According to Alexander Group, sales professionals had an unexpectedly good 2010, and sales departments are expecting further growth in the year ahead. To take advantage of increasingly favorable conditions, expansion is the forecast with plans for “incremental hiring.”
Alexander Group just released its 2011 Sales Compensation Trends Survey, which surveyed more than 130 corporations representing a sale workforce of about 140K people.
Alexander’s David Cichelli, SVP and Survey Editor, said there is a “sharp uptick” in hiring plans, and that tight controls on cost seen in recent times are being relaxed. In fact, 60% of the sales departments surveyed plan to expand in 2011.
Cichelli observed, “Most sales departments are ready to spend money to help grow top line revenues.”
Alexander highlighted the following survey results:
* 80.3% see sales revenue growth in 2011 over 2010.
* 71.76% plan to increase investments in the sales department in 2011.
* 8% is the median revenue growth expectation for 2011.
* 61.72% plan to increase headcount in 2011.
* 3% is the median planned increase in incentive costs for 2011.
* 65.15% plan to provide a base pay increase in 2011.
RBR-TVBR observation: Not only can broadcasters expect to benefit as clients hire the types of employees most adept at bringing in cold, hard cash – they also have the chance to participate in the trend by expanding their own sales force as conditions allow.
