You say you want collaboration. Team selling. Flawless handoffs. Happy customers who renew forever.
But your comp planโฆ tells a very different story.
Walk the sales floor at any SaaS company and youโll see the same dysfunction playing out in real time:
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AEs hoarding accounts like doomsday preppers stockpiling toilet paper ๐งป
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CS teams inheriting overpromised deals that never had a shot ๐ฌ
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SDRs passing garbage leads just to hit demo quota ๐๏ธ
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SEs getting ghosted because they โslow things downโ ๐ป
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Partners ignored because they dilute the commission split ๐ โโ๏ธ
This isnโt bad behavior.
This is math.
โ๏ธ The System Is Working Exactly As Designed
Sales compensation is a system. And systems do exactly what theyโre built to doโnot what you preach during the quarterly all-hands.
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If your comp plan only rewards individual heroics, youโll never get team plays.
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If it only pays on closed revenue, youโll never get qualified pipeline.
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If it ignores post-sale impact, youโll never get long-term growth.
The worst part? We try to fix misalignment with culture, not compensation.
Cue the speeches about โwinning togetherโ ๐ค.
The CEO gets misty-eyed about collaboration ๐ฅฒ.
The CRO pounds the podium about customer-centricity ๐ค.
Then everyone goes back to their quota sheet and does exactly what theyโre paid to do: protect their own interests.
You flash a leaderboard that pits everyone against each other, then wonder why nobody collaborates ๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฅ.
You create SPIFFs for individual performance, then act surprised when reps sandbag deals.
You pay AEs nothing on renewals, then blame them for sloppy handoffs.
๐ The Real Cost of Misaligned Incentives
This isnโt philosophical. Itโs financial. And itโs ugly:
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Companies with misaligned sales/CS incentives see 23% higher churn
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Deal velocity drops 31% when SEs arenโt compensated for involvement
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SDR-sourced pipeline quality falls 40% when paid purely on meeting volume
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Multi-threaded deals close at 2.3x the rate of single-threadedโฆ but only 12% of reps consistently multi-thread
Your comp plan isnโt just creating friction internally.
Itโs literally destroying enterprise value ๐ธ.
๐ How to Realign Your Incentive Model
Incentives donโt need โfixing.โ They need realignment. Hereโs the playbook:
๐ 1. Add a Handoff Bonus to Every AE โ CS Transition
Stop hoping for good handoffs. Pay for them.
Require a real warm intro, stakeholder mapping, and renewal risk review. No documentation = no commission release.
One portfolio company added a $500 handoff bonus per enterprise deal. Cost: $180K/year.
Savings: $2.3M in churn. ๐คฏ
๐ฏ 2. Pay SDRs on Qualified Pipeline (Not Meetings)
No more paying for booked meetings or attendance.
Pay on accepted pipeline that moves past Stage 2.
Yes, SDRs make less at first.
Within 90 days, good SDRs make more because AEs actually want their leads.
Bad SDRs self-select out.
Feature, not bug.
๐งฉ 3. Create a Multi-Threading Bonus Inside Opportunity Scoring
Reward early identification of finance, legal, and technical stakeholders.
Structure it like this:
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2% bonus for 3+ contacts engaged
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5% for 5+ contacts with next steps logged
Suddenly your reps become archaeologists ๐ชโdigging up every stakeholder who can say โno.โ
๐ก๏ธ 4. Protect SE + Partner Involvement with Revenue Share Floors
Stop shaving their payout every time someone panics about the split.
Set a floor:
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SEs get minimum 15% on deals they touch
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Partners get 20% on deals they source
Watch your technical win rate jump 35% overnight ๐.
๐ฑ 5. Tie CS Comp to Expansion Readiness, Not Just Retention
Involve CS in expansion forecasting.
Bonus them on commercial influence, not just ticket close times.
Structure:
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Base: 60%
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Retention: 20%
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Expansion influence: 20% (qualified opps they pass that close within 6 months)
๐งจ The Hard Truth About Team Selling
You canโt culture your way out of a compensation problem.
If you want reps to act like owners, you have to pay them like co-owners.
That means sharing the wins, the losses, and the accountability for long-term customer success.
Your GTM engine isnโt one superstar away from greatness.
Itโs one well-designed incentive model away from actually working as a team.
Stop blaming reps for doing what you pay them to do.
Start paying them to do what you actually want ๐ฐ๐ค.
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