And while we’re covering metrics, Business Insider is again reporting on Cisco’s changing sales compensation.
According to two Cisco employees familiar with the changes, quoting the article, salespeople will earn a higher commission when selling subscription-based products like emerging cybersecurity or collaboration software than they would for one-time purchases like networking hardware.
The article continues. For some salespeople, though, this change is another example of how they believe Cisco leadership is continually moving goalposts by changing the metrics on which their pay is based.
In unrelated compensation news, Salesforce will tie executive pay to diversity and inclusion goals. This was reported earlier this month. Specifically, this means the company’s ability to meet diversity and inclusion goals around hiring, retention, and promotions will determine the pay for leaders who are executive VPs and above, including Salesforce co-CEOs Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor. The goals are binary, meaning each measure is either fully achieved by the end of the fiscal year or not.
Why do we care?
I’m not so pessimistic about Cisco’s change as their salespeople are. Why? Because it’s clear they are moving where they want to go – subscription – and setting incentives to match. That’s smart… and as many owners know, the salespeople you have now may not be the ones of the future if you change direction. Cisco is changing direction, not moving the goalposts.
Because as the salesforce incentives show, you get what you pay for. They want to achieve diversity and inclusion goals. So they set incentives, and they made it binary too. Either you get it, or you don’t. No excuses. That’s a clear incentive.
And financial incentives, as is noted time and time again, drive action.