Thursday, April 5, 2007
Open source mechanics: Compensating renewals, hiring inside sales
Open source mechanics: Comp'ing renewals, hiring inside sales
April 05, 2007
The author (Matt Asay), in the middle of finalizing his company's (Alfresco) sales compensation plan for their open source software, realises that it is not as easy as putting down commissions and incentives based on sales...
The core of the issue had to do with how to compensate for renewals. After some thought, Matt opted to fully compensate and credit renewals. Why? Because it aligns interests between the salesperson and the customer.
Dwelling on these issues, Matt extends these thought processes and provides some interesting perspectives. One of them is a quote from his CEO:"Software is simply an excuse for a business relationship." That is, in the case of open source software, the bits are simply an excuse to provide service to a customer.
Once you see sales from this relationship and support perspective, it is not surprising that folks decide to incentivise salespeople on renewals as well. Because, to quote Matt, "Because as an open source company selling subscriptions to services, those subscriptions end the minute I stop providing value." And so will renewals!
Interesting post, read the full post from here @ Open Sources
April 05, 2007
The author (Matt Asay), in the middle of finalizing his company's (Alfresco) sales compensation plan for their open source software, realises that it is not as easy as putting down commissions and incentives based on sales...
The core of the issue had to do with how to compensate for renewals. After some thought, Matt opted to fully compensate and credit renewals. Why? Because it aligns interests between the salesperson and the customer.
Dwelling on these issues, Matt extends these thought processes and provides some interesting perspectives. One of them is a quote from his CEO:"Software is simply an excuse for a business relationship." That is, in the case of open source software, the bits are simply an excuse to provide service to a customer.
Once you see sales from this relationship and support perspective, it is not surprising that folks decide to incentivise salespeople on renewals as well. Because, to quote Matt, "Because as an open source company selling subscriptions to services, those subscriptions end the minute I stop providing value." And so will renewals!
Interesting post, read the full post from here @ Open Sources
Labels: analysis, customer-service, perspectives, sales
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