With MDM’s SHIFT Conference coming up on May 13-15 in Denver, we’re rolling out a series of podcasts that feature speakers who will be at the event.

These shorter episodes help familiarize our audience with those speakers, preview what they plan to share at SHIFT and why it’s important, and provide some meaningful nuance into their areas of expertise.

You can find all the SHIFT details — including the agenda, registration and hotel info — at MDM.com/SHIFT.

Sales compensation planning isn’t a flashy organizational topic alongside tariffs and AI-oriented items that dominate B2B headlines, but it’s one that has plagued numerous distributors when done incorrectly.

Misalignment between sales comp plans with business goals can inadvertently lead to unmotivated sales staff, friction between sales teams and leadership and a high rate of turnover. To attract and retain sales talent while achieving profitable growth is the ultimate goal, and the right sales comp plan plays a major part.

That will be a key topic for one of the breakout sessions at MDM’s SHIFT Conference,

where sales comp guru Donya Rose will lead a hybrid sales topic. 

As Founder and Managing Principal of sales comp plan design consultancy The Cygnal Group, Rose has designed hundreds of comp plans for organizations over the past 25 years that range from distributors, to retail, to service providers and from large to small. 

No matter the client, her mission has been to design and implement systems and processes that ensure alignment of sales results with top business priorities. 

She joined the MDM Podcast to what has fundamentally changed about B2B sales comp plans during her tenure, especially over the past 3-5 years since COVID. We touched on the common threads across her diverse range of clients when it comes to key questions that need to be asked and answered, as well as top priorities to solve. We also waded into more granular questions like how to reward your rockstar salespeople without alienating those lower or middle-of-the-pack.

Check out the full episode via the audio player above, and you can find our entire podcast library at mdm.com/podcasts. 

Most Recent MDM Podcast Episodes

• Be the Steve Irwin of Distribution and Rethink Team Dynamics – April 7
• Why Tech Fails Salespeople & How to Leverage it — April 1
• Imperatives Amid Evolving Go-to-Market Strategies – March 25
• The Expectations and Priorities of Today’s Young Talent – March 19
• An AI Research Primer Ahead of SHIFT – March 12