← Every exhibit
The compensation diagnosis
A quota result becomes diagnosable when the plan, opportunity set, coverage, mix, timing, interface, and outcome are visible as separate objects.
| Diagnostic row | Object to inspect | Evidence that would support the diagnosis | What remains unproven without it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plan | Quota basis, credit rules, thresholds, accelerators, caps, clawbacks, and payout timing | The written plan and a payout simulation show which behaviour is rewarded | That the plan was reachable or that the observed behaviour was irrational |
| Opportunity load | Usable leads, active opportunities, buying window, and selling hours | A dated opportunity ledger separates volume from qualification and available time | That more CRM records created more capacity |
| Coverage | Territory, account ownership, whitespace, travel, service burden, and route conflict | The same boundary and coverage rule are visible before and after the period | That a thin territory is a representative execution problem |
| Mix | Segment, deal size, margin, lead source, new versus existing account, and win conditions | A mix bridge shows whether the opportunity composition changed | That the attainment percentage is comparable across periods or people |
| Timing | Fiscal boundary, approval path, booking versus revenue recognition, and next-period realization | Current-period and following-period records reveal pull-in, push-out, or persistence | That a period-end spike was caused by plan gaming |
| Interface | Qualification, handoff, ownership, response time, and disposition | Sales and marketing records can be joined without changing the definition midstream | That lead volume or follow-up is a one-function responsibility |
| Outcome | Quota attainment plus bookings, margin, retention, and customer result | The outcome is named, dated, and compared with a credible baseline | That the quota alone measures commercial value |
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Reference & Evidence
Source: Author's framework grounded in Sabnis et al. (2013), Oyer (1998), Malshe et al. (2017), and Biemans et al. (2022). The table is not a measured scorecard or a universal compensation formula.
Each line is a claim from the register this journal publishes against, resolved from the register at build time.
- A The sample, from the paper: "we received 562 surveys for a response rate of" 21.08%, "we retained 500 usable responses", and the analysis uses "data from 461 sales reps from four firms". The 70% in the same abstract is guarded by FUN-X1 and never travels with this row Sabnis et al. (2013) ·
SCCL13-C1 - A The compensation context, verbatim: "The compensation schemes in all four firms were based primarily on quota achievement, commissions, and bonuses for top-line sales", and "no component explicitly rewarded following up on marketing leads" Sabnis et al. (2013) ·
SCCL13-C2 - A "the proportion of time that sales reps devote to marketing leads depends on organizational lead prequalification and managerial tracking processes", alongside motivation, lead volume, experience and ability Sabnis et al. (2013) ·
SCCL13-C3 - A Managerial tracking works the wrong way round, and the authors say so: they had argued it "would signal the importance that the managers place on lead follow-up and thus increase follow-up of marketing leads; however, our results show an opposite effect", b = −.89, p < .05. Prequalification quality runs the expected way, b = .64 Sabnis et al. (2013) ·
SCCL13-C4 - A Time allocation is the mechanism: "the proportion of time that sales reps devote to marketing leads depends on organizational lead prequalification" Sabnis et al. (2013) ·
SCCL13-C5 - A Nonlinear pay gives salespeople and executives "incentive to manipulate prices, influence the timing of customer purchases, and vary effort over their firms' fiscal years" oyer-1998-fiscal-year-ends ·
OYER98-C1 - A The seasonality result, in the author's words: "I find that fiscal-year timing influences the seasonality of business in most manufacturing" industries, identified because "I can separately identify the calendar and fiscal-year seasonality of revenue and prices" oyer-1998-fiscal-year-ends ·
OYER98-C2 - A The panel, verbatim: "A total of 31,936 quarterly observations are available, covering 981 manufacturers", and the data "cover firms' 1985 to 1993 fiscal years" oyer-1998-fiscal-year-ends ·
OYER98-C4 - A The author bounds his own result: "This analysis is not meant to determine the optimal compensation plan, to esti"mate structural parameters or to establish an indisputable causal relationship, and "the evidence on the link between incentive contracts and fiscal-year effects is circum"stantial oyer-1998-fiscal-year-ends ·
OYER98-C5 - A The design and its reach, verbatim: "42 participants in 21 sales-marketing dyads across multiple levels from a variety of B2B industries". Qualitative, so it is a pattern and not a rate Malshe, Johnson & Viio. (2017) ·
MJV17-C1 - A "Findings reveal that the same dysfunction may trigger vastly different sensemaking processes" in the two functions, and "sales and marketing personnel view the interface dysfunctions as following a" bidirectional rather than a sequential pattern Malshe, Johnson & Viio. (2017) ·
MJV17-C2 - A The review's own count: "we identify 73 articles" about the sales-marketing interface, published 1990 through 2021 Biemans, Malshe & Johnson. (2022) ·
BMJ22-C1 - A The coding scheme, in the review's words: "structural linkages refer to the horizontal platforms or interaction" channels established for interdepartmental activity, alongside role linkages, interactions and perceptions Biemans, Malshe & Johnson. (2022) ·
BMJ22-C2 - B A quota miss should be diagnosed across plan, opportunity load, coverage, mix, timing, interface, and outcome before it is attributed to a representative Author framework, stated in Brief - B01 compensation diagnosis ·
B01-C1 - B Compensation is an intervention on time allocation and transaction timing, not a neutral scoreboard Author framework, stated in Brief - B01 compensation diagnosis ·
B01-C2
Grades: A, verified against the printed page of the primary source · B, primary source, text layer only · C, authoritative secondary · D, reported.
Related exhibits
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The quota-parent matrix
From the essay Quota attainment has more than one parent
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From measured object to outcome check
From the essay Gross margin is not contribution margin
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The synthetic marketing-to-sales handoff contract
From the essay What is a marketing-to-sales handoff? The interface where attribution breaks