Design a pay mix and on-target earnings structure appropriate to a given sales role and deal cycle.
Marketing & Sales
Designing Sales Compensation Plans and Commission Structures
Learn to design sales compensation plans and commission structures that set fair quotas, balance pay mix and drive the selling behaviour a revenue plan actually needs.
🗓️Duration5 training days
📚Content4 modules · 8 sessions
🎓On completionAccredited attendance certificate
About the programme
Course Overview
A commission structure that looked sound on a spreadsheet can still push a sales team to chase the wrong deals, ignore renewals or game a quota gap the plan never anticipated. This course works through the full mechanics of building a sales compensation plan: choosing a pay mix and on-target earnings level that fit each role, setting quotas that hold up when territories and account potential differ widely, and shaping accelerator curves, tiers and short-term SPIFs so incentives reinforce the behaviour the revenue plan needs rather than working against it. Participants build a compensation model from a real capacity and pipeline dataset, stress-test it against edge cases such as a rep who wins one outsized deal or a territory reshuffle mid-year, and draft the policy language covering clawbacks, disputes and plan changes. Sessions combine spreadsheet modelling, comp committee role-play and a plan communication exercise so a new structure can be rolled out without triggering attrition or confusion among the sales floor. The result is a compensation plan a finance leader will approve and a sales rep will trust, backed by a governance process for the inevitable exceptions.
Expected Learning Outcomes
Build quotas from historical pipeline, capacity and account-potential data rather than top-down targets alone.
Model accelerator curves, tiers and decelerator thresholds that reward the right deal behaviour.
Structure short-term SPIFs that boost a specific outcome without distorting the core plan.
Draft commission policy covering clawbacks, draws, splits and dispute resolution.
Stress-test a compensation plan against windfall deals, territory changes and mid-year quota resets.
Communicate a new compensation plan to a sales team and anticipate rep reactions before rollout.
Who Should Attend
Sales operations and compensation analysts building or revising incentive plans
Sales leaders accountable for quota setting and team performance
HR and total rewards specialists partnering with revenue teams
Finance business partners reviewing commission cost and plan risk
Revenue operations managers coordinating comp with CRM and forecasting data
Founders and commercial leads designing a first formal sales incentive plan
Course Modules
Select any module to see its sessions and points.
01Compensation Strategy and Pay Philosophy
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Aligning Pay Mix with Sales Role and Deal Complexity
- Compare pay mix ratios across hunter, farmer and account management roles and justify the variable share for each.
- Map deal cycle length and deal complexity to the right balance between base salary and commission exposure.
- Benchmark on-target earnings against role, seniority and market data before setting a draft pay level.
- Identify roles where a pure commission structure creates unacceptable income volatility or churn risk.
Session 2Setting On-Target Earnings and Base-to-Variable Ratios
- Calculate on-target earnings from base salary, target variable and expected attainment assumptions.
- Model how a base-to-variable ratio shifts rep risk tolerance and prospecting versus closing behaviour.
- Set guaranteed draws and ramp guarantees for new hires without undermining full-plan incentives later.
- Reconcile pay mix decisions with total cost of sales targets set by finance.
02Quota Setting and Territory Fairness
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Building Defensible Quotas from Pipeline and Capacity Data
- Derive bottoms-up quotas from historical win rates, pipeline coverage ratios and rep capacity.
- Reconcile bottoms-up quota totals against a top-down revenue target and document the gap.
- Set ramp quotas for new hires that phase in gradually across a defined onboarding period.
- Build a quota-setting workbook that ties each rep's number to territory and account data.
Session 2Testing Quota Fairness Across Territories and Segments
- Test quota distribution for systematic bias toward legacy territories or historically favoured accounts.
- Adjust quotas for territories reshaped by account potential, workload balancing or headcount changes.
- Design a mid-year quota relief process for territory disruption, leave or reorganisation.
- Present quota rationale to a sales team in language that survives challenge from an underperforming rep.
03Plan Mechanics: Accelerators, Tiers and SPIFs
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Designing Accelerator Curves and Decelerator Thresholds
- Build a tiered accelerator curve that rewards over-attainment without creating a commission cliff.
- Set decelerator thresholds for under-attainment that preserve motivation while controlling plan cost.
- Model total commission payout across a full attainment range from underperformance to a windfall deal.
- Cap or true-up mechanisms for outlier deals that would otherwise distort the intended plan economics.
Session 2Running Short-Term SPIFs Without Distorting Behaviour
- Design a SPIF around a specific product launch, segment push or pipeline-generation goal.
- Set SPIF budgets and payout triggers that avoid cannibalising core plan incentives.
- Sequence multiple SPIFs across a quarter so competing incentives do not confuse the sales floor.
- Evaluate a completed SPIF against its stated goal before deciding whether to repeat it.
04Governance, Compliance and Plan Rollout
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Drafting Commission Policy, Clawbacks and Dispute Rules
- Draft clawback language for cancelled, downgraded or unpaid deals that a legal reviewer will accept.
- Define split-credit rules for team selling, channel deals and account handoffs between reps.
- Set up a commission dispute process with defined evidence, timelines and escalation steps.
- Establish a compensation committee cadence for approving plan exceptions and one-off deals.
Session 2Communicating New Plans and Modelling Rep Reactions
- Model likely rep reactions to a new plan by simulating payout under last year's actual results.
- Prepare a plan communication pack that explains rationale, worked examples and transition rules.
- Run a plan launch session that lets reps calculate their own earnings under realistic scenarios.
- Track early plan signals such as pipeline shifts or attrition risk in the first quarter after rollout.
What the participant receives
4 course modules
A structured syllabus
8 training sessions
across 5 days
32 detailed points
Applied, detailed content
Accredited attendance certificate
On completing the programme
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