What Is Sales Compensation Really?

In this episode of Sales Comp Decoded, Abimbola Olayiwola, founder of Compswell, explores what sales compensation is really doing inside a business.Many companies treat sales compensation as a formula, a commission rate, or a payout calculation. But a pay plan does much more than calculate earnings. It shapes behaviour, communicates strategy, and either builds or breaks trust.Through the story of “John,” an account executive who appears successful on paper but starts making decisions that do not fully support the company’s long-term strategy, this episode shows why sales teams often follow the pay plan more closely than the strategy deck.The episode unpacks a simple but important idea: commission pays for sales, but sales compensation shapes behaviour. When companies design only for cost and payout, they may unintentionally reward discounting, short-term thinking, weak collaboration, or behaviours that conflict with the business strategy.This episode is for founders, sales leaders, RevOps, HR, finance, and compensation professionals who want to understand sales incentives as a management system, not just a payment mechanism.By the end, you will be left with one practical question: when your sales team makes a decision, do they follow the strategy or the pay plan? And if those two are not saying the same thing, which one wins?