Extract from IDS Executive Compensation Review 305, July 2006

Senior sales staff reward policy

To survive and thrive, all commercial organisations need to maximise their sales and it is this fundamental necessity that makes the employees responsible for the function a vital part of any workforce. But information on the pay and incentive structures of sales staff is difficult to come by and so, to fill the gap, we have conducted our own poll of 18 major firms employing nearly 4,000 sales professionals.

The companies contacted covered a wide spectrum of activities, ranging from one commercial public service organisation, through to software suppliers and to more traditional manufacturers. On average, the companies employed over 3,000 staff and had financial turnovers of more than £300 million.

As well as collecting information on incentive schemes, we also asked for salary information on six key benchmark sales jobs, running from sales director at the most senior level to sales representative at the most junior. Aggregate summaries of the findings, along with figures showing the value of bonus scheme target and actual payouts are shown in tables in the article. Further tables show salary ranges of key sales functions, linked to company size as measured by turnover and employee numbers.