Sales Compensation Benchmarks: Insights & Strategies

In 2025, the name of the game is profitability by way of efficiency. 

CaptivateIQ’s benchmarks data indicates that today’s compensation and revenue operations teams are aligning their processes, programs, and plans to reflect these priorities. On average, organizations are following industry best practices to increase efficiency and focus on profitability: 

• Removing unnecessary complexity or distractions from day-to-day priorities, with sellers focused on an average of 2-3 metrics. 
• Aligning with industry standards, such as 60% of sellers reaching attainment. More than one-third of organizations surveyed saw 51-75% of sellers hit their quota last year.
• Incentivizing desired seller behavior, with the average business sticking with a 50/50 split between base pay and variable compensation. 

Yet, there are still areas of opportunity to further optimize the profitability and efficiency of revenue teams. These opportunities include: 

• Continuing to optimize quota attainment to unlock additional profits while keeping sellers motivated and challenged. 
• Leveraging technology to automate manual processes, especially the cumbersome process of payroll. 
• Embracing agility in updating sales compensation plans when company objectives change.
  
  

This benchmarks report highlights key industry metrics to help revenue teams better understand how their incentive compensation programs measure up to norms in the space, uncovering new opportunities for optimizing plans, motivating sellers, and using incentives as a more strategic lever for growth along the way.

Introduction: Profitability and Operating Discipline Take Center Stage in 2025

In 2025, leadership teams are heavily focused on improving operating discipline and profitability. CEOs, for example, are increasingly focused on efficiency and profitability over a growth-at-all-costs mindset. The perceived importance of Earnings increased by eight percentage points between Q1 and Q3 in 2024, from 50% to 58%. 

The emphasis on efficiency is showing up in Go-to-Market (GTM) organizations through an increased focus on revenue operations – this year, revenue operations is in the Top 3 areas of focus, behind only demand generation and customer lifetime value (CLTV).

With all eyes on operational rigor and discipline, it’s important to understand how your sales compensation plans, seller performance, and operational practices measure up to those of other revenue organizations. The findings in this report can help you identify strengths within your sales team and areas of opportunity to further optimize your plans and programs. 

Question 1 of 4: What do sales compensation plans look like at other organizations? 

Most Organizations Continue to Follow a 50/50 Split Between Base and Variable Pay

The majority of our survey respondents follow the industry standard of a 50/50 split between base and variable pay. Some variability suggests organizations may be adjusting risk and reward levers based on a wide range of factors. Revenue leaders often consider the following when choosing the pay mix: 

• Having a competitive compensation plan to attract and retain top talent (compared to similar companies in the same category and region). If expanding globally, for example, you may want to consider how different geographies tend to have different appetites for risk. In fact, The Alexander Group categorized the following three risk tolerances in their 2023 Sales Compensation Trends Survey.

• The influence of the seller on the sale. As the seller’s importance to the sale increases, so does their variable compensation. For example, account executives typically see high variable pay and channel managers tend to receive a higher base pay. 
• Company size, product maturity, market penetration and influence, etc.