Look beyond compensation to effectively incentivize your sales force. It’s important to understand the underlying problem to getting sales reps to act the way you would like, says Steve Deist in How to Get Sales Reps to Do What You Want.

"It's important you use the right tool to attack the problem," Deist says. "Diagnose the situation appropriately."

Deist recommends three techniques for distributors to align their sales force with their strategies: segmentation, targeting and positioning.

Ultimately, it all comes down to looking at your strategy through the customers' eyes. Learn what customers are really buying – it’s not always the product – and which segments are in your sweet spot, Deist says.

"How you organize your sales force and how you pay your sales reps based on that can be radically different in each of these customers' scenarios," Deist says.

By knowing what your customers are looking for, you can create a system that helps your sales force meet their needs.