About the Cygnal Group

The firm

We are a consulting firm devoted exclusively to sales compensation plan design. Our services include plan communication and change management as well, in support of great sales outcomes. We were founded in 2003 and have designed thousands of plans since that time, for businesses in all stages of development from multi-billion dollar companies to early stage startups. We are consultants with experience in the large HR/comp practices who feel we can deliver better value to our clients as a boutique firm. Our thought leadership is solid and well recognized. We have a track record of repeat engagements that is rare in consulting, with many clients choosing to engage us year after year.

Our people

Donya Rose is our founder and leader, and provides most of our design consulting today. We partner closely with other trusted independent consultants for support and delivery on larger engagements. Scroll down to review Donya’s bio, and to see our list of affiliates, all top-notch folks in the field.

Contact us

We would love to hear from you.

Donya Rose

Donya Rose is Managing Principal of The Cygnal Group, located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She has over twenty-five years experience in leading the design and implementation of systems and processes to ensure alignment of sales results with top business priorities. She has led projects in sales target setting, measurement and forecasting, technology enabled selling, and sales incentive compensation plan design. Today Donya focuses exclusively on sales compensation plan design, and has designed hundreds of sales compensation plans since that became her focus in 1999.

Prior to founding The Cygnal Group, Donya was a consultant in Towers Perrin’s Sales Effectiveness Practice. Before joining Towers Perrin, Donya worked for a global materials science company where she managed numerous change initiatives. In addition, she served as IT Director for one of this company’s major sites.

Donya’s recent larger clients for whom she has led sales compensation design efforts include Red Hat Software, Comcast Business Services, Misys Banking, SunGard, and Cardinal Health. In addition, Donya regularly assists smaller companies and startups with sales compensation plan design as they launch their sales teams and move through the early stages of growing their top line.

Donya’s passion is practical value-creating compensation plan design supported by thorough modeling to anticipate effects of proposed plans on individuals and the company. Because clients generally choose to stay engaged with The Cygnal Group for years, Donya has had a chance to learn which plan design elements often recommended by consultants are most likely to confuse employees and/or confound plan administrators. As a result, she focuses on simple, clear designs with direct links to strategically important business results.

Donya’s credentials: Donya holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Davidson College, and a Master of Science in Operations Research and Systems Analysis from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a WorldatWork Certified Sales Compensation Professional (CSCP), and the sole consultant member of the WorldatWork Sales Compensation Advisory Council.

View Donya’s LinkedIn Profile    |    Email Donya

 

Cygnal Group Affiliates

The Cygnal Group is focused on sales compensation plan design, but there’s more to effective selling than great compensation plans. In particular, sales role design and sales compensation management are areas that often need specialized expertise. We have developed partnerships with experts we trust in both areas:

Experts in sales compensation, coverage models, organization and role design

Tim-Weiler-80x80Tim Weiler, Principal with SalesCompGroup, specializes in sales role clarification, measurement and the assessment and design of sales incentive plans, contests and recognition plans. Tim has 27 years of experience focusing on improving sales organization effectiveness, and has worked with many Global 100 companies, as well as numerous smaller businesses. His industry focus areas include information services and publishing, pharma, and hospitality.

Ted BriggsTed Briggs, Principal with Better Sales Comp, works with leading companies to develop sales job clarity and the alignment of sales compensation plans with the performance requirements of those jobs.  By helping to evaluate sales strategies and the details of a company’s sales coverage model, his work develops the confidence a management team needs to invest in the performance of their sales team.   Ted’s work focuses on driving the efforts of top performers to achieve personally and  for their company.

Clinton GottClinton Gott, Principal with Better Sales Comp, helps clients utilize sales compensation investments to achieve business and sales results. Without a properly focused, motivated, and rewarded sales team, achieving overall business goals becomes something hoped for rather than enabled. Hope is rarely a successful strategy. His work focuses on motivating sales and service people to fulfill the promise of an organization’s unique business objectives.

