It’s critical for platform companies and PE-backed businesses to stay ahead of revenue risk as teams combine. Don’t wait for full system integration to align compensation. Use this checklist to guide compensation alignment during the early phase of integration.
Weeks 1–2: Stabilize and Assess
- Confirm ownership of integration-related comp planning (Sales Ops, Finance, HR).
- Inventory comp plans across both companies. Identify key differences.
- Identify revenue goals tied to the deal thesis (e.g., attach rate, expansion, cross-sell).
- Audit whether current incentives support those goals.
- Flag any known territory or quota conflicts.
Weeks 3–6: Close Gaps and Communicate
- Build a Compensation Gap Map showing misalignment between current plans and integration goals.
- Create interim incentives (e.g., SPIFFs) tied to integration-critical behaviors.
- Define short-term rules for credit splits, joint selling, and quota impact.
- Prepare a FAQ and rollout plan for comp communications.
- Align first KPI metrics to integration-linked incentives (e.g., cross-sell pipeline creation).
Weeks 7–12: Track, Adjust, and Plan Forward
- Launch interim incentives and track adoption and payout performance.
- Monitor behavior change weekly (e.g., cross-functional selling, product mix).
- Use sales manager feedback to refine rollout.
- Begin modeling harmonized long-term comp plan, aligned to new GTM structure.
- Set milestone for full comp alignment or integration of CRM/forecasting systems.
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