More on incenting balanced DG production across territories

In my last post, I talked about using a Balance Bonus to incent even DG Rep attention to multiple territories. Trish Bertuzzi, CEO of the Bridge Group, asked if this approach can work when territories have unequal potential. The answer is – absolutely, as this was definitely the case at Eloqua.

The key is where you set the bars. In our case, the "high bar" that allowed a DG Rep to earn her balance bonus was 80% of her quarterly MQL quota across all 3 (or 4) Field Reps supported. Come in under 80% on one Field Rep - no bonus. Conversely, the "low bar" was 60%. In other words, a DG Rep paid a penalty (negative bonus?) for every Field Rep that they were below 60% of quota on. The message here was the I don't care how tough the territory is, you've got all quarter, give it the extra effort to get to at least 60%.

Think of this as a "leave no man behind" approach to DG. Although a new Field Rep might get an extremely "challenging" territory, it was in our best interest as a company to do everything possible to help them be successful. The cost of slighly over-allocating DG resources pales compared to the cost of recruiting, training, ramping up, losing and then starting all over again for a $250k Field Rep.

(NB: Some people are uncomfortable with penalties in a comp plan. If that's the case, leave out the stick and work with just the carrot.)