Sales Comp Academy

Your organization may have clear objectives, a solid GTM strategy, and the right teams in place. But if sales compensation plans are not aligned with sales roles and responsibilities, achieving those objectives becomes much harder.

Why❓

Because compensation plans reinforce behavior. If reps are rewarded for actions outside their responsibilities, it creates misalignment, overlapping responsibilities, gaps in ownership, and ultimately higher commission costs that can hinder growth.

What should you do❓

Review your sales compensation plans to ensure they align with each role’s responsibilities in the sales process.

Remember: information only creates value when you act on it. Start reviewing your plans today!

Choosing the right sales compensation software can feel overwhelming with the number of ICM vendors out there.

If you’re currently evaluating options and want to make a confident, well-informed decision, this will help:

We’ve just launched our Sales Compensation Software Evaluator—a practical tool designed to simplify your selection process. It ranks ICM platforms based on the features that actually matter to you, using your company’s priorities to surface the best-fit solutions—quickly and objectively.

🤔 What makes this different?

We’re not a vendor. We’re an independent, education-focused team with hands-on experience inside real organizations. We’ve evaluated platforms, led implementations, and understand what truly drives success—so this tool is built around real-world decision criteria, not sales pitches.

⭐ Added value:

Two ICM vendors have already completed our in-depth evaluation survey—and you can access their responses for free. A big thank you to Core Commissions and Cellarstone for contributing and helping accelerate the decision-making process for others.

If you want to cut through the noise and choose the right solution with clarity and confidence, start here 👇

Sales Compensation Software Evaluator Learn how to pick the best sales compensation software, or ICM vendor, with our prebuilt tool!

Evaluating sales compensation software? Too many to choose from? Don’t know which is right for your company? If so, we can help! 🙌

We will be releasing our ICM selection tool soon! With this resource, you will be able to rank the ICM vendors according to requirements that an ICM tool should provide and your organization’s desires. Helping you pick the right one 🙂

Join our list to find out when it is released here 👉 https://www.salescompacademy.com/ChoosingASalesCompensationSoftware

How to pick a sales compensation software (ICM tool) Sign up to find out when the ICM selector tool is released!

Sales people don’t quit because of money, but because their picture of success has changed.

What you communicate to your sales teams’ matter. Most employees join companies with high expectations, and look forward to what they can achieve and how they can grow.

As they participate, they begin to see if their initial picture of success is still possible – and if they are going in that direction. There is constant reevaluation in the back of our minds.

With each discussion and assigned task, a picture is formed of their future in that company.

For example, if they see...

📈 Quotas are too high
➡️ They will see it as unachievable and unrealistic goals will not only affect their livelihood, but opportunity for growth will be seen as limited. Future outlook is less bright, because they will have to work harder for every dollar.

⛓️‍💥 Products not up to par
➡️ They will have to sell something that they know will not work well for the potential client, and this will affect how they view themselves. The company's integrity will come into question, especially for the unnecessary stress from potential claw-backs.

👔 Poor leadership & support
➡️ They will see that they have limited resources to help them get to that initial view of success. Once again hindering future possibilities of growth. People are not meant to work in silos.

..then they will no longer see success as a possibility in the role and will leave – like everyone one us.

👍 Share if you agree!

Send a message to learn more

If we look at the human body, most people see pain only as a negative thing. In actuality, pain highlights there is a problem. We take pain killers to get relief from the pain – but the root problem is still there, many times unaddressed.

Sales compensation plans are similar. At times, businesses see a problem with the comp plans and apply a band-aid. Maybe they give extra quota credit or add in a SPIFF, but the underlying problem is still there.

What ends up happening is that corporations either overpay or underpay sales reps, resulting in frustration. Some sales comp plans end up with many band-aids, bringing about lost visibility and a sales incentive program that is disconnected to goals & behaviors originally intended.

✍️Recommendation: do some qualitative and quantitative analysis to see the underlying cause. Speak to your sales people and run comp analytics, it will benefit both the company and the sales team.

Have you seen this in corporate? What are your thoughts? Comment below! ⬇️

Planning is not easy, but it is worth it. Sometimes we get excited and start building the pieces and assigning tasks to a vision we have in our mind. After building, we realize that the individual pieces don’t fit together, or we are missing something to complete the goal or project. The end result is not what we expect, the project is incomplete or delayed, and we end up wasting precious time…

✍️If you have a vision, plan it out…
- ✅What are the major goals/deliverables: break them down into tasks
- ✅What is in scope/out of scope: many pop-up tasks should not be included mid-project
- ✅Who needs to be involved: not everyone should be included
- ✅Who is the owner for each task: there can be many people in a project, but there needs to be one owner for accountability
- ✅What are the dependencies: identify the areas that need to be completed before the goal is met

Lay it out all out, set deadlines and execute! This will make your life easier – and everyone else involved😊

Everyone talks about being “one team” in corporate environments. But we rarely talk about the risk of having a “team of one.”

In many organizations, the sales compensation function is staffed by a single person — responsible for plan design, analysis, administration, and ensuring accurate and timely payments for every sales employee.

Relying on one person to manage sales compensation is not sustainable for five key reasons:

1. Employee burnout and morale risk🫩:
When only one person owns the process, they cannot take time off during commission cycles or year-end plan design. This limits flexibility and allows for burnout.

2. Operational risk 💥:
If that individual is unavailable — unexpectedly or long-term — there is no backup. Payroll disruption is a real business continuity risk.

3. Lack of scalability🫠:
As companies grow, the number of payees, roles, territories, and plan variations increases. Even with automation, one person cannot sustainably support growth.

4. Increased error exposure💸:
No system — and no individual — is perfect. Without checks and balances, payment errors (both underpayments and over-payments) become more likely. Controls require more than one set of eyes.

5. Erosion of sales trust🙎‍♀️:
Repeated errors reduce confidence in the sales compensation process. Salespeople begin double-checking calculations instead of focusing on selling.

At Sales Comp Academy, we recommend a minimum of two people supporting sales compensation — even if one role is part-time. This protects your employee, strengthens internal controls, and supports long-term growth.

👉 If you agree, share this post...

Are you hiring fairly? If not, it may cost you 💰

In August of 2025, the owners of a certain automobile dealership had to pay $275,000 (+ other relief) to settle a U.S. EEOC lawsuit related to their hiring process...

The problem? They preferred men for sales positions and women for office jobs 😟.

👉 To find out more about the case and ways to mitigate biases checkout our post! https://www.salescompacademy.com/newsletters/the-scn-blog/posts/areyouhiringfairly

Comment below 👇 on ways you have avoided biases during the hiring process - we can all learn from each other 😊

With sales compensation plan rollouts happening now, this is the perfect time to make sure you have best practices in place to manage your sales compensation program.

Typically with new comp plans, there are also new exceptions. For that reason, we will be doing a 📢FREE live webinar covering best practices in managing sales compensation exceptions.

📅⏰January 20th at 12pm EST.

Don’t miss out! Signup below today! It's FREE 😊

You will receive the instructions and a meet-up link after signing up. See you there!

https://www.salescompacademy.com/registration-page-ecb110f0-0f4f-4675-9e0f-7389053d3fef

Registration Page

We have exciting news for 2026, which we will be announcing soon! 📣

Meanwhile, enjoy this day with your family, friends, or even solo! Celebrate the achievements and learn from the mistakes, for that is how we grow.

2026 will be even better - believe it! 🎉🥳🎊