Commission is one of the most powerful tools a business has for growing revenue and keeping good salespeople, yet a surprising number of companies still don’t see it that way. Too often, commission is treated as a grudging cost rather than a growth lever, and salespeople are viewed as “overpaid” rather than as the people directly driving the top line. As a specialist sales recruiter for the South of England, with offices in Bristol, London, the West Midlands and Cambridge, we speak to sales candidates every week who have left a role, or are actively looking to, purely because of how their employer handled commission. Get it right, and commission becomes one of the most effective retention and motivation tools available to a growing business. Get it wrong, and it becomes the single biggest reason your best people walk out the door.
Commission Is a Growth Tool, Not Just a Cost
Many businesses still see commission as money reluctantly handed over rather than an investment that fuels further growth. This mindset creates friction: salespeople are messed around with payment terms, targets shift without warning, and the value they bring is quietly resented rather than rewarded. The reality is that a well-structured commission scheme costs a business far less than the alternative: constantly having to replace sales staff who leave because they don’t feel valued. Every sales recruiter will tell you that replacing an experienced salesperson is expensive, slow, and disruptive to the pipeline they’ve built. Paying commission properly is cheaper than losing them.
Use Commission Structure to Retain Staff
One of the most underused strategies in sales compensation is deferring part of the commission. Paying some commission upfront and holding some back for payment later, tied to invoice payment, contract renewal or a set time period, does two things at once. It protects the business against clawbacks on deals that fall through, and it gives salespeople a genuine incentive to stay. If a portion of their earnings is still outstanding, walking away means walking away from money they’ve already earned. Structured well, this isn’t a trap; it’s a fair mechanism that rewards loyalty and long-term thinking on both sides.
Pay on Time, Every Time
None of the above works if commission isn’t paid accurately and on time. Late payments, miscalculated figures, or commission that mysteriously “gets sorted next month” erode trust faster than almost anything else in a sales role. Salespeople remember every instance of being messed around, and it directly affects how hard they push for the business afterwards. Fairness and consistency in payment timing should be treated as non-negotiable. It’s not an admin detail, it’s core to retention.
Don’t Move the Goalposts
Changing targets, thresholds or payout rules after a salesperson has already worked towards them is one of the fastest ways to destroy morale. Even if the change is well-intentioned, it signals that the rules aren’t stable and that hard work might not translate into the reward that was promised. Fair, consistent, clearly communicated commission structures build trust. Ones that shift on a whim build resentment, and a reputation that follows a business into every future hire.
Share Success Across the Wider Business
Commission doesn’t have to sit in a silo that only rewards the sales team. Sharing bonuses more widely across the business, tied to overall sales performance, helps other departments feel genuinely invested in the sales team’s success rather than viewing them as the highest earners in the building. This does two things: it makes salespeople feel more appreciated by colleagues rather than resented, and it improves the level of support sales gets from marketing, operations, and customer service, because everyone is rewarded when the business grows. Sharing in success, not just rewarding the person who closed the deal, builds a far stronger internal culture around sales.
Unachievable Targets Demotivate: Scaled, Uncapped Commission Works Best
A commission scheme built around unachievable targets serves no purpose beyond frustrating and demotivating the very people it’s supposed to incentivise. If a target is realistically out of reach, salespeople disengage long before the end of the period. The best-performing structures use scaled commission, where the percentage or reward increases as performance climbs, keeping people motivated at every level of achievement rather than only at the very top.
Just as important: commission should always be uncapped. A capped structure makes little sense from a growth perspective. If a salesperson smashes their target, that’s more revenue in the business, and capping their reward only encourages them to slow down once they hit the ceiling, or worse, to hold back deals and push them into the next period once a cap resets. Uncapped commission keeps the incentive aligned with the business’s own growth the entire way through.
Watch for Gaming the System
It’s worth acknowledging that some salespeople will get creative with deal timing to maximise their commission, holding back a signature until the start of a new period, or pushing to close early to hit a threshold. This isn’t necessarily a red flag on the individual; it’s usually a sign that the scheme itself has loopholes. The businesses that get commission right design structures where doing the right thing for the customer and the business is also the best thing for the salesperson’s payout, removing the incentive to manipulate timing in the first place.
Good Commission Design Starts with Good Sales Leadership
None of this happens by accident. It takes sales leaders who understand what genuinely motivates a team, rather than those who see commission purely as a cost to be managed down. Selling Power’s piece on the qualities of top sales managers is a good reminder that the best sales leaders build trust, set fair and achievable expectations, and understand what drives their people, with commission structure being a central part of that. Businesses that invest in strong sales leadership tend to design fairer, smarter commission schemes almost as a by-product.
The Best Growth Companies Pay and Reward Well
It’s no coincidence that many of the world’s fastest-growing, most aggressively successful companies are based in the USA, where sales is treated as a serious, respected career path rather than a necessary evil. Salespeople in the US are generally paid better, rewarded more consistently, and viewed with far more regard than their counterparts in the UK. Businesses that want to grow at pace and retain the talent that drives that growth would do well to take note. Paying people properly and rewarding performance fairly isn’t a cost of doing business. It’s a competitive advantage.
Final Thoughts
Commission, used well, is one of the most effective tools a business has to retain sales talent, keep teams motivated and align individual reward with company growth. Used badly, with unfair terms, moved goalposts, late payments or unrealistic caps, it becomes one of the fastest ways to lose your best people. If you’re a growing business anywhere across the South of England, and want to build a sales team that stays, performs and grows with you, getting your commission structure right is a great place to start.
Zero Surplus is a specialist sales recruiter for the South of England, sourcing business development and sales staff for small and international businesses, with offices in Bristol, London, the West Midlands and Cambridge. We recruit everything from Business Development Executives, to Head of Sales and Account Managers, and have a high success rate of delivering staff for roles other people have struggled to fill.
If you are a company looking to recruit your next top salesperson, or looking for advice on structuring a commission scheme that attracts and retains the best sales talent, please don’t hesitate and get in touch.
