What Your CEO Needs to Know About Sales Compensation

CHAPTER 6

A Quota Quandary: Setting Equitable and Profitable Sales Goals

I PULLED INTO THE PARKING LOT of an office building in suburban Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C. It was a brisk autumn day but the environment inside the offices was anything but cool. Over the course of the next three hours, I sat with Jim, a senior sales executive of a leading health insurance company, locked down in his office discussing the quota process and how “unfair” it was to the sales organization. As he ignited yet another cigarette in an already smoke-filled room, I mused about the contradiction between his habit and his line of business and listened as he talked about “the number,” “the quota,” and “the goal.” His business unit had done well this year, ...