spifs
Pharmaceutical SPIFs need a different standard from most sales incentives. The issue is not just whether the program can move behavior. The issue is whether the program can survive compliance review, support legitimate commercial objectives, and still be measured in a way that tells leadership whether it was worth running.
spifs
SaaS teams can justify SPIFs more easily than most sales organizations because they often face short-term motions the base plan does not fully weight: a product launch, a competitive displacement push, a new attach motion, or a narrow conversion problem. But that does not mean every temporary contest is a
comp-design
Most executive teams do not need more excitement around SPIFs. They need a harder operating standard: did the program create incremental revenue, or did it just create a temporary spike and another payout line? That is the right question. Not whether the leaderboard looked energetic. Not whether reps liked it.
research
If you're evaluating a SPIF, the useful question is not whether short-term incentives ever work. It is what kind of behavior the program is trying to change, how temporary the problem really is, and whether the business can tell the difference between true incrementality and revenue that simply