I Am So Full I Can’t Take One More Bite

If you have young kids, chances are at some point you have seen your 5 or 10 year-old sit and stare at their dinner that they don’t want to eat hoping that no one is going to “make” them eat it.

If you tell them to eat their dinner and you may just hear this excuse:

Dad, I am so full I can’t take one more bite.

And then the games begin. Some parents yell. Some firmly tell. Some threaten. Some bribe. Some just hope. Some ignore. Some negotiate.

All of these reactions could be considered attempts to motivate the child to just plain eat their dinner.

Translate this to compensation systems at companies.

Is there anything you can do to combat the 2-4-6-8 problem found running rampant in a sales department near you?

Yes.

You can restructure the compensation system.

And if you do it right, when someone on your team tells you that they are so full that they can’t take one more bite, your compensation system will kick in and you won’t have to tell them to eat their dinner . The incentives will be in place that they will want to eat their dinner (or more) because they get rewarded at an increasing rate for each additional bite they take.

Just a few bullet points of a system that combats the 2-4-6-8 problem:

• First, pick revenue number that is expected for an average performance
• Second, pick a number as to what that performance pays
• Third, build an S curve going up on one side that increases at an increasing rate and an S curve going down on the opposite side that decreases at an increasing rate – all the way to zero on the downside and infinity on the upside
• Tweak as needed

Sit back and watch people try to gorge themselves because no one is so full they can’t take one more bite.