni-channel strategy in the insurance sector
Thus, in the car insurance sector, there is an omni-channel strategy that takes many forms. When some customers, after comparing the prices of insurance contracts on the Internet independently, will be able and open to subscribe directly online, others will need to be recalled by an office based commercial to be reassured in their purchase. Finally, a category of customers, representing a weaker group, will need to meet someone physically in order to make an insurance contract subscription. It is therefore essential to adapt and propose an adequate channel for commercial exchange
However, if we take the example of life insurance, the number of customers able to subscribe directly on the internet drops drastically. To contract a life insurance, the majority of customers need to have a contact in agency. They will certainly inquire massively upstream on the internet, but will conclude mainly a subscription act that during a face-to-face interview with a commercial. Within the same sector and now from the same company, we will be able to find products with different and different choices of commercial channels
An omni-channel strategy with a strong added value for the customer
Many companies even base their marketing action on an omni-channel approach allowing the customer several points of entry. Call center, a website offering to subscribe online or click and collect in retail, the omni-channel strategy must adapt to each customer's journey to satisfy the maximum.
EACH OMNI-CHANNEL STRATEGY, A CUSTOMIZED INCENTIVE COMPENSATION SYSTEM
"Since we launched our e-commerce site 15 years ago, we have taken the initiative to incentive our salespeople on sales, regardless of the channel: e-commerce, marketplace, store to web or click & collect.” David Lachaud, Commercial Director at Nature & Découvertes
With the multiplication of sales channels, what about the incentive compensation of sales representatives?
It is important to adapt the incentive compensation plan taking into account the customer relationship globally. Take the example of a salesperson who has in his portfolio, customers to which he sells insurance contracts. In the case of its customers decide to subscribe an insurance contract online without asking for it, how can this sale be characterized? This one does not represent a commercial performance but the optimization of an already existing channel, internet, and which did not need any intervention of the commercial one. Since these customers are part of the commercial's portfolio, must the latter be paid in respect of the incentive compensation process? It is necessary to find a compromise so that the Internet is not the enemy of sales people and considered as additional competition, but as an additional channel to achieve more business. It is in this, that it is necessary to adapt the variable compensation.
Beyond the internet and digital channel, other tensions may appear due to mismanagement of an omni-channel strategy. Indeed, if at the same sale, an office based salesman and a field salesman both intervened at different stages of the customer relationship, which of the two will pocket the bonus linked to the sale? If the office based commercial arriving at the end of the process, finalizes the sale, is it to him that the bonus returns despite all the information work done by the field salesman? As a result, poor management of the omni-channel strategy can create equity issues between your employees.
A reliable CRM and well set up
To minimize this risk, it is necessary to develop an omni-channel strategy and an incentive compensation plan tailored to each company. How to pay for all the actors? How to compensate the entire customer relationship by rewarding each stakeholder? To avoid pitfalls related to an inequity of individual compensation, it is essential that the company is well equipped to accurately track each interaction with the customer. The company must set up a connected and dynamic system. Thus, in a situation where several sales people intervene in a single customer relationship, the tracking tool or the CRM must be able to identify the actions of each to determine the weight of each actor in the sale achievement.
A retail sector which tries
When retail employees are incentivized more on the sale of side services such as warranty extensions or insurance, other companies prefer to compensate the salesperson on sales made, regardless of the channel. Indeed, the sales teams are thus remunerated according to a total turnover of a point of sale supplemented by a part of the turnover generated on the internet via e-commerce or click & collect.
Some companies are benefiting from the introduction of an omni-channel strategy to boost collective work. Indeed, some see it as a means of favoring collaborative and cross-selling sales and choose to reward a global turnover realized on a sales area rather than an individual sales performance. The various sales teams, the salesmen present in the store, the phone advisers or those present on the web are paid in the same way. An omni-channel strategy can contribute to a better synergy between the sales teams thus overcoming the individual interests of each.
Paying all the sales channels implies a reflection around the variable compensation terms. The situations are multiple, but the goal is not to pay twice or more than once for a single bill of sale.
The variable must therefore reward a performance, itself evaluated according to its importance and origin.
The implementation of an omni-channel strategy involves a redesign of the sales compensation system to avoid possible cannibalism between the different sales channels and optimize the payment of bonuses!
