Sales commission structure examples
Seven structures with worked numbers. Most of them use the same rep so the comparison is fair: $150,000 OTE, $90,000 base, $1.2M annual quota, which comes to a 5% rate against a $100,000 monthly quota. Every example opens in the free calculator.
1. Flat rate
One rate on everything: 10% of a $60,000 month is $6,000, and that's the plan. Agencies, transactional sales and small teams use it because a rep can check their own pay in their head. The trade-off is that a $60,000 month and a $120,000 month pay the same rate, so nothing in the plan pushes anyone past quota.
2. OTE-derived quota plan
The B2B default. Set the pay first, splitting OTE into base and variable, then let the quota set the rate: $60,000 of variable over a $1.2M quota is 5%, and hitting quota pays the OTE exactly. The how-to-calculate guide works through the derivation.
3. Tiered rates with accelerators
The quota plan with a raise past 100%: dollars above the boundary pay the base rate times a multiplier. At 1.5×, a $130,000 month pays $5,000 on the first $100,000 and $2,250 on the rest, so $7,250 against the $6,500 a flat rate gives. Worth adding once reps clear quota regularly, since the extra cost only applies to revenue above the number. Keep an eye on the top band, because a 3× tier can push cost of sale back up in a rep's best month.
4. Milestone kickers
A one-time bonus for crossing a threshold, usually a percentage of monthly variable comp: a 10% kicker at 100% pays this rep $500 the moment quota lands. They stack with tiers and are cheap to model, but they create a cliff. The gap between 99% and 100% is now worth $500, and deal timing at the end of the month will reflect that.
5. Guaranteed floor
A minimum monthly payout regardless of attainment, usually for new hires: $2,500 a month while the pipeline builds. Unlike a recoverable draw, a floor isn't owed back later, which makes it simpler to run and easier to recruit against. Set it too high, or leave it in place too long, and you're just paying more salary.
6. Capped commission
A ceiling on the monthly payout, $12,000 here. Finance likes caps because worst-case comp spend becomes a known number, and reps dislike them for the same reason: a rep who hits the cap in week three has a reason to hold deals until next month. If you use one, set it high enough that reaching it is unusual.
7. Per-unit plans
SDRs get paid on booked meetings rather than revenue, and the OTE arithmetic doesn't change: $80,000 OTE on a $55,000 base over a 15-meeting monthly target works out to $138.89 a meeting. Attainment, accelerators and kickers all apply to the count the same way they apply to dollars.
Picking one
Match the structure to the sales motion. Short cycles and high volume suit a flat rate; a quota-carrying AE team usually ends up on an OTE-derived plan with one or two accelerator tiers; SDRs go on units. The comp plan templates fill six of these in with real numbers by role, and say why each one is built the way it is.
Run one of these for real
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