IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/now/fntmkt/1700000063.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Practical Approach to Sales Compensation: What Do We Know Now? What Should We Know in the Future?

Author

Listed:
  • Chung, Doug J.
  • Kim, Byungyeon
  • Syam, Niladri B.

Abstract

Personal selling represents one of the most important elements in the marketing mix, and appropriate management of the sales force is vital to achieving the organization’s objectives. Among the various instruments of sales management, compensation plays a pivotal role in motivating and incentivizing sales agents. This monograph reviews the evolution of research in sales compensation and discusses future trends and opportunities. Specifically, it examines the managerial relevance of the theoretical foundations, discussing the underlying reasons for their applicability (or lack thereof) in practice. Furthermore, the monograph surveys recent empirical methods—including field experiments and structural econometrics—that are practical for analyzing sales agents’ behavior under various compensation systems. It also discusses prominent areas of future research in the midst of a changing sales environment. In particular, this monograph sheds light on how the use of big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence can affect sales strategy formulation and, thus, sales compensation systems to better motivate and incentivize an organization’s sales force.

Suggested Citation

  • Chung, Doug J. & Kim, Byungyeon & Syam, Niladri B., 2020. "A Practical Approach to Sales Compensation: What Do We Know Now? What Should We Know in the Future?," Foundations and Trends(R) in Marketing, now publishers, vol. 11(1), pages 1-52, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:now:fntmkt:1700000063
    DOI: 10.1561/1700000063
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1561/1700000063
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1561/1700000063?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Steenburgh, 2008. "Effort or timing: The effect of lump-sum bonuses," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 6(3), pages 235-256, September.
    2. Charles B. Weinberg, 1975. "An Optimal Commission Plan for Salesmen's Control Over Price," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(8), pages 937-943, April.
    3. Viswanathan, Madhu & Li, Xiaolin & John, George & Narasimhan, Om, 2018. "Is cash king for sales compensation plans? Evidence from a large-scale field intervention," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 87158, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Charles B. Weinberg, 1978. "Jointly Optimal Sales Commissions for Nonincome Maximizing Sales Forces," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(12), pages 1252-1258, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Albers, Sonke, 1996. "Optimization models for salesforce compensation," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 1-17, February.
    2. Fangruo Chen, 2000. "Sales-Force Incentives and Inventory Management," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 2(2), pages 186-202, February.
    3. Frenzen, Heiko & Hansen, Ann-Kristin & Krafft, Manfred & Mantrala, Murali K. & Schmidt, Simone, 2010. "Delegation of pricing authority to the sales force: An agency-theoretic perspective of its determinants and impact on performance," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 58-68.
    4. Sascha Alavi & Johannes Habel & Paolo Guenzi & Jan Wieseke, 2018. "The role of leadership in salespeople’s price negotiation behavior," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 703-724, July.
    5. Wyatt A. Schrock & Douglas E. Hughes & Yanhui Zhao & Clay Voorhees & John R. Hollenbeck, 2021. "Self-oriented competitiveness in salespeople: sales management implications," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(6), pages 1201-1221, November.
    6. Dai, Yue & Chao, Xiuli, 2016. "Price delegation and salesforce contract design with asymmetric risk aversion coefficient of sales agents," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 31-42.
    7. Pradeep Bhardwaj, 2001. "Delegating Pricing Decisions," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 20(2), pages 143-169, September.
    8. Hans Gersbach, 1998. "On the Equivalence of General and Specific Control in Organizations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(5), pages 730-737, May.
    9. Johannes Habel & Sascha Alavi & Nicolas Heinitz, 2023. "A theory of predictive sales analytics adoption," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 13(1), pages 34-54, June.
    10. Fabian Herweg & Daniel Muller & Philipp Weinschenk, 2010. "Binary Payment Schemes: Moral Hazard and Loss Aversion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2451-2477, December.
    11. Kräkel, Matthias & Schöttner, Anja, 2016. "Optimal sales force compensation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 126(PA), pages 179-195.
    12. Jiwoong Shin & K. Sudhir, 2010. "A Customer Management Dilemma: When Is It Profitable to Reward One's Own Customers?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(4), pages 671-689, 07-08.
    13. Orhan Bahadır Doğan & V. Kumar & Avishek Lahiri, 2024. "Platform-level consequences of performance-based commission for service providers: Evidence from ridesharing," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 52(4), pages 1240-1261, July.
    14. Valerie Good & Douglas E. Hughes & Ahmet H. Kirca & Sean McGrath, 2022. "A self-determination theory-based meta-analysis on the differential effects of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on salesperson performance," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 586-614, May.
    15. Boosey, Luke & Goerg, Sebastian, 2020. "The timing of discretionary bonuses – effort, signals, and reciprocity," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 254-280.
    16. Tat Y. Chan & Jia Li & Lamar Pierce, 2014. "Compensation and Peer Effects in Competing Sales Teams," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(8), pages 1965-1984, August.
    17. Sanjay Jain, 2012. "Self-Control and Incentives: An Analysis of Multiperiod Quota Plans," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(5), pages 855-869, September.
    18. Duncan Simester & Juanjuan Zhang, 2014. "Why Do Salespeople Spend So Much Time Lobbying for Low Prices?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 33(6), pages 796-808, November.
    19. Calem, Paul & Correa, Ricardo & Lee, Seung Jung, 2020. "Prudential policies and their impact on credit in the United States," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    20. Bruttel, Lisa & Eisenkopf, Gerald, 2012. "No contract or unfair contract: What's better?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(4), pages 384-390.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    sales compensation; sales management; sales strategy; principal-agent theory; structural econometrics; field experiments; machine learning; artificial intelligence;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M31 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Marketing

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:now:fntmkt:1700000063. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Lucy Wiseman (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nowpublishers.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.