Changing Sales Compensation Plans Quarterly, Does It Work?
by Shirah Smail
Nov 16, 2024

If you have ever designed sales compensation plans, the suggestion to build an incentive plan and then change it quarterly may have been proposed. Perhaps leadership needs this flexibility because of the many unknowns in planning. Maybe the company is going through restructuring, where the sales organization and goals are shifting – yet the sales team needs a pay plan so that they can be rewarded for their efforts. Now from leaderships point of view this may make sense, buts let’s consider three of the biggest unintended consequences.
Shift To A Strategic Thinker Instead Of An Order Taker
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How is your week going? Are you drowning with a long list of requests thrown at you? Is your to-do list piling up?
If you cannot finish your tasks each day then that’s a problem.  Everything cannot be urgent and important.
Unfortunately, this is common in the corporate environment – and life in general. But there’s a simple method to handle this craziness!  It’s called the Eisenhower Matri...
Before presenting an offer to a salesperson, think - is your company being fair in their decision making? If not, it may cost you. In August of 2025, the owners of a certain automobile dealership had to pay $275,000 (+ other relief) to settle a U.S. EEOC lawsuit related to their hiring process.
So, what happened?
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One of the most important questions that company leaders ask is “How much are these comp plans going to cost us?” That is where plan modeling or costing comes in.Â
This is the time of year when companies are creating sales compensation plans for next year.  They usually invest time in determining the best mechanics (e.g. thresholds, accelerators, caps, etc.). They also spend an extensive am...