James Alexander Consulting LLC
Compensation Advisory Services
#1: Edward Lazear—Simple Incentives, Big Results And so we arrive at #1. If #2 represented the challenges of using financial incentives incorrectly, #1 in my list of favorite studies from Nothing to Take Away represents the exact opposite. The title of my book comes from the notion that so much of what we create benefits... Continue Reading →
#2: Sam Glucksberg—Why Incentives Can Hurt Problem-Solving Continuing my series on my 5 favorite pieces of research from Nothing to Take Away, we arrive at #2. It's easy to assume that the more money you offer, the more likely something is to happen. But research has shown time and again that humans are far more... Continue Reading →
#3: Dietz, Volansky, Erev, & Gal—The More (Opinions) the Merrier? Continuing my series of top 5 pieces of research from Nothing to Take Away, and building on #4—the timing of incentives—we arrive at #3. Have you ever found yourself sitting with a group, trying to agree on a course of action? Maybe you're quietly infuriated,... Continue Reading →
#4: Wooley & Fishbach—Why Timing of Incentives Matters (A Lot) Following up on the Freedman & Fraser study that made it into 5th place from my Top 5 pieces of research behind Nothing Left to Take Away, we come to #4. A question that often comes up is, "How often should we pay people?" The... Continue Reading →
#5: Freedman & Fraser—Why Small Requests Lead to Bigger Sales I dislike the phrase "best practice." To me, this phrase is synonymous with dogma. While writing Nothing Left to Take Away, I spent a lot of time digging into research—not only about incentives and human behavior but about how we make real-world decisions. I referenced... Continue Reading →
2023 is likely to be a year of challenges for many companies with economic headwinds forcing leaders to regularly adjust their expectations. Most would agree, it's probably not the best time to be a salesperson, but this is also precisely the time that companies need their best sellers to stick around. Generally speaking, adjusting plans... Continue Reading →
Anyone who has watched Mad Men, will know that back in the 1920s, cigarette advertising was big business. The rival companies spent millions on advertising campaigns to persuade customers to switch to their brand. Famously (although I hadn't heard about it until Mad Men), Lucky Strike came up with the campaign slogan, "Its toasted" which... Continue Reading →
This is exactly what Jacob Gonik set out to achieve for IBM Brazil in the 1970s. The starting point is that if we want an effective sales plan, there needs to be some notion of expectation in the form of a goal or quota. The challenge, as most of us know, is knowing what that... Continue Reading →