It can feel a little odd to even write this title. It’s a bit like asking, “Why should engineers have decent equipment?” If you have to ask the question, the answer is often already included.

The short version is simple: if you don’t offer commission, you will struggle to attract strong sales talent, and if you do hire someone, they are unlikely to perform at the level you want.

That said, this question comes up more often than you’d expect, especially from founders hiring their first salesperson, or businesses trying to build a culture that doesn’t feel overly aggressive or sales driven. So it’s worth addressing properly.

What do we mean by “Salespeople”?

Let’s start with one key clarification. When I say “salespeople”, I mean real salespeople.

Not someone processing inbound orders, and not someone helping customers complete a purchase they were already going to make.

I mean someone whose job is to create revenue where none existed before. The type of salesperson who has to explain value, navigate decision makers, handle objections, stay resilient through rejection, and win deals against competitors.

In this world, a great salesperson can outperform an average one by a factor of ten, and that difference matters.

Commission Attracts Performance (And Filters for It)

Employers often ask why salespeople need commission at all. Why can’t they simply be paid like other professionals, on salary alone, with longer term incentives?

The simplest way to think about it is this.

Imagine you are a high performing salesperson. You know you can generate significant revenue in the right role. Company A offers commission, and if you deliver what you know you can deliver, you can earn a strong total package.

Company B offers no commission “for cultural reasons”, and instead offers a flat salary.

Which role would you choose?

Now imagine you are not a high performer. You would struggle to hit targets, and in a commission driven environment, you wouldn’t last long. But in a low pressure, no incentive environment, you might survive.

Again, which role would you choose?

Commission doesn’t just attract performance, it filters for it.

Sales is Competitive Work, Incentives Matter

Employers sometimes ask why sales culture needs to be different from engineering, product, or operations.

The answer is simple. Most engineers enjoy building things, many would still code outside of work. Salespeople do not sell B2B services or enterprise solutions for fun.

Sales is competitive work, and competitiveness is the key ingredient in a high performing sales organisation.

To succeed in sales, you must outsell alternatives. The competition may be another provider, an internal project, a budget freeze, or the hardest competitor of all, the customer doing nothing. At the end of the day, sales is a fight for attention, urgency, and trust.

So how do you get the most effort, energy, and drive out of a sales function?

You offer a prize. As the boxing saying goes, “This is prize fighting. No prize, no fight.” Commission is the prize.

What Happens Without Commission?

Without clear performance based pay, sales teams drift into the wrong behaviours. If you are not evaluating salespeople on what they sell, what are you evaluating them on?

Getting along well internally? Talking a good game? Being visible in meetings?

Politics replaces performance, and salespeople can spot that immediately.

The best salespeople don’t want to work in environments where reward is subjective. They want clarity, they want numbers, and they want a system where output matters.

When a founder says, “We don’t do commission because of culture”, many salespeople hear, “We don’t want objective measures, we want discretion.”

That is rarely attractive to top performers.

Commission Doesn’t Create a Bad Culture, Poor Structure Does

Some employers avoid commission because they worry it creates the wrong environment. But commission itself is not the issue. A badly designed plan is.

Healthy commission structures reward sustainable revenue, good customer outcomes, long term value, and team contribution. A good plan motivates without encouraging aggressive behaviour.

Before innovating on sales compensation, it’s worth understanding why commission has existed for so long. It isn’t just tradition, it’s alignment.

If you want high performance, you need a system that rewards it clearly.

What Does a Normal Commission Structure Look Like in the UK?

For most small and mid sized businesses hiring salespeople in 2026, the standard structure looks like this:

A base salary that provides security
Commission that rewards performance
A clear On Target Earnings (OTE) number

A very common split is 50/50:

• 50 percent base salary

• 50 percent variable commission

For example:

Base salary: £40,000
Commission (at target): £40,000
OTE: £80,000

Commission is usually tied to:

• New revenue generated
• Monthly or quarterly targets
• Margin or deal quality (in some cases)

For early stage businesses hiring their first salesperson, simplicity is key. The best plans are:

• Easy to understand
• Directly linked to outcomes
• Motivating, but fair

A good salesperson should always be able to see a clear path between effort, performance, and reward.

In sales, incentives matter, and what happens without them is very predictable.