The psychology of sales incentives: What the research says with Johannes Habel - The Sales Compensation Show

Topics in this episode

Sales Compensation incentive compensation sales performance management SPM sales incentives

Episode notes

Sales compensation leaders spend enormous amounts of time deciding which behaviors to reward, how aggressively to reward them, and how to motivate very different sellers with a common plan. But many of the assumptions underlying many decisions come from experience and convention rather than firm research. Fortunately, Johannes Habel studies exactly this. An Associate Professor at the University of Houston, Johannes researches sales management, seller psychology, and performance. In this episode of The Sales Compensation Show, he joins Forma.ai Founder and CEO Nabeil Alazzam for a research-backed exploration of what makes sellers perform best and what incentives can change beyond the number on an attainment report. The two examine one of the fundamental assumptions behind sales compensation: that stronger incentives should create more effort. Research shows they can. But Johannes explains another factor they've discovered matters just as much, including research suggesting highly aggressive incentives can change how sellers interact with customers and even contribute to worse downstream outcomes. The conversation also gets into the differences between sellers themselves.