Created by Kues1 - Freepik.com Looking back at American manufacturing, a New Renaissance took place in the latter two decades of the 20th Century.  It started slowly, but by the mid-1990s, companies large and small began to apply principles tied to lean manufacturing and the related quest for continuous improvement. Coming out of the movement was the “Black Belt.”  Initially, Black Belts worked entirely within the manufacturing process; leading teams through what was once viewed as the hazy world of plant floor work and material flows. By the turn of the new millennium, the concept had been pushed to other processes. Things like order flows, procurement systems and even human-centric processes were scrutinized.  Similar to the manufacturing world, massive improvements were made.  Companies enjoyed new found efficiencies and gained a competitive advantage. One person saw the advantage of putting the same principle to work on the pricing process.  Enter ...

Some might call it eavesdropping, but we call it our uniquely unscientific methodology for tracking distributor trends. We listen. Plus, we get phone calls, emails and occasional text messages from distributors. When we hear the same topic mentioned more than a dozen times in the course of a month, we know the topic is coming to the surface. For some reason, the topic of sales compensation is showing up --- repeatedly. Here are a few questions I believe are pertinent to any thinking directed to the topic. Point One: Do you see you sales efforts becoming more team focused? • Do you see your business employing more or fewer people in the sales function in five years? (Potential new positions might be Specialists, Project Managers, Customer Crib/VMI maintainers, Tele-sales, Application Engineers and others.) • Do you believe a well-developed team could sell more than semi-autonomous salespeople? • Do you believe your current outside sales force will be or should be part ...