SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Alexander Group’s COVID-19 Impact on Sellers’ Pay 3-Day Update Survey reveals sales leaders are looking at a variety of pay replacement methods, including guarantees, quota changes and payout formula modifications to protect sellers’ pay due to the COVID-19 crisis. The survey featured 219 companies that provided their perspectives on how to treat the loss of sellers’ incentive pay. (Survey responses were collected during the week of April 13 and published on April 20.) It was a follow-up survey to our survey published on March 30.
To learn more about the survey findings, read the article “Sales Compensation: Save the Sales Force.” Click here to read the article and view a 40-minute video on the full survey findings.
“Sales departments want to protect sellers’ earnings during the downturn. The three most popular methods include providing an incentive pay guarantee, adjusting quotas and changing incentive formulas,” said David Cichelli, survey editor and revenue growth advisor of the Alexander Group.
The key findings reveal:
- 70.9% expect the COVID-19 crisis to have a 5% or greater negative impact on annual sales revenue.
- 77.4% expect the COVID-19 crisis to have a 5% or greater negative impact on sellers’ pay.
- 100% of the companies with anticipated annual revenue decline greater than 25% plan to provide pay adjustments to sellers.
- 82.5% are planning some type of sellers’ pay adjustments; some companies are moving away from quota adjustments (March 30th survey = 45.2%, April 20th = 29.5%) to pay guarantees and other pay replacement methods.
Participants continue to sort through pay adjustment methods:
- 73.6% will or may provide some type of incentive pay guarantee; 16.7% will provide between 50% and 79% of target incentive. Another 35.6% have yet to decide how much.
- 63.1% (down from 71.9%) will or may provide some type of quota relief.
About Alexander Group
The Alexander Group provides revenue growth consulting services to the world’s leading sales, marketing and service organizations. Founded in 1985, Alexander Group combines deep experience, proven methodologies and data-driven insights to help revenue leaders anticipate change, align their go-to-customer resources with company goals and make better informed decisions with one goal in mind—to grow revenue. The Alexander Group has offices in Atlanta, Chicago, London, New York, San Francisco, São Paulo, Scottsdale and Vero Beach.
