A new year is right around the corner and before we know it 2012 will be upon us.  The New Year is typically a time of renewed commitment to better habits and personal growth.  That makes it the perfect time to focus on your compensation plan and insure that your plan rewards and encourages your staff to excel in ALL the areas you expect them to perform.  For example, you may have a staff member that sells really well on the service drive, but their retention rates and customer satisfaction scores fall below where you expect them to be.  On the other hand, maybe you have someone who excels on the customer side, but lags in the sales aspect of their job.  In a perfect world we could blend these two staff members to make the ideal combination, but in the real world it simply isn't going to happen...without some outside motivation that is.  Take a look at your pay plan and consider breaking it down into components.  What I  mean by this is consider we break the pay plan into 4 areas:  Dollars Sold, Customer Paid Repair Order Average, Effective Labor Rate, and CSI.  Take a look at the last 12 months for your team and determine a minimum standard for each category and then create maybe two higher tiers that you believe is attainable for your staff and one that would be a bit of a stretch.  Keep in mind I said a stretch and not a pipe dream.  The point of this strategy is to further reward your staff when they excel rather than when they simply meet your minimum expectations in each category.  This strategy also means that even if they do excel in one area, their paycheck takes a "hit" when they fail to excel in other areas.  So in our example mentioned above, our sales guru realizes he missing out on additional pay when he fails to meet your expectations in other areas and the same goes for your customer service guru who fails to sell.  Your staff will quickly realize that pushing themselves to be a more well rounded service advisor is not only what your dealership desires, but what your dealership rewards. What is really key here is that your compensation plan be designed to reinforce and support your expectations.  Your staff will always be likely to work in the manner that provides them with the best paycheck, so make their paycheck best reflect your expectations.