One resource for designing plans that motivate the right behaviors, reward performance fairly, and can be administered cleanly. Built on the RevEng Sales Compensation Growth Model.
Sales compensation is the most visible and strategically connected lever in the revenue organization. Designed well, it aligns every seller's daily decisions with the outcomes the business has committed to deliver, attracts the talent you want, and funds growth sustainably.
This guide brings the entire design into one place. It walks the full path from guiding principles through corporate strategy, operational reality, and plan mechanics, so you can design a complete program or go straight to the element you are working on and see how it connects to everything around it.
The Growth Model is our framework for connected compensation. Most approaches focus on plan mechanics. The RevEng Sales Compensation Growth Model links every element to the strategy above it and the execution below it, so each design decision reinforces the next.
The model is organized into four tiers that build on each other:
The guide covers every element of the model, with the working details you can apply directly:
Pay architecture and OTE: market positioning, the Attract, Motivate, Retain tradeoff, hire-in-range guidelines, and career progression.
Pay mix: matching base and variable pay to the degree of persuasion, the sales cycle, and the talent you want to attract.
Pay curves and accelerators: the five anchor points, the top performer framework, and accelerator rates calculated by quota band.
Plan measures: the measurement hierarchy that separates what to pay on from what to coach on.
Crediting rules: six models matched to your sales motion, including at-risk and consumption-based revenue.
Governance: quota-setting philosophy, out-of-plan controls, and special incentive thresholds that keep programs disciplined.
It is written for the professionals who design, administer, and govern sales compensation, and it assumes fluency.
There is no primer on what a pay mix is.
Sales Compensation and Incentive Design leaders who own plan design, modeling, and the annual cycle.
Sales Ops and Revenue Ops leaders responsible for quotas, territories, crediting, and administration.
HR and Total Rewards leaders responsible for pay philosophy, architecture, and internal equity.
Finance and FP&A partners accountable for cost of sales and the compensation envelope.
It is equally useful for CROs and sales leaders who want a clear view of how their programs connect to the go-to-market strategy.
The logic runs in sequence the first time through, since principles inform corporate decisions, which inform operational design, which informs plan mechanics. After that it works as a reference. Go straight to the element you are designing, and the connections upstream and downstream are mapped for you.
Four connected tiers. Twenty-five elements. The complete design framework in one place.
Our sales compensation and incentive design practice applies the Growth Model to your plans, your data, and your business.