Paying and incentivising salespeople in changing times-Paying-and-incentivising-salespeople-in-changing-times

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The webinar, hosted by Tom Liversedge for the ISP, focused on how to pay and incentivise salespeople in changing times. Speakers John Clarke and Richard Higham discussed key principles of effective sales reward plan design, stressing the need for transparency, simplicity, predictability, and alignment between business goals and salesperson expectations.<br /><br />They explained the importance of balancing perspectives from sales, finance, and HR, and highlighted that different seller groups need different approaches: low performers may need more frequent payouts and coaching, the “mighty middle” benefits most from improved commission curves and tiering, and top performers need strong incentives without caps that demotivate them.<br /><br />Survey results showed many organisations are planning tweaks or changes to their reward plans, with growing use of higher thresholds, accelerators, and short-term incentives (“spiffs”). Target levels are generally rising, and many businesses are placing more emphasis on team-based selling.<br /><br />The session concluded with advice on governance, communication, and plan measurement, plus a Q&A on redesign challenges, payout timing, and how to handle overly generous reward cultures.

Keywords

sales reward plans

sales incentives

commission design

salespeople compensation

incentive alignment

performance tiers

spiffs

team-based selling

reward plan governance