Performance management and incentive design for Medical equipment dealers: sales targets and service quality pulling in one direction
A sales engineer who promises an installation date the service team cannot meet has hit his target and hurt the dealer. Shared measures and honest feedback make sales and service pull together.
Not sure what you need? Tell us about your business in six short steps and we will come to the first meeting prepared.
Share your requirementsWhy performance management and incentive design matters in medical equipment dealers
Dealers usually reward sales engineers on orders booked and service engineers on calls closed. Each measure is sensible alone. Together they create friction: sales promise quick installation to win an order, service is already stretched, and the customer remembers the delay. Technicians feel their work is not recognised, since a clean install is invisible while a failure is noticed.
A balanced approach gives sales some measure of what happens after the order: on-time installation, customer feedback and repeat business. It gives service some measure of quality beyond closing calls: repeat faults, customer comments and training of others. It builds regular conversations between managers and staff, so issues are raised early instead of at the annual review.
How to set it up
1. Write what good looks like for each role
A short paragraph and three measures for sales engineers, installers and service technicians. Keep to what the person can influence.
2. Add a shared measure
On-time installation and customer feedback after handover, counted for both sales and service. This makes the two teams look at the same outcome.
3. Set fair targets by territory and product
Hospital budgets vary; a young territory cannot match an old one. Use history and the order pipeline.
4. Hold a monthly one-to-one
The manager and engineer talk for fifteen minutes: orders, calls, difficulties, learning. See performance management and incentive design for how we approach this.
5. Review incentives twice a year
Check whether the scheme pushed any unwanted behaviour, such as over-promising on dates, and change the rule if it did.
Check these first
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These take an afternoon and use your own records.
- Ask a sales engineer how the last installation date was agreed.
- Count repeat visits for the same fault in the last quarter.
- Check how many technicians know what is counted in their appraisal.
- See whether customer feedback is collected after installations.
GullyHR can do this with you. Read how we approach performance management and incentive design in general, or share your requirements and we will tell you where to start.
Questions owners ask
Many dealers do, often with a base. Include a shared element so delivery and customer satisfaction also count, and keep the scheme simple enough to explain in a few minutes.
Count on-time completion and the absence of call-backs in the first month, and ask the customer's biomedical lead for a brief comment.
Monthly short conversations and a formal review once or twice a year. Waiting a year to raise a problem is too long for field staff.