Do SPIFFs work, or do they just teach the team to wait for the next one?
Both, depending on how often you run them. A SPIFF is a tactical lever for a specific short window: a product launch, a stalled segment, a quarter end push. Run one a quarter with a clear metric, live visibility of standings, and payment within days, and you get real lift. Run them constantly and reps start sandbagging deals into the next one, which is exactly the behaviour you were trying to avoid. Two design rules matter more than the amount: never winner takes all, because the other 90 percent check out immediately, and budget it as a percentage of the expected revenue lift so it does not quietly become a permanent line item.
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Honest about the failure modes, sandbagging in anticipation of the next SPIFF, budget creep, and erosion of intrinsic motivation, plus the spacing discipline (one major program a quarter) that keeps them working.
Five design rules worth memorising, including show causality and keep the payout cycle under 60 days, plus a business case method for setting targets from total team cost rather than from wishful top down math.
The numbers you want when arguing about a plan: median commission around 11.5 percent of ACV, AE pay mix near 53:47, quota to OTE median 4.2x, and a median SaaS win rate of 19 percent. Use it to check whether your plan is normal.
A sales leader takes the sceptical side of the question head on: why most contests burn money, and what separates the ones that move a number from the ones that just train people to wait. Short enough to listen to before you design your next one.
