Senior Manager, Sales Compensation at CHS Inc

Summary

CHS is seeking a Senior Manager, Sales Compensation as part of our sales operations team. The person will be the business owner to manage, administer and maintain our sales incentive program. The role is vital in ensuring our sales team members remain motivated and aligned to their incentive plan(s). In addition to supporting the sales organization by answering questions related to the incentive compensation reporting, systems and incentive plans, the successful candidate will closely collaborate with human resources, finance, legal, and IT to ensure the seamless execution of the incentive program.

This position works a hybrid schedule in our global corporate office in Inver Grove Heights, MN. 

Responsibilities

Sales Incentive Program Administration & Governance

• In partnership with sales, compensation, finance, legal and other key stakeholder groups
• Lead and facilitate plan governance, inclusive of leading governance committee meetings that include presentations and engagements with executives and functional leaders who serve as members of the governance committee. This includes agenda setting, meeting presentation and content development, meeting documentation and follow-up actions
• Owner of plan documents, including annual review, updates (where needed) and the overall socialization of the plan and the required materials
• Administer sales incentive programs, ensuring adherence to established policies and guidelines
• Administer the annual quota-setting process, including managing plan exceptions, adjustments and modifications that happen throughout the entirety of the plan year
• Administer all calculations, elevate exceptions or issues, and work closely with compensation and payroll to administer payment processes
• Regularly review and validate incentive calculations to guarantee accuracy and fairness
• Generate incentive reports and dashboards for the sales team and management, providing insights into performance and payouts
• Sales team member on-boarding and off-boarding, including actions related to system and plan education 

Sales Incentive Plan Design

• In partnership with compensation, finance, legal, sales and other key stakeholder groups
• Ensure plans align with overall company strategy
• Be the lead for annual plan health checks to ensure the plans are functioning as intended
• Analyze sales performance data and incentive plan effectiveness to identify areas for improvement
• Provide data-driven recommendations to enhance the incentive program's impact on sales performance
• Collaborate with key stakeholders so that sales compensation is not designed in isolation

Sales Team Onboarding & Support

• The role and its team serve as the primary point for educating sales managers and leaders on the mechanics of sales incentive plans so they understand and can effectively communicate plan mechanics to their front-line sales teams
• Answer questions regarding incentive plan details, eligibility, and payout mechanics
• Administer and support the plan dispute and resolution process
• Ensure sales leaders, managers and individual contributors feel supported

Team Leadership

• Lead a small team focused on supporting the sales organization with activities such as system management/support, program administration, employee on/off-boarding and support and performance analysis
• Reporting and Sales Performance Management Systems
• Accountable for prioritization and development of interim reporting dashboards to bring greater visibility to sales performance throughout the plan period
• Be a key partner in evaluating any future state Sales Performance Management System 
• If applicable, be the business owner for sales performance management system inclusive of build, implementation, maintenance, and optimization of the sales incentive technology system
• Partner with IT, HR and sales leadership on any dashboard or system design and selection of a future state sales performance management system 
• Collaborate with the IT team to troubleshoot reporting issues and enhance functionality
• Ensure accurate and timely updates of incentive data, plans, performance metrics and all other data requirements to support the plan's administration and leverage the system fully

Minimum Qualifications (required)

• High School diploma or GED
• 5+ years of experience in sales and/or HR operations, incentive program administration, or a related role
• Prior leadership experience with progressively advancing level of leadership responsibilities

Additional Qualifications

• Collaborative team player with the ability to work cross-functionally
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate complex concepts to non-technical audiences 
• Experience working closely with finance, marketing and sales to administer the calculation, tracking and payment of customer incentive programs and payments.
• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Finance, Economics, Mathematics, or a related field preferred
• 5+ years of team leadership and supervision of complex work and projects
• 3+ years of experience with sales incentive technology reporting, platforms or administration
• Knowledge of agriculture and energy markets and sales processes 
• Proven ability to lead a small team
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and other data analysis tools 
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with an ability to work with large datasets
• Detail-oriented and able to maintain a high level of accuracy in data management