How to successfully change your sales commission plan?

Revamping a commission plan is always a delicate task. There are many challenges involved: performance, motivation, strategic alignment... and above all, compensation is a sensitive topic. During a webinar organized by Qobra, Diva Fumery, Head of Business Operations at Welcome to the Jungle, and Josselin Dugué, Founder of Kano, shared their experience and practical advice for successfully completing this type of project.

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Why change your commission plan?

At Welcome to the Jungle, the commission model was showing its limitations:

• Too complex: difficult to understand and calculate.
• Unmotivating: the individual share was too small, which held back top performers.
• Misaligned with business reality: variable results did not reflect the company's performance.
• Poor payment schedule: quarterly bonuses led to artificial sales cycles, with peaks in closings at the end of the quarter.

The question was clear: how could a simpler, fairer, and more motivating system be created that would support growth?

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The objectives of a successful overhaul

The goal was not just to "change the numbers," but to build a solid and sustainable model:

• Adapt plans to roles and teams.
• Find the right balance between the interests of the company and the impact of individual contributors.
• Ensure that plans are clear and understandable to everyone.

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A five-step process

The overhaul was carried out methodically:

1. Pre-project: understand existing plans and identify what was no longer working.
2. Design: team workshops to define KPIs and appropriate mechanisms (objectives, accelerators, capping, etc.).
3. Modeling: simulations in Excel to test different scenarios and measure impacts.
4. Validation: alignment with Finance, HR, and Legal to secure the project.
5. Communication: clear documentation, presentation materials, and simulation tools to engage teams.

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Challenges encountered

• Simplification of models: avoiding the temptation to add too many KPIs. An overly complex plan loses its effectiveness.
• Team alignment: finding a balance between roles (Sales, CSM, AM, Marketing) and overall objectives.
• Internal buy-in: Reassure teams by providing transparency and concrete tools (such as compensation simulators).

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Practical advice

Diva and Josselin share several best practices from this experience:

• Accept biases: no model is perfect, but you have to accept your choices and their limitations.
• Keep it simple: a few clear KPIs are better than a complicated mess.
• Pay attention to communication: explain the vision, benefits, and concrete impacts for each team.
• Involve the right stakeholders from the outset: HR, Finance, managers... and, of course, the teams on the ground.
• Plan for intermediate steps: if certain data or processes are not yet ready, it is better to move forward gradually than to force an unworkable model.

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The key role of a tool like Qobra

A change of plan is only valuable if it is well understood and adopted. This is where a tool like Qobra makes the difference:

• Real-time transparency: each sales rep immediately sees how their performance translates into compensation.
• Ease of implementation: quickly model, test, and deploy plans.
• Easy adoption: simulations and live monitoring to avoid gray areas and boost motivation.

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Conclusion

Revamping a commission plan is not just about changing a formula. It's about rethinking the balance between individual and collective performance and aligning teams with the company's strategy.

The key word is simplicity. A clear, well-explained plan supported by the right tools builds trust and motivates teams. This is how compensation becomes a real performance lever.