Expert: Paul Klarreich - 2/2/2006

Question
I can't seem to solve this problem. I am setting up a bonus program for our sales people. Each sales person sells 3 products (A, B and C.) Management wants the products to be weighted 40%, 40%, 20% in the bonus plan. The bonus payouts kick in at a minimum of 70% sales to quota. However, there is a stipulation that no sales person can be paid if their sales growth is negative.

I have been asked to set a growth target for each product. My concern is the products are not growing very fast (around 2%-4% each.) What do the minimum targets need to be for each product to satisfy the above criteria?

Answer
Hi, Bill,

I am afraid your question involves too much business jargon to make any real sense for me.  What is a quota?  Exactly what does 'sales growth' mean?  What is a 'growth target?'

This sounds as if you want some computer algorithm, rather than mathematics.