Sales management · Legal and ethical issues
Check what your targets reward before a rep does it for you.
An incentive and target ethics check tests whether the numbers you set and the bonus you pay could push a rep into bending the rules. It compares each target with a realistic forecast, reads the pay plan for loopholes, and ends with a revised plan that rewards customer care as well as billing.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
An incentive and target ethics check tests whether the numbers you set and the bonus you pay could push a rep into bending the rules. It compares each target with a realistic forecast, reads the pay plan for loopholes, and ends with a revised plan that rewards customer care as well as billing.
It is the third week of March. A distributor in Coimbatore receives a truck of stock nobody there ordered, because the company needs its year-end target met. Half of it comes back in May as returns, after the bonus has been paid. Nobody did anything the pay plan did not invite.
This check is a two-hour sitting where you put every rep's target next to what the territory can really buy, then read the incentive plan hunting for the places it rewards the wrong thing: pay on invoices with no clawback on returns, a bonus for the number of policies or accounts opened, a cliff at one hundred percent.
The owner and the sales head do it together, with the accountant bringing the returns, cancellations and complaints figures. It replaces setting next year's target by adding ten or fifteen percent to this year's.
It sits beside the pay mix and quota pages in this section. Those set how much; this asks what behaviour the how much invites. Pay and labour rules differ by state, so show any change to the plan to your own adviser before you roll it out.
Where this sits
Topic 13 of 14 in sales management: legal and ethical issues. Rules the team sells within.
- The topic before
- Performance evaluation
- The topic after
- The sales operations audit
If you want this done for you
Your incentive plan rewards activity that has nothing to do with what needs selling.
The work
What this is actually like.
“The target you cannot reach is the dangerous one”
A rep given a number they know is out of reach stops trying honestly and starts looking for shortcuts. Test each target against the bottom-up figure: customers on the list, their usual order size, the visits the rep can make. A gap you cannot explain is a pressure point.
“Primary billing hides the damage”
If the plan pays when stock leaves your godown, and not when the retailer sells it or the invoice is paid, a rep can win while the business loses. Tie part of the payout to collections or secondary sales, and hold some back until the returns window closes.
“Signals show up before the complaint does”
Returns bunching in the first month after a quarter end, cancellations on contracts signed in the last three days, forms with altered dates or missing signatures. Ask the accountant for these four numbers by rep and by month, and read the March rows first. Nobody will volunteer them.
“Rewarding only sales teaches reps to ignore the customer”
If nothing in the plan counts repeat orders, complaints or renewals, a rep has no reason to care what happens after the sale. Put one customer measure in the plan with real money attached, even if the slice is small, and pick something the rep controls, like repeat orders.
What we do
What you end up with.
The documents this topic produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
The target realism table
One row per rep. Columns: current target, bottom-up estimate from the customer list, territory potential, the gap, and the reason you give for the gap. The sales head fills the first four and the owner writes the last.
Result: Finished when every target above the bottom-up figure has a written reason the rep has heard.
The incentive risk notes
A short list of every way the plan can be gamed: pay on gross billing, no clawback, a cliff, a count-based bonus, split credit. Each gets a line on how it would show up in the records.
Result: Finished when you can name, for each loophole, the report that would catch it.
The signals sheet
Returns, cancellations, complaints and altered or unsigned documents, by rep and by month, taken from your books and order files by the accountant.
Result: Finished when the owner has read the March and September rows and asked about every spike.
The revised incentive plan
The plan with a clawback rule, a collections or secondary-sales link, and one customer-care measure added. Written so a rep can work out their own payout.
Result: Finished when two reps can each calculate a payout from the page without asking.
The target conversation note
What the owner will say to the team about why targets changed and what is not allowed, with the date it was said.
Result: Finished when every rep has heard the reasoning from the owner, not through a WhatsApp forward.
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every later report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No guarantees we cannot keep
The term is agreed in writing and never a default twelve months. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
Your brief
Tell us what you need, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps about your business, what you want and who decides. Most questions are a tap, and you can skip any you would rather answer on the call.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Our team is small and honest. Is this necessary?
What is channel stuffing?
Can we add a clawback to an existing plan?
Should customer measures really carry money?
How often do we repeat the check?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
How soon will we see results?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
Where to go next
The work that carries this topic further.
The rest of legal and ethical issues
Or read all of sales management.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.