A person in a suit holds an open brochure with a purple and white design. The visible page shows a smiling man in a purple jacket and the text “Build performance capability.”.

Decoding sales team motivation

Actionable insights for sales leaders looking to drive real performance

There’s a hidden motivation gap impacting sales performance, trust, and results. Based on new research into sales motivation, our new playbook reveals what really drives your teams, and how to close the gap.

Download the playbook

The motivation gap is costing you performance

Most sales incentive strategies are built on assumptions. But the data tells a different story:

23%

Only 23% of salespeople strongly agree their incentives are fair

<25%

Less than a quarter align with leadership on what motivates them

+30%

Over 30% of teams disagree that incentives work the way leaders expect

Result? Misaligned behaviours. Reduced trust. Missed targets.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone

You’re investing heavily in incentives but not seeing consistent results
Your team isn’t engaging the way you expected
Top performers are motivated, but others are falling behind
You’re unsure if your reward structure is truly fair or effective

The truth: If your incentives are built on the wrong assumptions, you’ll get the wrong results.

Better incentives start with better design

This playbook shows you how to design incentive programmes based on what actually drives your sales team, not guesswork.

Inside the playbook, you’ll discover:

✔ The real motivators behind sales performance
✔ Why you should design incentives aligned to behaviour, not assumptions
✔ How to align rewards with behaviours that drive results
✔ 8 practical ways improve incentive effectiveness
✔ How to build fairness and trust into your incentive design