Why Fixing Sales Compensation Means Rethinking Your Go-to-Market Strategy

Incentive compensation systems rarely break instantly. They fracture over time. Warning signs may include a spreadsheet versioning error or a payout report that won’t reconcile. Revenue leaders often feel the strain before they can prove it, hearing from reps who question their payouts or seeing IT stretched thin just to keep the old system running. By the time the signs are obvious, the damage is already done. This is the hidden reality for sales organizations that rely on manual processes and legacy tools for sales performance management. Fixing incentive compensation is never just about technology. More often it’s a tipping point that can force revenue leaders to redesign their entire go-to-market strategy. Here’s how one company’s journey to fix their comp system revealed an opportunity to rebuild for growth. 

The Wake-Up Call at Motion Industries 

Motion Industries experienced this fracture firsthand. For decades, the company grew successfully, powered by spreadsheets, siloed systems, and deep institutional memory. But that approach couldn't keep pace with their growth strategy. 

The company supported 3,000 sellers with only four generic role definitions. Their compensation system had no way to account for growing role complexity, introduce new performance measures, or optimize sales territories. 

The strategic vision was clear, but the system couldn't execute it. Reporting became unreliable, visibility vanished, and it was impossible to adjust in real-time. 

System Debt: The Silent Barrier to Growth 

The problem is rarely just technical; usually it's structural. Incentive compensation systems accumulate “system debt” as acquisitions, new roles, and shifting business priorities layer on more patches and exceptions. Over time, simple workflows turn into layers of fragile workarounds. Leaders think they have a system, but what they really have is a collection of disconnected tools and manual fixes. 

When Motion took a closer look, they found several familiar challenges: 

• 17 different inbound data feeds 
• Manual bonus calculations prone to error 
• No consistent process for plan acknowledgments 
• Inconsistent naming conventions across systems 
• Commissions processed through a disconnected HR platform 

“The more we dug deeper into our current incentive compensation system, the more gaps we uncovered,” said Carr. Motion isn’t alone. According to a 2025 Market Spotlight, 92% of leaders say internal misalignment costs them up to 15% of revenue, yet only 21% are actively addressing it. That’s millions in lost growth, hiding in plain sight. 

The Hidden Costs of a Disconnected System 

To keep things running, Motion relied on manual efforts. This "human middleware" came at a steep cost: 

• Seven IT employees were tied up supporting just four of their 39 comp plans. The remaining 35 plans were managed manually by a four-person compensation team for 9,500 employees. Reporting was so fragmented that there was no single view of total compensation. 
• “It’s hard to get a report about what our total comp is, what we’re paying people, and what we’re getting for what we’re paying,” Carr explained. “None of our systems talk to each other.” Manual workarounds keep the lights on, but they introduce risk and inefficiency at every layer. The longer they persist, the harder they are to unwind. 

From Fixing Payouts to Redesigning the Go-to-Market 

Transforming incentive compensation is rarely just a technology project. It often exposes critical weaknesses in the go-to-market model. s. For organizations where RevOps has been an afterthought, the process forces new discipline in critical areas: 

• Territory and quota design 
• Plan governance and controls 
• Field enablement and training 
• Change management and communication 

These critical changes can't be owned by a single team. They require deep cross-functional alignment between Sales, Finance, HR, and IT. 

From Earnings to Insight: Realizing ROI 

Motion didn’t just fix broken payouts; they rebuilt their operational foundation. First, they replaced a patchwork of manual spreadsheets and a limited homegrown tool with a unified platform connecting Workday and Varicent. This eliminated siloed systems and IT bottlenecks, giving the comp team control and visibility, 

They also shifted away from flat profit-based commissions toward differentiated seller roles, quota-based plans, and real-time dashboards for sales reps. The goal was to help compensation evolve from a simple payroll function into a strategic lever for planning, one that drove planning decisions, optimized territories, and helped prepare the business for future growth.  

To do this, the team built a system where they could: 

• Run scenario models before making structural changes 
• Forecast compensation impact in real time 
• Identify where performance was being under leveraged 

For example, "Don’t just hit a date," Carr advised. "Get it right." 

For other organizations, this is the opportunity hidden inside every incentive compensation transformation. What begins as a project to clean up errors can lead to a more sophisticated model for smarter planning and sustainable growth. 

The Lesson: From Workarounds to Competitive Advantage 

Motion’s journey confirms what many leaders already suspect: fixing comp is rarely about the math. It’s about exposing the hidden weaknesses in your planning, data, and alignment. 

The lesson for enterprise leaders is clear: 

• Compensation is a system, not a spreadsheet. It dictates how performance and productivity flow across the entire organization. 
• Manual fixes create hidden costs. They silently erode trust, accuracy, and growth potential. 
• Transformation pays for itself twice. When you solve for compensation, you also build a foundation for better planning, faster decisions, and stronger alignment.

What starts as a cleanup project can become a powerful lever for enterprise growth. The real signal isn't that your spreadsheets are broken. It's that your business has outgrown them. Stop trying to fix the old system and start building one that can scale with your business strategy.