Nov 22, 2021
Jennifer Kerr is a results-driven professional with a proven track record of delivering top and bottom-line profitability. She is a strategic thinker with the ability to create a strategy, vision, and execute to promote business growth. With a focus on capturing customer value, she consistently delivered projects on time and on budget.
In this episode, Jennifer talks about designing your sales compensation plan and structure to drive behavior and incentivize salespeople appropriately.
Why you have to check out today's podcast:
"Value-based pricing has to meet value-based selling in order to be effective."
- Jennifer Kerr
Topics Covered:
01:25 - What led to a pricing role for Jennifer
02:24 - How the pricing tool she created impacted the company
04:34 - A general overview of sales compensation
08:26 - Strategic initiative that is a win-win for both the company and the salesperson
08:50 - How to drive better performance from salespeople
13:27 - The importance of sales compensation base salary to incentivize salespeople
17:23 - What you can do when salespeople don't close any deal after taking the necessary steps
18:38 - Framing an incentive plan side-by-side with value-based selling
20:21 - What is selling value all about
21:40 - Why do salespeople not able to articulate value selling naturally?
25:08 - Leveraging behavioral economics and behavioral insights on salespeople
25:27 - Sharing a tip on how she's using behavioral economics
28:46 - Salespeople wanting a path of least resistance and why they do and how not to let them lead with price
Key Takeaways:
"When you think about more program-based selling, if you're a company or an organization that are on a more mature level, then I think you might want to stop considering widget-based pay, which, in and of itself, could be the lever to pull to get salespeople to sell deals at higher prices and get more margin." - Jennifer Kerr
"If you have four or five steps, and you're not aware, then the design might be off. I go back then to, is the plan design right? I mean, plan design harder." - Jennifer Kerr
"Sales are hard. And that's where I think as pricers, we can certainly help frame up that value base, that value pitch, and flip it into value-based selling. And I think organizations that really focus on that end up winning more than they end up losing." - Jennifer Kerr
"When I say selling value, I think it's how does my product, how does my service impact the P&L of the person I'm selling that to whether it's B2B or how does it impact the household that I'm selling this to. To me, that's value selling because you're not starting with price. And if you start with price, you've already lost in the war of price." - Jennifer Kerr
"Price the product based on its value and the value to the customer. And then go value-base sell it. That's transformational for any organization." - Jennifer Kerr
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