New research from BI WORLDWIDE reveals a persistent gap between what sales teams say motivates them and what drives performance, raising questions about how incentive programmes are designed.
The study, spanning 100 sales leaders and 200 salespeople across EMEA, finds that many organisations continue to base incentives on what employees say they want, often cash rewards, even though behaviour shows other types of incentives are more effective in practice.
This disconnect is having a measurable impact. While 85% of sales leaders believe their incentive programmes motivate their teams, over 30% of salespeople disagree. The gap points to a mismatch between how incentives are designed and how they are received on the ground.
At the heart of the challenge is how motivation is understood. What people say they want is often shaped by instinct or habit, with cash seen as the default answer. Motivation is influenced more strongly by how incentives feel in practice, including whether they feel fair, relevant and personally meaningful.
The data highlights how this disconnect plays out in programme design. Leaders tend to prioritise public recognition, cited by 45% as the most motivating non-cash incentive, while salespeople place greater value on flexibility and experiences, such as travel or exclusive events. This misalignment helps explain why many schemes struggle to land in practice.
BI WORLDWIDE has published a data backed playbook to address the issue, setting out how organisations can close the gap by designing incentives around observed behaviour rather than stated preference.
