Coming soon · Book Profile
The Future of Sales Compensation
Two ZS sales-compensation consultants forecast how sales incentive plans will evolve over the next decade, arguing that the future lies in blending extrinsic and intrinsic motivators, personalizing plans, gamifying behavior, leveraging predictive analytics and technology, and treating change management as central to plan success.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
The Future of Sales Compensation challenges the stagnant, one-size-fits-all thinking that dominates sales incentive design and offers a research-grounded vision of what comp plans will look like in five to ten years. Drawing on meta-analyses of motivation research, behavioral economics, interviews with leaders at Google, Microsoft, US Foods, Xactly, Anaplan and others, and 25+ years of consulting across 250+ companies, authors Chad Albrecht and Steve Marley debunk the myth that money alone drives salespeople—while also refuting claims that extrinsic incentives should be abandoned. They show that intrinsic and extrinsic motivators are additive, that fewer and fairer metrics beat cluttered plans, that interim milestones and framing matter, and that emerging technology enables personalization, gamification, and predictive analytics that can reduce turnover and inform midcourse corrections. Most crucially, they argue that even the best plan fails without disciplined change management. For anyone who designs, communicates, administers, or is paid by a sales incentive plan, the book is a forward-looking playbook for becoming a sales compensation innovator rather than a status-quo follower.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- A sales compensation professional (director, manager, analyst) or sales leader who wants to design plans that motivate a changing sales force, drive results, and stay ahead of the profession.
- The problem
- Traditional one-size-fits-all comp plans, cluttered metrics, backward-looking analytics, and rushed rollouts fail to motivate a diverse sales force or deliver desired results. They feel stuck in a rut, unsatisfied by recycled ideas, and anxious about being left behind or making a change that upsets top performers.
- The plan
- Combine intrinsic and extrinsic incentives instead of choosing one; use good managers to cover behaviors not in the plan.
- Ground design in aggregate research: limit to three meaningful metrics, ensure fairness, add interim milestones and tiers, and frame the plan positively.
- Personalize plans to different segments and generations, and pilot gamification and Pick-Your-Own-Plan approaches.
- Adopt cloud-based SPM software, big-data benchmarking, and mobile/near-real-time tools; start small and include future needs in vendor evaluations.
- Move from descriptive to predictive and prescriptive analytics to reduce turnover, make midcourse corrections, and anticipate field questions.
- The payoff
- Plans that motivate a diverse sales force, drive superior and profitable results, and give everyone a fair opportunity to succeed. · Lower regrettable turnover of top performers and higher engagement and trust. · A strategic, tech-enabled comp function that predicts outcomes and acts proactively, keeping the professional ahead of competitors.
See our guide
Additional reading
- Sales Compensation Surveys (Appendix B) · Various Third-Party Providers
The book recommends using external survey data to set competitive pay levels. Appendix B provides a list of survey sources for readers to conduct their own market research.
- Software Vendors—Sales Compensation Administration Software (Appendix C) · Various Third-Party Vendors
The book emphasizes the need for automation in administering complex plans. Appendix C lists vendors that provide these solutions for further investigation by the reader.
- The Sales Growth Imperative · David J. Cichelli
Written by the same author, this book likely provides a broader strategic context on revenue growth, within which sales compensation is a key lever.
- Sales Compensation Almanac · The Alexander Group (David J. Cichelli's firm)
This annual publication provides updated data, trends, and benchmarks in sales compensation, serving as a contemporary supplement to the book's foundational principles.
- Organization Design for Performance: A Step-By-Step Guide · Cedric Ng Mong Shen
This book is relevant because 'Design' is the second dimension of organizational effectiveness discussed in Step 1. It provides a deeper framework for structuring departments and companies, which directly impacts the sales function's effectiveness.
- Designing Salary Structures: A Step-By-Step Guide · Cedric Ng Mong Shen
Directly complements the main book by detailing how to create the base salary structures upon which the incentive portion of total cash compensation is built.
- Predictive HR Analytics: A Step-by-Step Guide · Cedric Ng Mong Shen
Relevant for more advanced practitioners who want to use data analysis (as mentioned in Step 9) to test hypotheses about plan effectiveness and predict which factors drive sales success.
- The Complete Guide to Sales Force Incentive Compensation · Andris A. Zoltners, Prabhakant Sinha, and Sally E. Lorimer
The book recommends this text as a comprehensive reference for readers who want more detail on specific approaches and analytics discussed in 'Sales Compensation Solutions'.
- Driven: How Human Nature Shapes Our Choices · Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria
Referenced in Chapter 5 as providing a foundational framework on the four innate human drives (acquire, bond, learn, defend) that can be used to understand and segment sales force motivation.
- Designing a Sales Commission · Jerome A. Colletti & Mary S. Fiss
This book references it for the detailed mechanics of designing commission formulas (e.g., flat and tiered rates) that are used as examples for new product and new account incentives.