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 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 Expert Council along with the heads of sales compensation from leading companies including Siemens, Dell, and Cisco. Donya’s respected thought leadership makes her an in-demand speaker at conferences and author of published articles.

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.

 

Our contact info

Send us an email to info@cygnalgroup.com

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

We'd love to hear from you

Clients our consultants have served

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 **

* The number of asterisks represents the number of incentive plan years we have assisted with that client’s plan designs (if > 1 year)

+ Indicates a client with the VP Sales, VP HR or CEO hiring us after we worked with him/her at a prior client

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 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 Expert Council along with the heads of sales compensation from leading companies including Siemens, Dell, and Cisco. Donya’s respected thought leadership makes her an in-demand speaker at conferences and author of published articles.

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.

 

Our contact info

Send us an email to info@cygnalgroup.com

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

We'd love to hear from you