Compensation design

A comp plan is the loudest strategy document a company writes. Reps read it once and optimize against it all year, so design for the behavior you actually want.

The building blocks

On-target earnings (OTE) split into base and variable (pay mix). Accelerators reward over-attainment; decelerators and thresholds protect against paying for weak performance. SPIFs push short-term focus. Clawbacks recover commission on deals that churn or fail to collect.

Align incentives to strategy

If you want multi-year deals, pay more for them. If you want new logos, do not let renewals dominate the plan. Every dollar of variable comp should pull toward a goal the business actually has.

Run it without disputes

The plan is only as good as the process behind it: clear quota credit rules, timely statements, and a clean dispute path. Comp disputes destroy trust faster than almost anything else in operations.