Hiring salespeople is tough. Get it wrong, and you burn through cash and lose momentum you may never recover. Get it right, and you’ll build a revenue engine that powers growth for years.

But the challenge is that most founders don’t really understand what drives top sales talent. They throw out a target, promise an OTE, and hope that a hungry salesperson will just figure it out.

In this article, I’ll break down how to understand the motivations of salespeople, how to use that knowledge to build fair and simple commission plans, and how to connect personal goals to company goals so your team goes the extra mile.

If you’ve ever worried that your salespeople feel more like coin-operated robots than true partners, this one’s for you.

Sales is the best or worst job in your company

The way I see it, sales is either going to be the best job in the company or it’s the worst job in the company. You’re either literally getting high fives or getting fired, it’s as simple as that. There’s no middle ground between basically everyone literally buzzing and saying “well done, you smashed this quarter,” or it’s a case of “it’s not working and you’re getting fired.”

Because of this reality, you need people who are motivated by money – that’s what’s going to keep them going through the tough times. If you haven’t got someone who’s motivated by money and they’re behind target, what the hell’s motivating them?

The money motivation myth

The best salespeople in your business will be able to articulately talk to you about their post-tax take home and what they’re going to do when they hit that OTE (on-target earnings).

I remember being a 22-year-old AE working for a SaaS company. I told my sales director at the time that I was going to buy my first property, and I could tell him that I needed a 70K deposit, I needed 10k stamp duty, and I needed legal fees. The numbers I needed to earn weren’t pie in the sky.

My sales director basically helped me build a plan to get there. I knew that if I generated X revenue, X revenue was going to generate X commission, and X commission take home was going to calculate to what I needed. My motivation wasn’t the million-pound target I had to hit – it was the 80K net income that I needed to buy my first property.

That’s what was driving me every week, every month, every quarter. I was going to earn this commission at the end of the year because I was going to buy my first property.

The best salespeople in your business will be able to articulately talk to you about:

• Their post-tax take home amount
• What they’re going to do when they hit that OTE (on-target earnings)
• Specific financial milestones they’re working toward
• Clear timelines for achieving their goals

The power of personal financial goals

When you can hit someone’s personal financial goals, it drives them with a different level of hunger. They’ll make the extra call, they’ll send the extra email, they’ll stay behind after five o’clock because they want to hit that target.

If you can help them achieve those goals personally and financially, they’ll knock the doors down if they’re the right person. You’ll just set them up for success, onboard them correctly, train them in the right way, and it’s like one of those cars that you drag back and just let it go – they’ll just do the work for you.

Building the right commission structure

Commission structure ultimately drives the behaviours of salespeople. It might sound obvious, but your commission structure is so important, and too often companies overcomplicate it and add too many barriers.

It needs to be super simple. You should almost be able to work it out on the back of a napkin. Here’s what that means:

What to avoid:

• No thresholds where you have to hit a threshold before you start earning
• No calculator where you have to fill in all this details to work out what you’re going to earn
• No complex formulas or variables

What to include:

• Keep it simple: a nice round number, percentage of revenue
• Example: you get 10% of the revenue – sign a 50K deal, you get five grand; sign a 100K deal, you get 10K
• Make it frictionless – day one, they start earning
• Use a nice easy number

Why you should be generous

The reality is that SaaS companies can normally get at least a 10x multiple of ARR, sometimes more for high-growth companies. Here’s the math:

• If they’re adding a million pounds worth of business to your company
• They’re adding at least 10 million pounds to valuation
• Spending a couple of grand on extra incentives is negligible
• VCs will be happy, you’ll be happy, salespeople will be happy

How to uncover what motivates your salespeople

The best way to understand what motivates your salespeople is to get to know them on a personal basis. Here’s my exact approach:

“Hey Bob, you just started, really exciting. Our job as a company, and my job as a founder, is to help you achieve your goals. It’d be really helpful for me to know what’s important to you outside of work – how can we help you achieve these goals?”

The Key Questions:

• What goals do you have outside of work?
• What’s important to you in the next 12 months?
• What are you working toward personally?

Then shut up and let them talk.