Ben SkinnerBen Skinner, Managing Partner with LCS Partners, works collaboratively with sales and business thought leaders to identify the best practices, tools and disciplines that will sort through the clutter and move the needle for their organization. The LCS process helps to identify the behaviors that will best serve the selling team, integrate them into a uniform sales process, and implement a management cadence to support it – turning the science of selling into a valuable asset of the business.

Experts in sales performance management systems and processes

OSOpen Symmetry is the only full-service Sales Performance Management and Incentive Compensation consulting firm offering a global team with sales incentive management experience. Open Symmetry consultants bring expertise in solution selection, implementation, outsourcing, reporting & analytics, and training, with delivery across the industry’s leading solution providers.

 

Contact us!

Send us an email to info@cygnalgroup.com

Call us at +1 919-933-2290 (we’re in the US, eastern time zone)

Send us regular mail at 108 Windhover Place, Chapel Hill, NC  27514, USA

We'd love to hear from you

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Our Clients

Clients keep using us

Many Cygnal Group clients find so much value in our service that they continue to involve us in their plan design efforts year after year.

Leaders bring us in

When a client changes jobs, we often get a call. See the list of clients we served when a senior leader (VP Sales, VP HR, CFO, CEO) hired us based on their experience at a prior employer.

One-day fix

For smaller sales teams or less complex challenges, we offer an engagement centered around a one-day workshop. Our experience with this delivery model is substantial.

A broader list

A more complete list of all the clients our consultants have served gives a sense of the breadth of our experience in terms of industries and sizes of sales teams.

Repeat clients

Allied Building Products **
Allscripts ****
Broadsoft **
Carnival Cruise Lines **
CIRCOR **
Comcast / Business Services ******
Coriant/Tellabs ******
Delta Systems **
Deltek ***
Dude Solutions ***
ETS / Prometric ******
Guidepoint Global **
HD Supply *****
Invensys / Eaton **
Finastra/Misys Banking ***
MModal **
PDI – Ninth House ***
Rose Paving **
Red Hat Software **********
Sensus / Metering Systems **
Scholastic Publishing ****
SDI / Verispan ****
SeaChange **
Sparta Systems *****
SunGard ****
SunTech Medical **
Thomson Learning ***
Valassis ***
Valet Waste **
Xactly **
Zinwave **

* The number of asterisks represents the number of incentive plan years we have assisted with that client’s plan designs

Referrals

Acquia
Advanced Sensor Technologies
Bandwidth
Cardinal Health
Criterion Brock
Elsevier / CDS Group
FMC
GXS
Invensys / Eaton
Finastra/Misys Banking
MModal
Packsize
PDI – Ninth House
Red Hat Software
Sparta Systems
Valet Waste

Express Clients

Advanced Sensor Technologies
Aginity
Bandwidth
CarQuest
Constant Contact
Criterion Brock
Delta Systems
Deltek
Dude Solutions
Elsevier / CDS Grou
Guidepoint Global
HD Supply
LogRhythm
NCSA
Packsize
Roofing Supply Group
SeaChange
Sparta Systems
SunTech Medical
Valet Waste
Xactly
Zinwave

Longer list

Acquia
Advanced Sensor Technologies
Aginity
Allied Building Products
Allscripts
Amazon Web Services
Arysta Life Science
Bandwidth
Blackboard
Broadsoft
Cardinal Health
CarQuest
Carnival Cruise Lines
CIRCOR
Comcast / Business Services
Constant Contact
Coriant/Tellabs
Criterion Brock
Daiichi Sankyo
Delta Systems
Deltek
Dude Solutions
Elsevier / CDS Group
Elster Electricity
ETS / Prometric
FMC
Genomic Solutions
GXS
Guidepoint Global
HD Supply
Ingram Entertainment
Invensys / Eaton
Finastra/Misys Banking
LogRhythm
MModal
NCSA
Novartis
Patheon
Packsize
Pep Boys
PDI – Ninth House
Roofing Supply Group
Rose Paving
Red Hat Software
Sensus / Metering Systems
Scholastic Publishing
SDI / Verispan
SeaChange
Siemens/Energy and Automation
Sparta Systems
Standard & Poor’s / Capital IQ
SunGard
SunTech Medical
Thomson Learning
Valassis
Valet Waste
Xactly
Zinwave