Designing Incentive Plans Your Reps Actually Understand

Simplicity is a design constraint, not a compromise

A comp plan is a communication tool. If a rep cannot explain in 30 seconds how they get paid, the plan has failed, regardless of how elegant the formula is. Complexity in a plan is almost never a feature. It is a symptom of unresolved disagreement about what behavior you actually want to drive.

Three plan design tests we run before launch

First, the 30-second test: can a rep explain it without notes? Second, the edge case test: does the plan handle your top three awkward deal types cleanly? Third, the trust test: will reps believe the payout statements without questioning the math?