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The myth of the lazy salesperson

Writer: Neil Tapinos
Neil Tapinos
Oct 27
4 min read

When a salesperson seems to stop trying, the problem is rarely laziness. It is usually what the plan is telling them to do.


Every sales leader has heard it, and some have said it: "If I left them alone, they would do the bare minimum." It is one of the most durable beliefs in business. The evidence suggests it is usually wrong.


Think about who chooses a sales career. It means income that rises and falls with results, a steady stream of rejection, and evenings and weekends spent chasing the next yes. People who sign up for that are rarely afraid of hard work. They are people who want to be paid for the work they do, and who will work as hard as the reward allows.


That last part is the key. Effort follows the reward, and the reward is set by the plan.


What the research shows

Studies of real sales forces point the same way. Three findings stand out.


  • Effort stops where the reward stops. In a study of salespeople at a large US company over three years, those who were far from their target, or close to a ceiling on their pay, had little reason to work until the next period began. The researchers could predict how much a person would sell for the rest of a quarter from how far they were from target or ceiling. When the company adopted a modified plan that relied less on targets, revenue rose 9% or about US$12 million a year.

  • Caps and ever-rising targets punish success. Research summarised in the Harvard Business Review found that caps on commission hurt sales, and that raising a person's target every time they beat it dampens motivation. The salesperson who works hardest is rewarded with a harder target. Few people would call it lazy to stop.

  • Money is not the whole story. A review of the research points to evidence that heavy, conditional incentives can reduce later effort by crowding out people's own motivation. Another study it describes found that people neglected tasks that carried no incentive. The lesson is not to pay more. It is to know exactly what your plan rewards, and what it quietly discourages.


Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

These studies mostly involve large companies and formal commission plans, so they will not fit every business. And some people really are in the wrong role or industry. But the pattern is consistent enough to change where you look first.


What I heard when I asked

My own MBA research put the question to ten salespeople at a regional sales operation: what would keep you here? It was a small study in one organisation, so it proves nothing general, but it sits badly with the lazy-salesperson idea. Seven of the ten said the commission structure motivated them, and one described the job as running your own business, because "at the end of the month you write your own pay cheque." Asked what would most likely make them leave, nine of the ten named a lack of career growth, and only two named pay. One asked for a small payment when someone narrowly misses target, "to say we do appreciate you bringing so much." These are people who want a route to earn more and to grow, not a way to do less.


Why the myth survives

Partly because what happens looks like laziness. A salesperson who eases off in the second month of a quarter appears to have given up. In fact they are doing the sums, and the sums say more effort will not pay. And partly because "lazy" is a comfortable explanation. It places the problem in the person, and spares us from examining the plan we designed.


Two things to try on Monday

  1. Find where a sensible person would stop. Walk through your commission plan for a salesperson who is far behind target, and for one who is far ahead. At what point does extra effort stop paying? Look for caps, targets that keep rising, and targets that have become out of reach.

  2. Ask before you label. Before you decide someone is not trying, ask what is in the way: the market, the leads, the support, the plan. Then listen before you respond.


If you would like to see how your team is coping, the short team check on our home page is a good place to start.


About the author

Neil Tapinos is a leadership coach and the founder of Neil Tapinos Consulting. After more than two decades in media and senior commercial leadership, where he led sales teams and guided people through restructuring and turnaround, he now holds an MPhil in Leadership Coaching and an MBA. He helps middle managers, sales leaders and their teams keep growing through change. If something in this article sounds like your team, book a conversation.


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