Sales Compensation With Consequences: The Missing Link For Predictable Performance

By Gil Cargill, Sales Acceleration Coach

Countless hours, dollars, and efforts have been put into creating and recreating sales compensation plans. Management frequently says things like, “If I worked for me, I’d be making a ton of money!” We mistakenly feel that creating a comp plan that rewards sales success is the best way to produce a behavior change.

Look at the number of spiffs, dollar-oriented contests, bonuses, et cetera, all of which hang the dollar carrot in front of the sales team. But, here’s the truth: you can’t make an adult want to earn more money than they want to earn. All the spiffs, bonuses, commission increases, et cetera do not — and, if you’ve ever tried it, you know this is the truth — elicit a permanent, measurable change in the sales team’s performance.

You don’t get more calls; you don’t get more proposals, quotes, and/or demonstrations.  But you do get to pay more money for activities which, by and large, would have occurred anyhow. Here’s the flaw in this reward-based thinking: we humans change our behavior much more rapidly and permanently when we are aware of negative consequences that will accrue to us if we don’t change our behavior.

For instance, I’m willing to bet the car you drove this morning is capable of exceeding the posted speed limits by a factor of 2x, perhaps 3x. But I’m also willing to bet the vast majority of us kept our speedometer needle pretty close to the speed limit. Why? Because we are all aware of the negative, painful, and costly consequences of getting caught speeding.

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