Freight Forwarder Compensation

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Freight Forwarder Expertise

Freight forwarders have an interesting historical use of incentive compensation that differs greatly from most domestic freight brokers.  The outside sales role is typically heavily incented on an annuity basis (which is a catastrophic error, by the way) and the operational roles tend to have more emphasis on salary and limited use of incentive compensation. Customs brokers skew a bit the other direction with a bit more focus on incentive pay. Prosperio has worked with a number of Freight Forwarders on revising their compensation plans to be sure they are both market competitive and aligned with company goals and objectives.  We understand international transportation and the dynamic market that you are involved with on a day to day basis. We have worked with companies who have employees overseas as well, either as expats or domestic nationals, and crafted incentive plans throughout APAC and EMEA that align with local laws and norms (did you know Thailand typically offers a 13th month of salary at the end of the year?) as well as HQ compensation strategy and philosophy.

We can Help

We can help you make sure your workers are as motivated as they could be, whether through team or individual incentives, so you don’t lose them to the siren song of high domestic truck broker pay.  Also, we can review your outside sales incentive plans to make sure you are not risking your business if the rep decides to leave and/or paying a ridiculous annuity commission for a rep who long ago forgot how to sell.  We have worked with the most difficult hunters, who had built up their annuity to be their “working retirement” and put them on a plan that motivated them to get back out there and sell again.  They fussed at first, of course, but once they realized the could be paid just as much if they started doing what they were really good at again (hunting) then the sparkle came back to their eyes and they were back hunting and landing those big accounts.

Express Project

When your needs span several roles but you have only a few people and will not have much of an issue with change management, our Express Project is for you. We’ll spend time with you and your senior leaders getting to understand your business and working with you to develop your plans as quickly as possible. We’ve successfully executed a number of engagements for small to medium-sized organizations (5 to 20 people) just like yours.

An Express Incentive Project includes:
• Strategy and structure review/refinement
Compensation plan design for up to 5 roles (salary bands and incentives)
• Market benchmarking of pay levels for the 5 roles
• Plan documentation
• Pro-forma economic modeling (minimal historical testing)
• Roll-out training
• Development of simple Excel calculator
• 3 months of post-project support
• Turnaround is approximately 4-6 weeks

1P1P Project: One plan, one role

A 1P1P Project is great for start-ups and small companies, and those with an immediate need for a compensation plan for one person in one role. The 1P1P Project is a virtually delivered program that’s a fast, affordable alternative to big software firm fees.

The 1P1P Project includes:
• All plan design details
• Basic market pricing
• Economic testing
• Incentive plan documentation
• Outlining of goals and expectations
• Review of business goals and impact of this role on those goals
• Role clarification
• 3 months of post-project support
• Turnaround is approximately 2-3 weeks

Full Service Sales Compensation Project

When you need more in-depth assistance in clarifying business objectives, streamlining your organization structure, improving accountabilities and role definition, and are developing incentive plans for several interconnected roles for a large staff, we recommend a Full Service Sales Compensation Project. This solution features several virtual meetings with our developers and your design team, and is often selected by medium-sized to larger companies, or small companies undergoing significant transition.

A Full Service Sales Compensation Project includes:
• Business goal clarification
• Compensation plan design for all roles in scope (salary bands and incentives)
• Development of career levels for highly populated roles
• Employee change management
• Extensive pro-forma and historical economic modeling
• Goal-setting guidance
• Market benchmarking of pay levels for all roles in scope
• Detailed and more automated Excel calculator for use by your staff for doing plan calculations
• Roll-out support and training
• Organization redesign and role change/definition
• 12 months post-project support
• Turnaround time is at least 90 days, but may take longer depending on size of organization and magnitude of change