• January 12, 2017

The 5 Reactions You Have To Your New Comp Plan

Every seasoned sales rep knows that employers change compensation plans regularly. There are few organizations that don’t modify and update their pay plans. Unfortunately, most of the time these changes make it more difficult for salespeople to make more money.

There are a few stages that a salesperson goes through once changes to the compensation plans are announced. If you work in sales, you know these stages all too well. Here they are:

1. Denial

Denial is the first stage of comp plan grief. It’s a coping mechanism to help you avoid facing the fact that you will probably make less money than you were making before. You might be in a state of shock and the world around you isn’t making much sense. You might be wondering how you can possibly go on and continue making calls with these new changes. But as you start to accept the changes, you will begin the healing process and move onto the next stage of comp plan grief.

2. Anger

Anger is a necessary stage in the healing process. Anger at changes to your comp plan is natural, and you should allow yourself to feel it and let it wash over you. The more you allow yourself to be angry, the more it will dissipate and the quicker you can move on. You might be mad at your managers for making the changes, at your coworkers for necessitating the changes, or at yourself for working at the company, but don’t fight the anger; embrace it so you can move on.

3. Bargaining

Bargaining is the next stage of dealing with comp plan grief. When you’re going through this stage, you’ll do anything to get the comp plan changed back to what it was before, including bargaining with management. You want to go back in time and take advantage of what the comp plan once was, even asking yourself “What if” questions in your mind. Bargaining is completely natural, especially for salespeople who are used to bargaining, especially when dealing with comp plan grief.

4. Depression

After bargaining, our attention moves toward our immediate feelings which usually manifest themselves as a depression. It’s depressing to think that it will be much more difficult to make more money with the changes to the comp plan. The depression feels like it will last forever, but it’s only one of the stages. It’s absolutely normal to feel depressed, especially when you know that you’ll probably be working harder to make the same amount of money.

5. Acceptance

Once you’ve gone through all of the other stages, you’ll eventually arrive at acceptance. Acceptance doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll ever be truly “ok” with the new comp plan, but you will accept it and learn how to deal with it. You will adjust to your new normal, and find other ways to game the system to make as much money as possible, because that’s what salespeople do: we figure out how to get around obstacles.