Sales Performance Management

Introduction

Sales performance management should be structured around 3 pillars:

Objective setting from one common KPIs menu for the whole Syensqo Group to operationalize each entity’s commercial strategy
One single source of truth for every individual to continuously measure KPIs (and drive data quality improvement)
A biorhythm of focused performance review meetings to drive team alignment, monitor performance and take corrective actions.

The focus of this chapter is on the third pillar as we intend to formalize a minimum sales performance management framework to be thoroughly applied in a consistent manner across all GBUs for all frontline sales teams (incl. MBU sales rep).

1. Objective setting from one KPI menu

Objectives are set along a menu of KPIs - common to all GBUs in Syensqo. The KPIs menu is reviewed on a yearly basis to ensure that the incoming year's priorities are well reflected in the salesforce incentive plan. The KPI menu is steered by the Sales Enablement team (CEM) and approved by the Chief Customer Officer. Below is the 2023 KPI menu (ongoing revision for 2024).

2. One Single Source of Truth

One single source of truth is key to drive organization-wide alignment and data quality improvement:

CRM systems are in place tracking sales activities and generating quantitative sales process metrics. I t is critical that each sales team member logs and tracks activities in these systems and ensures data quality is met to ensure good sales performance mgmt.
The CRM is the Single Source of Truth for the Solvay sales team (since end of 2021*)
CRM Analytics allows for access to consistent data at multiple levels of the organization : Market Directors, Regional Directors, Sales Managers, and Account Managers can all have their own dashboards and reports that draw from a common set of data
1:1 sales team reviews should use standard screens available to both the Sales Manager and the Account Manager rather than requiring special calculations or spreadsheets to be developed.

3. Performance management framework

Performance management is about creating greater transparency, alignment and support through 4 main objectives:

Ensure alignment on meaningful targets across all layers of a GBU’s sales organization
Monitor performance vs. these targets to identify deviations and possible upsides early on
Upgrade commercial capabilities
Take advantage of those regular feedback loops for continuous adjustment and improvement

Sales performance follows the “Plan - Do - Check - Adjust” cycle

KPIS follow individual tactical objectives revisited on a monthly basis :

Establishing and using the right metrics is crucial to driving towards desired outcomes within a given timeframe
Individual SMART objectives should be built as a way to operationalize the overarching GBU commercial strategy and objectives to deliver ( click here for more details on SMART )
Defining shorter term tactical objectives for sales individuals allows to drive the yearly fixed* Sales Incentives Plan (SIP) KPIs while adapting to a changing context.
On top of the continuous measurement of the SIP KPIs, sales managers should run monthly reviews of such tactical objectives (in YOU).
Team and individual objectives should be celebrated when successful and time should be taken to extract key learnings from failures and from wins.