Sales Compensation
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From the Vault – 130 Additional Articles on Sales and Sales Leadership
- June 26, 2026
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Politics and Sales, Sales Compensation, Sales Pipeline and Forecast, Sales Process, Understanding the Sales Force
I discovered more than 125 articles that were published in various magazines over the years, many of them in Top Sales Magazine, where I have been a regular contributor for more than 15 years, as well as Selling Power, TED Magazine, Smart Selling and others. They are listed in no particular order, with links (as they become available) to each article. Most are shorter articles – 400 or 800 words – than those I write for Understanding the Sales Force and some go back to 20006. Come back often as more links are added every day!
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25 Factors Indicative of a Strong Sales Culture
- May 11, 2026
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Music and Sales, Sales Compensation, Sales Process, Understanding the Sales Force
Executives love the idea of a sales transformation until it’s time to actually change. Here are 25 proven factors that separate a truly strong sales culture from one that’s stuck making excuses.
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10 Questions Every CEO Must Answer to Increase Revenue Today
- April 17, 2026
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Best Top 10 Lists, Sales Compensation, Understanding the Sales Force
Google Search Console revealed what CEOs are actually searching for. It’s not closing tricks or AI hype — it’s the foundational issues holding revenue back. Here are 10 questions every CEO must answer to drive real growth today.
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Is Your Sales SCAM Leaving a SCAR on Your Sales Team?
- December 1, 2025
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Sales Compensation, Understanding the Sales Force
Remember high school free periods vs. rigid bells? Your sales team’s dealing with the same drama—SCAM cultures and SCAR comp plans that fit half the reps and flop the rest. Time to offer options and slash turnover. (Read how!)
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New Data: Is Sales Compensation Aligned With Changing Motivational Needs?
- October 31, 2022
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Sales Compensation, Understanding the Sales Force
When interviewing sales and sales leadership candidates, similar counter-intuitive discussions occur. Many candidates claim that money isn’t that important because they love sales – until they claim that the base salary isn’t high enough. For others, even though they may not disclose it, the base salary is completely irrelevant as long as the company won’t cap the salesperson’s total earnings. We need to decode the topic of compensation so that we can be sure that both the base salary and the total on-plan earnings are acceptable to candidates.
It is very important to make sense of the hidden and unpredictable compensation responses because many salespeople leave the company after a short time because they don’t believe earnings are equivalent to the compensation that was promised.
It is crucial to understand that salespeople are motivated primarily by one of two motivational styles and unless you wish to hire only one type of salesperson, there must be two compensation plans that should be tailored accordingly. Let’s discuss this.
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The Sales Compensation Plan from Hell and How to Improve It
- September 17, 2021
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Analogies, Sales Compensation, Understanding the Sales Force
Have you ever seen a compensation plan so complicated, so illogical and so detailed that all you could do was stare at it and wonder, WTF?
I did. This week. Couldn’t make heads or tails of it. There were several sales groups selling different services to different audiences, several roles in each group, different plans for each role, different percentages, some of the compensation was guaranteed but some was variable and had to be earned by achieving quantitative and qualitative goals consisting of variable weighted goals, some of which were based on revenue while others were based on percentage achievement of goal. The only way to figure it all out was to draw a table on the white board and start filling it in. When we were done it looked like the monstrosity below:
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How to Change a Crappy Sales Compensation Plan to a Better One
- November 3, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Sales Compensation, Understanding the Sales Force
First, this is simply an example – one example – and not the only way to create a sales compensation plan. However, this example will illustrate the most important component to be changed.
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How Wrong are Company Methods to Rank and Compensate Salespeople?
- February 23, 2016
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Sales Compensation, Understanding the Sales Force
When report cards and grades are available, measuring the academic success of your child or grandchild is a lot easier than it is to measure sales success. School grades go up and we say, “Great effort!” School grades go down and we say, “Oh-oh, something is seriously wrong here!” Academic grades are a reflection of test scores, completed homework and class participation. Sales grades are another story altogether and that is where most companies make terrible, horrible, awful mistakes. Do you think you know what those mistakes are?
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Do We Have Sales Compensation All Wrong?
- May 6, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Sales Compensation, Understanding the Sales Force
Should a salesperson receive the maximum commission on the big deal if there was no other activity, critical KPI’s weren’t met, and the pipeline is essentially empty?
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Sales Compensation – Exceptions to the Rule
- January 12, 2015
- Posted by: Dave Kurlan
- Categories: Sales Compensation, Understanding the Sales Force
I’ve previously written about sales compensation, with the average salesperson earning $96,000, a good salespeople earning $135,000 (varies by industry and geography) and poor and entry level salespeople earning around $67,000. Several companies have recently asked me about how to hire salespeople when you can’t afford to pay even the entry level sales compensation.
