A one-size-fits-all sales role fails in consumption models. Success requires segmenting the team into specialized roles—new business acquisition, customer onboarding, and account management—each with distinct incentives aligned to their specific function, from initial sign-up to value realization and expansion.
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To prevent engineers from gaming output-based pay, 10X assigns a "Technical Strategist" to each project. The engineer is paid for output, but the strategist is incentivized by client retention and account growth (NRR), creating a healthy tension that ensures high-quality work is delivered.
In a project-based company, salespeople are heroes for closing large, complex, custom projects. This incentive structure is directly opposed to a product model that requires standardization. The transition to product will fail unless sales compensation and culture are realigned to favor standard product sales.
Assigning expansion quotas to Customer Success (CS) is a critical mistake. CS should focus on implementation, adoption, and value realization, creating the conditions for growth. However, the act of selling the expansion is a core sales responsibility that requires a sales skillset and incentive structure.
For consumption-based models, simple size-based segmentation (SMB, Enterprise) is insufficient. Stripe and Vercel use a two-axis model: company size (x-axis) and growth potential (y-axis). A small company growing at 200% YoY is more valuable and warrants more sales investment than a large, stagnant one.
Don't hire more reps until your current team hits its productivity target (e.g., generating 3x their OTE). Scaling headcount before proving the unit economics of your sales motion is a recipe for inefficient growth, missed forecasts, and a bloated cost structure.
Don't finalize a comp plan in an executive silo. Share the draft with trusted, top-performing reps and ask them to break it. They will immediately spot loopholes and unintended incentives, allowing you to create a more robust plan that drives the right behaviors from day one.
Salespeople's biggest frustration with comp plans is being held accountable for outcomes they can't directly influence. This perceived unfairness is a primary driver of attrition, making it critical to align incentives strictly with a seller's direct responsibilities and control.
Annual plans can't predict every business need, like a new product launch or acquisition. A pre-approved budget for discretionary incentives (SPIFs) allows sales leaders to quickly motivate reps toward new, unforeseen priorities without having to disrupt the core compensation plan mid-year.
Sales compensation is the most powerful lever for changing a sales team's behavior quickly. More than training or directives, incentives tell reps what they are supposed to do and why, directly shaping their daily actions and strategic focus.
Fal employs a product-led sales motion where enterprise deals originate from self-serve usage. The sales team is automatically alerted when a pay-as-you-go account's spending crosses a specific threshold ($300/day). This signal triggers outreach to convert the high-usage account into a larger, committed annual contract, creating an efficient and scalable GTM.
