The Sales Compensation Show

When go-to-market priorities shift, RevOps and sales compensation either move in lockstep or the field feels the friction.  In this episode, Forma.ai CEO Nabeil Alazzam is joined by Boomi’s Tim Cole, VP of Revenue Operations, and Taylor Stone, Director of Global Sales Compensation to discuss the must-haves for a high performing org and how they pull this off in execution together. It’s the first time the show brings together RevOps and sales compensation leaders from the same organization, offering a connected perspective at both sides of the operating model — from seller support and communication to recognition and faster program execution. Together, Taylor, Tim and Nabeil explore: why compensation support is too important to treat like back-office overhead how underinvesting in seller support creates downstream risk and lost selling time and why faster incentive rollouts can succeed when communication and support are handled well.  They also unpack why recognition often shapes seller behavior more powerfully than compensation alone, how strong internal teams are built, and why leaders need to think more holistically about headcount, incentives, and business outcomes. Throughout, Tim and Taylor share practical lessons from Boomi’s evolution — everything from launching programs faster than expected, to thinking big picture about the role support plays in seller productivity and performance. The Sales Compensation Show is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

How should you be leading RevOps when the business is moving fast, the field is fatigued, and compensation is expected to keep up? In this episode of The Sales Compensation Show, Nabeil Alazzam sits down with Edie Cagle, VP of Global Revenue Operations at SAS, for a candid conversation about the operational and leadership realities that sit underneath sales compensation strategy. Together, the two explore what RevOps leaders are really up against when organizations go through meaningful change. They discuss why change fatigue is often underestimated, why incentives cannot fix a weak go-to-market strategy, and why influence in RevOps depends on more than data alone. The conversation also gets into one of the most debated questions in sales compensation: where comp should sit in the organization. This episode is especially relevant for sales compensation leaders, RevOps executives, sales operations professionals, and anyone responsible for turning strategy into seller behavior at scale. In this episode: Why change management is a core RevOps responsibility Why incentives won’t rescue a broken go-to-market strategy What RevOps often gets wrong about influence How to balance governance, fairness, and flexibility What SAS learned about where compensation should sit Why global consistency still needs local context The Sales Compensation Show is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Betsy Matthies, VP of Global Revenue Operations & Enablement at GitHub, is a sales-to-RevOps leader who builds comp plans that change behavior. She discusses redesigning incentives into three clear buckets, avoiding complexity bloat, and why change management and stakeholder buy-in matter. Betsy also shares her hot take on AI’s role when data is clean.

Netflix is best known for entertainment—but behind the scenes, it’s a company built to move fast. This mindset shows up in places most people never get to see, including how Netflix designs sales incentive compensation while the ads side of its business evolves.In this episode of The Sales Compensation Show, Forma.ai CEO Nabeil Alazzam sits down with Nathan Rosas, Director of Global Sales Incentive Compensation at Netflix. Nathan brings a rare vantage point on different cultures and operating models having built compensation programs across Microsoft, Amazon, and now Netflix.Together, the two explore how senior Sales Comp and RevOps leaders can join forces to build incentive programs that land cleanly and keep pace with change, even when balancing the relational work involved with stakeholders across the org.In this episode, you’ll learn:Nathan's view on incentive “playbooks” having limits (and the importance of designing plans that feel native to your company’s culture)How Nathan prioritizes listening mechanisms across leadership, managers, and reps to catch frictionHow Netflix avoids complexity creep and why simplicity can be a deliberate, strategic choice in dynamic environments How to create manager ownership in your org so plans motivate as “how we win,” not “what we were given”Netflix’s operating principle of being data-informed vs. data-driven and what this means in practiceNathan's take on the comp leader’s real superpower as the context engine around the full business pictureThe Sales Compensation Show is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode of The Sales Compensation Show podcast, host Nabeil Alazzam sits down with Sid Ganguly, Director, Global Compensation & Head of Sales Incentive Design at Expedia Group, for a candid conversation on what actually holds up in incentive design at enterprise scale.The two discuss the messy reality of balancing simplicity, fairness, and strategic alignment—without drifting into “14,000 sellers = 14,000 plans” chaos.What you’ll hear in this episode:Why “equitable” doesn’t mean endlessly custom—and how too much nuance can fracture executionThe “one ship” alignment test: ensuring pay-for-performance reinforces the company’s strategic directionWhy comp is ultimately a trust system (and how complexity dilutes it)A thought exercise on dynamic, personalized incentives at scale—and what changes once AI is deeply embedded and the data foundation existsBook recommendation: Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David GraeberThe Sales Compensation Show is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Sales comp plans are usually the first thing to get blamed when growth stalls because it’s where every upstream issue becomes painfully visible: messy territories, unclear roles, uneven segmentation, and misaligned sales motions. In this episode, Nabeil Alazzam sits down with Kaleb Carter, the Director of Sales Compensation – FP&A at Trustpilot, to unpack a more durable approach. That is — stop tinkering with comp plans and start fixing the connected system that produces comp outcomes in the first place.Kaleb sees modern sales compensation as behavior architecture—a strategic function that translates GTM strategy into consistent, coachable actions. He shares a repeatable diagnostic method for when stakeholders say “the comp plan is broken,” and why chasing a mathematically perfect plan (especially with AI) is a trap if your org’s foundations don’t hold up.The episode is full of practical way Kaleb builds trust, stability, and predictability—without relying on rate increases, SPIFFs, or constant plan changes.In this episode, you’ll learn:Why comp is the output of the GTM system (and how that changes how you lead)How to diagnose compensation complaints using root-cause thinking (versus defensiveness)The AI mistake companies Kaleb sees companies will keep making in incentive design—and how to avoid itWhy you can’t design “fair” comp without addressing performance variabilityHow to earn trusted-advisor influence with executives through clear cause-and-effect narrativesResources Kaleb mentions:Kim Scott — Radical Candor (leadership framework for high-trust, high-clarity conversations)Peter Drucker (management thinker influencing Kaleb’s leadership philosophy)The Sales Compensation Show is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Imagine stepping into a new role leading sales compensation and within twenty days, the entire sales org gets paid wrong. That was Gavin Tapper’s “welcome” to this niche space—and it was this high-stakes experience that was a catalyst in shaping him into a global sales compensation leader today. In this episode, Gavin joins Nabeil Alazzam (Founder & CEO of Forma.ai) to unpack how he turned an 18-month payout crisis, years of plan changes, and countless stakeholder debates into durable playbooks he's used to lead compensation at global orgs. Listen in for insights on selling tough plan changes, being "Switzerland" as a sales comp leader, hot takes on attainment data, and what a 1,000-mile bike ride taught Gavin about transformation.🔍 In this episode, you’ll learn:How an inherited system failure that mispaid an entire global sales org became the foundation of Gavin’s approach to sales comp.The three simple levers Gavin uses to diagnose any comp issueWhy operational trust matters more than elegant plan design.How the “Mosaic” metaphor helped secure buy-in for a significant, complex plan change at SKO.How to push sales leaders to think in trade-offs instead of wish lists.Why attainment data becomes dangerous when used without context—and how to cut it differently for costing, club, and talent decisions.And much more!Resources mentioned:Kepner-Tregoe – The New Rational Manager (problem solving & decision making)Eliyahu Goldratt – It’s Not Luck (follow-up to The Goal)Stafford Beer – Diagnosing the System for OrganizationsSimon Sinek – Find Your WhyCliftonStrengths (Gallup)Insights / Color Profiles for stakeholder communicationThe Sales Compensation Show is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode of The Sales Compensation Show, global sales compensation expert Stephen Long joins Forma.ai CEO Nabeil Alazzam to unpack what really breaks inside sales compensation plans—long before a single payout runs.They dig into how unclear end goals, weak data infrastructure, and rushed quotas quietly erode trust, invite gaming, and push reps to work around the plan instead of through it. Stephen shares practical patterns from decades in global sales comp, plus concrete examples of redesigning incentives around contract “health,” not just top line numbers.Resources MentionedBooksThe Elements of Sales Compensation – Jerry Colletti, Mary Fiss, Scott SandsA sales compensation book by Dave Cichelli (referenced by Stephen; title not mentioned in the episode)Organizations & SitesForma.ai – The AI-powered sales performance management platform and host of The Sales Compensation Show podcastWorldatWork – professional association with sales compensation resources and educationIf you enjoy the show, don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a fellow sales compensation leader.The Sales Compensation Show is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

