Steve Herz Email & Phone Number

Detroit, Mi, Us

Stamford, Ct, Us

Advisory and research at Gartner for Sales Leaders, responsible for Sales Compensation and Sales Operations coverage. I help senior executives with their sales compensation, sales operations, sales performance management, sales excellence, and related challenges.

Detroit, Mi, Us

Compensation Capability BuildingTransformed generalist organization into three functionally-specialized teams of compensation experts• Developed team and hired experienced professionals to meet new responsibilities and performance standards. Evolved service model from reactive order-taking to business consultation, data-driven analytics, and standardized processes.• Standardized business group service tiers/engagement model. Resource optimization enabled >3X expansion of service footprint with increased customer value.Compensation Program LeadershipLed team of 15 employees and leaders responsible for compensation design and administration for 7,500 employees, team leaders, and senior executives across 45 business groups.• Advised senior company executives on rewards strategy and best practices; optimized base, performance bonuses, incentives, and non-cash rewards for existing and acquired businesses.• Evaluated internal parity and external competitiveness of team member and executive pay against market, business conditions, legal requirements and best practices.• Led annual Performance Management process. Initiated enhancements that reduced last minute eligibility inquiries by 90% and accelerated bonus payouts for 9,500 employees by 30 days, yielding multi-million dollar tax benefit for company.Foundational Job Architecture, Market Matching and Compensation BenchmarkingLed enterprise-wide creation of standard job architecture for first time in Quicken Loans’s 32 year history.• Supervised design and population of Career Framework; led evaluation/harmonization of redundant job titles across business groups. Consolidated 4,000+ titles into ~300 standard roles; laid foundation for future HR capabilities, including common competencies and performance standards, career paths, and rollout of Workday HCM platform.• Led build-out of market matches, salary benchmarks, and range guidelines, driving annual compensation savings of $1.7MM in first quarter of launch.

Sales Performance Management Capability Building and Program LaunchEnvisioned, planned, and launched Sales Performance Management capability for ~3,500-person, multi-channel hospitality sales force (including property-level, account-based, and regional leadership plans)• Led strategic, evidence-based analysis of Sales Performance Management capability.• Collaborated with senior executive leadership to develop prioritized roadmap for long and short-term enhancement investments.• Conducted cross-functional, process- and time-study exercise on existing processes to identify opportunities for standardization, rationalization, and centralization.• Led remediation and support for legacy goal-setting and incentive-processing software tool.

Redmond, Washington, Us

Incentive Compensation Design and InnovationDeveloped new incentive plans to drive rapidly-evolving corporate strategy at global scale.• Designed and deployed new incentive construct in support of Microsoft’s Cloud software business.Impact: Successful integration of the new component into incentive plans of ~8,500 salespeople in 79 roles in 120 countries; Cloud revenue growth of 104% YOY (vs. 25% market growth).• Led cross-functional team to design, validate, and launch Microsoft’s first-ever incentive metric that rewards salespeople for driving customer software utilization.Impact: Mitigation of critical risk to customer software subscription renewal; YOY growth of 191% for Cloud software usage during first quarter of plan deployment.Incentive Compensation Program ManagementLed multi-functional team (analytics, operations, quota setting, communications) throughout annual production cycle to ensure timely and accurate execution of sales incentive plans.• Collaborated with internal and adjacent corporate partners (marketing, finance, HR, product engineering, legal/compliance, etc.) to ensure smooth operation of incentives program.• Managed off-cycle plan design changes to address new internal or external events.• Managed relationships with Senior Executive leadership across matrixed corporate structure.• Developed and communicated one-off analytic investigations.• Reviewed and resolve exceptions, escalations and disputes.• Drove continuous improvement of program operations through process and tools enhancements.

Evanston, Il, Us

Incentive Compensation Program Design and Change Management• Redesigned sales incentives plan and quota-setting methodology for major US car rental company, aligning rewards with market opportunity and eliminating incentives for unethical behaviorImpact: Increased projected ROI of incentives budget by ~10%• Developed sales incentives plans and field communication materials for all sales positions at large US digital publishing companyImpact: Net projected customer growth of approximately 3,300 accounts annuallyIncentive Compensation Analytics and Reporting• Evaluated and redesigned existing incentives reports for Finance, Operations, Brand, and Field audiences at Global Top 10 pharmaceutical company Impact: Consolidation of 116 static legacy reports into 15 dynamic analysis views; development, testing, and successful integration of new views into standard production cycle• Designed sales incentives reporting and analytics datamart for major US car rental companyImpact: Improved business decision-making, expected reduction of 30% to 50% in cycle time of standard and ad hoc reporting, and reduced quality risk and compliance exposureIncentive Compensation Operations and Software Implementation• Led deployment of sales performance management (SPM) enterprise software system and new operations processes for 4,000-rep, 30-team US sales force at Global Top 10 pharmaceutical companyImpact: ~75% cycle time reduction and ~50% reduction in rework• Led development of compliance plan for sales incentives operations for 5,000-rep sales force for Global Top 10 pharmaceutical companyImpact: SAS-70-II audit success; complete operational SOP design and documentation

Arlington, Va, Us

Research design and analysis• Conducted problem identification, hypothesis development, root cause analysis, and best practices benchmarking; authored client-facing deliverablesQuantitative data analysis• Designed and executed quantitative data analysis of sales force problem- and performance-drivers, including microeconomic modeling, sales executive survey research, and sales rep time-spend analysisClient relationship management• Identified new account opportunities and developed new client relationships, in coordination with company sales and account management functions

Mba, Business Administration And Management, General

Phd, Psychology

Ba, Psychology