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Sales Comp Plan Designer & Cost Simulator

Most comp plan debates happen with a spreadsheet nobody trusts and a gut feeling about "affordability." This tool runs the actual maths: it takes your team's quota mix and a realistic spread of attainment across the team, then prices out up to three plan designs — base/variable split, accelerator, payout cap — against the exact same team. You get total plan cost, cost as a % of the revenue that team generates, a payout histogram showing where people actually land, and a side-by-side comparison so you can see what a richer accelerator or a lower base really costs before you commit to it.

Your numbers

Team & quota mix
Quota-carrying reps on the plan
e.g. under 6 months tenure
Remainder is treated as Core
Assumed attainment mix (whole team)
Doesn't need to total 100 — normalised automatically
Plan A
1.0 = no accelerator, 2.0 = double rate
0 = uncapped
Plan B
0 = uncapped
Plan C
0 = uncapped
Compare
The cost comparison table below always shows all three plans

Method & assumptions

  • Payout formula: base + variable target × (min(attainment,1) + max(0, attainment−1) × accelerator), capped at the plan's payout cap if one is set — the standard base-plus-accelerated-commission structure used in most B2B/SaaS plans.
  • Attainment bands use representative midpoints (50% / 85% / 110% / 140%) applied uniformly across all segments — real distributions vary by segment, seasonality and tenure.
  • Revenue generated is derived from quota × attainment (not a separate input), so cost-as-%-of-revenue is directly comparable across variants — but the model deliberately holds attainment constant across plan designs. It prices plan cost, it doesn't forecast behavioural response to plan changes.
  • Histogram and comparison figures are modelled shares of the team, not guaranteed outcomes for any individual rep — treat bucket edges as directional, especially for smaller teams.

How to use it

Enter your team's quota mix first — how many reps, and roughly what split between new/ramping, core, and senior/enterprise reps with their annual quotas. Then set the attainment mix you'd realistically expect (the four bands don't need to add to exactly 100%; they're normalised automatically). Fill in up to three plan variants (OTE, base % of OTE, accelerator above 100%, and an optional payout cap) — leave a plan's OTE at 0 to drop it from the comparison. Use the "Show payout histogram for" selector to see where that specific plan lands people on pay, and check the comparison table underneath to see all filled-in variants costed side by side against the same team.

For enablement leaders

Make the layer underneath this measurable.

Tools like this describe good practice. They can't tell you which of your reps actually have the skill, or in what order to build it. That's what The Mastery Standard does: 27 frameworks, 54 competencies, every rubric cell written, every assessment human-signed-off.

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