In this episode, Forma.ai CEO Nabeil Alazzam sits down with Les Reif, Senior Director of Sales Compensation at Rogers Communications, for a deep dive into how Rogers designs, governs, and operates sales comp inside one of Canada’s largest telcos.Les shares how he moved into sales comp through data, and why he still sees the function as a business-and-data translation engine more than a pure “math problem.” From there, they walk through how his team balances optionality vs. complexity, keeps stakeholders aligned, and builds a high-performing comp organization in an environment full of legacy systems and constant change.🔎 In this episode, you’ll learn:Why sales compensation is really a data and definition problem, not just calculationHow Rogers balances flexibility vs. complexity and avoids 50+ plan variantsWhen changing the comp plan isn’t the right first move—even when performance is offHow Les structures governance and sign-off across Sales, Finance, and HRThe rollout tactics that actually build rep trust (roadshows, first-paycheck comms, escalation forums)Why the real differentiator in sales comp is people, not tools—and what he looks for when hiringWhether you lead Sales Comp, RevOps, or Sales Ops, this is a rare inside look at how a national carrier runs its comp engine—and a chance to benchmark your own approach against an enterprise at serious scale.💡 About the show The Sales Compensation Show brings you in-depth conversations with the leaders shaping how modern revenue teams design incentives, drive performance, and support go-to-market strategy.Powered by Forma.ai — the data-first, AI-powered sales performance management platform that connects territories, quotas, and incentives on a single foundation.The Sales Compensation Show is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

What if the very thing you use to motivate sellers is unintentionally distorting behavior? In this episode Barracuda’s Director of Sales Compensation, Ryan Farber, joins host Nabeil Alazzam to pressure-test sales incentives—then rethink or offer up pragmatic models and guardrails. The two get into intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation, exponential vs. logarithmic pay curves, what comp plans simply can’t replace, and how to fix segmentation, pricing, and delivery so the plan stops getting blamed for upstream problems. The episode closes with a peek at adaptive, deal-level incentives powered by cleaner data.Listen in for real quotes, usable frameworks, and a debate that lands in a place with ideas you can actually ship.Host: Nabeil Alazzam, CEO @ Forma.ai Guest: Ryan Farber, Director, Sales Compensation @ BarracudaResources mentionedPunished by Rewards — Alfie KohnThe New Human Rights Movement — Peter JosephChapters00:05 – Ryan’s hot take: “Are comp plans actually driving growth?” Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation11:00 – The trouble with “Let the plan weed people out” (Re: leadership avoidance)17:50 – What elite sellers really optimize for32:08 – Pay curves: exponential (x²), logarithmic, and thoughts on a hybrid40:47 – Private aviation lesson: operations, price perception, and the experience reps sell46:13 – Segmentation by buying motion (not company size)50:12 – Book recs and resourcesThe Sales Compensation Show is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so