What You’ll Typically Hear

They might say something like:

• “My girlfriend and I are going to get married”
• “We’d love to buy our first property”
• “I want to invest some money in stocks”
• “I’ve got a passion project I’m working on”
• “I want to help my family”

When you’re having one-to-ones with that person, you can remind them of those things. This shows that you’re a caring manager helping them achieve their personal goals rather than just saying always talking about the company target.

Make it about them, not you

If you can make it about them, if they hit their personal goals, obviously that means they’ve hit their work goal and your company goal. That’s how to move the needle, rather than:

• “Our investors are telling us this”
• “We’ve got to do this”
• “I need to do this”

That’s just about greed and about you. Get the boots on the ground motivated from the bottom up, and the rest follows.

The biggest mistakes founders make

These are my top five mistakes I see founders making when managing salespeople:

1. Overcomplicated commission structures – Don’t have thresholds where salespeople have to hit their salary first before they can earn commission. That isn’t how it works – make it frictionless and exciting.
2. Crazy unrealistic targets – Sometimes I meet founders who say “we’re a million ARR, it took us four years to get to a million ARR, and we’re bringing on a salesperson with a million target.” It just isn’t going to happen. The OTE needs to be achievable.
3. Not justifying the OTE – Any good salesperson will ask loads of questions. They want to hear you justify why this OTE is achievable. What are you asking them to do? What’s customer success going to do? How are SDRs going to help them? They’re qualifying the hell out of it because they don’t want the basic salary – they want the 140 and 200 for overachievement.
4. Treating salespeople like coin-operated robots – Yes, they can be motivated by money, but it doesn’t need to be spoken about all the time because that can be too brash. There’s a way of framing the money conversation around personal goals where it’s not making them seem like some greedy bastard.
5. Not understanding career motivations – How are you going to help them achieve the next thing in their career? Do they want to be an account executive? Do they want stock in the company? Do they want to become your future head of sales? Help them achieve those goals as well, which aren’t necessarily always money-related. Maybe it’s the stamp on the CV they want.

It’s a strategic partnership

Understanding sales motivations isn’t just about creating a commission plan it’s about building genuine relationships with your sales team and aligning their personal goals with your business objectives. When you get this right, you create a powerful engine for growth where everyone wins.

The best salespeople will drive themselves harder than you ever could when they’re working toward something meaningful to them. Your job as a founder is to understand what that something is and help them achieve it. Do this well, and you’ll have salespeople who knock the doors down for you.

FAQs

Q: Should I only hire salespeople who are motivated by money? A: Money motivation is important, but it’s not the only factor. Look for salespeople who can articulate their financial goals and have clear personal motivations. The best salespeople are driven by achieving specific outcomes, whether that’s buying a house, getting married, or advancing their career.

Q: How simple should my commission structure be? A: You should be able to work it out on the back of a napkin. Avoid thresholds, complicated calculators, and multiple variables. A simple percentage of revenue (like 10%) is much more motivating than a complex structure that requires a spreadsheet to understand.

Q: What if my salesperson’s target seems unrealistic? A: If it took you four years to reach a million ARR, don’t expect a new salesperson to hit a million in their first year. Base targets on realistic data and growth patterns. Good salespeople will ask tough questions about achievability during the interview process.

Q: How often should I have personal motivation conversations? A: These shouldn’t be every conversation, but they should be regular. Monthly one-to-ones are a good cadence, and walking meetings outside the office tend to be more effective than formal meeting rooms.

Q: Can I use equity instead of commission? A: Yes, especially at early-stage companies where there are tax benefits. I’ve successfully transferred commission for equity in the past, but this works best with committed salespeople who are showing all the right signals and believe in the company’s future.

Q: What’s the biggest red flag when hiring salespeople? A: Someone who can’t articulate their financial goals or personal motivations. The best salespeople know exactly what they want to achieve and can break down the numbers they need to get there.

Author: Matthew Codd

I’m Matthew, I have 15 years of commercial leadership experience, helping VC-backed B2B technology companies scale revenue and transition from founder-led sales.  

I use my experience to help early-stage start-ups with GTM expertise, sales best practice, and hiring insights.  

I co-founded Cosmic Partners in 2022. We are SaaS sales recruitment specialists for VC backed B2B tech companies.