Sales compensation is one of the more complex levers in a cleaning company's growth story. Get it right, and it drives profitable, lasting customer relationships. Get it wrong, and your team will chase down the biggest contract instead of the right one — or worse, spend more time debating commission math than selling.
We sat down with Alan Butcher, chief revenue officer for Dynamond Building Services, to understand what separates a bonus plan that works from one that becomes an entitlement. He shares his thoughts on how smaller and mid-sized companies can balance rewarding top performers with protecting margins and why pay alone will never substitute for real leadership and culture.
When designing bonus and commission plans, what helps ensure incentives drive the right behaviors and business outcomes?
The key is making sure your compensation plan aligns with your company's business objectives. Incentives should reward the behaviors and results that create long-term value, not just short-term wins. For a sales organization, that means rewarding profitable growth and customer retention, not simply the largest contract or the most revenue.
A sales compensation plan should encourage the behaviors you want repeated. If your goal is to build long-term, profitable customer relationships, then your incentives need to reinforce those outcomes. The best sales compensation plans don't just motivate people to close deals — they motivate them to build customers who stay. Long-term customer relationships are almost always worth more than short-term sales wins.
What motivates employees beyond compensation? How does this impact engagement and retention?
Money gets people in the door, but purpose, recognition, growth, and solid leadership are what keep them from leaving.
People need to know their work actually matters. They want to sharpen their skills, see a path forward, and get recognized when they deliver. More than anything, they want to trust the people leading them and see how their daily effort fits into the bigger picture.
When you build a strong culture, engagement goes up and turnover drops. Paychecks don't create loyalty; feeling valued and having room to grow does. That’s what keeps a team committed when things get tough.
Salespeople also want to know they're making a difference. They want coaching, recognition, opportunities to grow, and confidence that leadership will support them when they're pursuing the right opportunities.
What’s your advice for smaller to mid-sized companies that might struggle to balance rewarding top performers with maintaining profitability?
Don’t look at incentives as an expense — they're an investment. A solid bonus plan should pay for itself by driving higher output, better retention, or cleaner margins. If an incentive isn't tied to a clear, measurable outcome, it quickly turns into an entitlement.
I've seen companies create commission plans with so many exceptions, bonuses, accelerators, and penalties that the sales team spends more time calculating commissions than selling. Simplicity wins.
As a company grows, how should its compensation strategy evolve?
When you’re small, discretionary bonuses and a high-five work fine. But as you grow, that informal approach starts looking like favoritism, and fairness gets lost.
As companies grow, sales compensation also needs to encourage teamwork. Sales, operations, customer service, and finance all play a role in keeping customers, so incentive plans should reinforce collaboration instead of creating competing priorities. You need to make sure that sales isn’t “throwing deals over the fence” for operations to deal with.
What separates companies that successfully scale from those that plateau, particularly when it comes to managing and motivating their workforce?
Companies that successfully scale don't rely on one superstar salesperson. They build repeatable sales processes, invest in training, and develop managers who can coach others to succeed.
Anything else to add?
The biggest mistake you can make is relying on money to do the heavy lifting of management.
Pay matters, but nobody stays long-term just for a bonus structure. They stay because they trust leadership, see room to grow, and know their work is noticed. Comp plans shouldn't try to replace strong leadership and culture — they should reinforce them. When your pay, leadership, and standards all point in the same direction, you build a team that doesn't just show up but actually helps drive the business forward.
A commission plan shouldn't motivate salespeople to sell more; it should motivate them to sell the right business.