Beyond the Quota: How to Motivate a Sales Team in 2025
- Jefrey Gomez
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
Ask any sales leader what drives their team, and they'll likely give you a one-word answer: "the quota." It's the bedrock of sales management, a tool so old and ingrained in our culture that we rarely stop to question if it’s still the right one.
But we should. In a world where we want our teams to build long-term, trust-based relationships, why are we still paying them based on a frantic, 30-day scramble to hit a number? In an economy built on customer retention, why is our main incentive tied only to the initial signature on a contract?
The sales quota isn't just an old tool; for many modern businesses, it’s a broken one. And it’s quietly encouraging the very behaviour we claim we want to stop.
The Three Poisons of a Quota-Only Culture
On the surface, quotas seem like a straightforward way to drive performance. But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find they can poison your culture and your customer relationships.
It Rewards Bad Deals. When the only thing that matters is hitting a number by the end of the month, the pressure to close anything becomes immense. The end-of-quarter push becomes a frantic game of ‘get the signature, any signature.’ This leads to salespeople pushing deals on customers who aren't a good fit, resulting in high churn rates, early cancellations, and a damaged reputation down the line.
It Kills Teamwork. Individual quotas, by their very nature, create internal competition. A salesperson might hoard a good lead or refuse to pass a prospect to a colleague who is a better fit, because they don't want to lose the commission. It creates a team of mercenaries, not collaborators, and your customer experience suffers for it.
It Burns Out Your Best People. The relentless, high-stakes pressure of a monthly or quarterly target is exhausting. Even your top performers get tired of living on a hamster wheel where their success is reset to zero every 30 days. Many leave not because they can't hit the number, but because they are searching for a role that rewards creating real, sustainable value, not just hitting a short-term target.
The New Playbook: 3 Alternatives to the Quota
If the traditional quota is a broken tool, what should replace it? Forward-thinking companies are already moving towards models that reward the behaviours that lead to sustainable growth.
1. The Customer Success Model: Pay for Happy Customers.
Instead of a one-time commission when a deal is signed, this model ties sales incentives to the long-term health of the customer relationship. Imagine if a salesperson’s bonus was tied to the customer’s renewal rate after year one, or their product usage metrics. This is what companies like Atlassian do. It fundamentally changes the salesperson's mindset from, "Can I get them to sign?" to, "Is this customer a good long-term fit for us?"
2. The Team-Based Model: Win Together, Get Paid Together.
To break down the silos that individual quotas create, you need to change the incentives. Many businesses are shifting to team-based goals. This could be a bonus based on a regional team's overall success, or even a company-wide profit-sharing model. When the team's success is your success, you stop hoarding leads and start actively helping your colleagues win. It's the philosophy that helped companies like Spotify popularise the "squad" model, where teams own an outcome together.
3. The Mastery Model: Reward Skills, Not Just Numbers.
This is a more radical, but powerful, shift. What if career progression and pay were tied to skill development, not just hitting a number? This model rewards reps for earning new product certifications, becoming expert mentors for junior staff, or maintaining a consistently high customer satisfaction score on their accounts. It focuses on building better, more capable salespeople, which is a long-term investment in your company's success. It’s the kind of philosophy that drove Shopify's early growth—they focused on building a system that truly helped their merchants succeed, knowing that the revenue would inevitably follow.
It's Time for a Braver Approach
For a hundred years, the quota has been the easy answer to the complex question of sales motivation. But ‘easy’ is no longer good enough. Building a modern sales organisation requires a more thoughtful approach—one that rewards creating genuine value, encourages teamwork, and supports the long-term growth of both your customers and your people.
The question for leaders in 2025 isn't whether the traditional quota system is perfect. The question is whether it's still fit for purpose in a world that values relationships over transactions. It's time to have the courage to look beyond it.