Creating a Deal Participation Incentive

Step 1. Details

Here you set the foundation of the incentive.

• Name → Give your incentive a clear, descriptive name (e.g., “Q3 SaaS Deal Commission” or “New Business Team – 2025 Plan”).

• Schedule → Choose how often this incentive applies (monthly, quarterly, yearly, or custom).

• Start/End Date → Define the active period of the plan. Add an end date for temporary pilots or leave open-ended for recurring structures.

• Credit Type → Choose how credit is assigned (e.g., individual, leadership, team credit).

💡 Best Practice: Consider monthly schedules to calculate earnings short termed.

Step 2. Beneficiaries

Here you select who will be compensated by this incentive.

• Add individual users, teams, or teamleads.

Step 3. Reference

This determines which deals are eligible for commission.

• Reference Stages → Choose pipeline stages that trigger commission eligibility (e.g., Closed-Won)

• Date field reference → Choose a specific timestamp of your connected CRM to trigger eligibility.

• Zoho CRM Only: Include Deals Without Pipeline → Optional, for cases where not all deals are pipeline-driven.

• Owner Field → Decide which CRM field determines deal ownership.

💡 Best Practice: Only use Date fields as a reference for eligibility, if this date is not used for forecasting.

Step 4. Earnings

This defines how much commission is paid.

• Commissioned Value → Select which deal field drives commission (e.g., Deal Amount, ARR, MRR, Gross Margin).

• Iterations → Decide if the commission is a one-time payout or spread over multiple periods (useful for subscription businesses).

• Base Commission % → Enter the commission rate (e.g., 5% of deal value).

💡 Best Practice:

• For SaaS companies, consider using ARR or MRR instead of deal amount to align earnings with long-term revenue.

• For high-margin businesses, commission on gross margin ensures reps prioritize profitable deals.

Step 5. Adjustments

Adjustments let you fine-tune compensation based on deal attributes or performance.

• By Deal Field → Example: Pay higher commission for strategic accounts, lower for discounts >20%.

• By Target Attainment → Example: Increase rate once rep achieves 100% of quota (accelerators).

💡 Best Practice: Use adjustments to drive desired behaviors:

• Higher rate for multi-year contracts.

• Lower rate for heavily discounted deals.

• Accelerators (e.g., 5% base → 8% once quota is hit).

Step 6. Payout

Define when and how commissions are paid.

• Payout Schedule → Choose when payouts occur (monthly, quarterly, etc.).

• Eligibility Rules → Example: Pay 50% on contract signature and 50% on first invoice paid.

💡 Best Practice:

• To protect against churn, many SaaS companies pay partial upfront and the rest after X months of retention.

• Align payout timing with revenue recognition for accounting accuracy.

Key Takeaways

• Deal Participation = simple and powerful → ties effort to reward directly.

• Use adjustments strategically → to protect margins and reward high-value behavior.

• Align payouts with reality → consider revenue recognition, cash flow, and churn risk.

• Keep it clear → the simpler and more transparent your rules, the more motivating they are.