Quota crediting determines who gets recognition when work crosses a boundary. Write the rule before a meeting is rescheduled, an account changes hands, or an opportunity advances. Sales compensation is the most direct way a company tells its revenue team what good looks like.1 A poorly designed plan can pay for the wrong deals, punish collaboration, encourage discounting, and create disputes about credit.2 Test the rule by asking whether two people can read the same record and assign the same credit.
Start with the outcome
Start with the result the role should create. Use it to guide every later decision, including the event that earns credit and the point where credit stops.
The primary purpose of a compensation plan is to create focus.3 Make a single primary outcome drive most variable pay, and show in the written rule how that outcome is recorded.4 SDR quotas often use more than one quota bucket.5 If you use multiple buckets, explain what each one is for and how it relates to the primary outcome.
Start with these questions:
- What result should this role create?
- What event proves that result happened?
- Which person controls that event?
- What happens to credit after the work moves to another person?
The answer should describe an observable event. "Worked the account" is too loose. Recorded meeting attendance or a qualified opportunity gives the rule something people can check.
Match the outcome to the work
Set the credit point where the work ends. A role that creates a meeting has a different credit point from one that qualifies or advances an opportunity.
The stage at which SDRs are judged should depend on how involved they are in the sale.6 If the SDR sets a meeting and passes it to a sales representative without qualification, a Demo Set quota may fit.7 If the SDR conducts a discovery call or demo, compensation based on pipeline opportunities may fit better.8
An opportunity sits between activity and revenue, and its meaning can range from an early set demo to a later sales qualified opportunity.9 Common opportunity measures include Demos Set, Demos Held, SQLs, Sales Accepted Opportunities, and Pipeline Opportunities.10 Choose the measure that matches the work the role completes, then define its acceptance condition in plain language.
Check:
- Does the person create the meeting, qualify it, or advance it?
- What must be true before the receiving team accepts the outcome?
- Which field or status proves that the condition was met?
The receiving team should not silently change the credit point after the handoff. If the work ends at a meeting, credit the meeting event. If it includes qualification or discovery, set the event farther into the opportunity process.
Define the credited event
The rule needs a firm event, especially for meetings. When the role is measured on a meeting that took place, use attendance as the event.
A meeting is held when the prospect attends, and a rescheduled meeting counts when it occurs within 14 days.11 Put that condition directly into the rule. Record the attendance outcome, the reschedule date, and the person who receives credit under the policy.
Before finalizing the event, answer:
- Does a booked meeting count, or must the prospect attend?
- How is a reschedule recorded?
- What happens when the meeting moves outside the permitted window?
- Can the original owner still receive credit after the date changes?
Include both the original and rescheduled meeting in the rule so the person applying it can use the record without a manual judgment call or an exception.
Write the handoff rule
Handoff rules determine who owns the outcome after work moves between people. Put that decision in the policy before a dispute appears.
Some teams set introductory meetings for sales representatives or account executives, while others provide qualified opportunities.12 Choose the handoff object that matches your operating model and state what the receiving person must accept.
Use one written crediting rule instead of handling exceptions individually. Deals past a named stage at the cutover date credit to the originating rep.13 Name the stage, the date that controls, the originating owner, and the record that proves the stage was reached.
For a shared account, require the record to identify the person who created the credited outcome before the handoff. If several people touched the account, the rule should still answer who receives credit for the defined event. Do not leave shared ownership to a conversation after the opportunity progresses.
The rule should answer:
- Who created the event that qualifies for credit?
- Who accepted the handoff?
- Which stage controls ownership?
- Which date controls when ownership changes?
- What happens when an opportunity crosses the stage after reassignment?
Match the rule to capacity
The credited outcome should reflect what the downstream team can handle. Capacity changes which handoff creates useful work, so review the rule when calendars fill or empty.
When sales representatives have full calendars, SDRs should focus on qualified opportunities until more sales representatives can be hired.14 When calendars are empty, SDRs should focus on less-qualified introductory meetings as well as qualified opportunities.15
Use this distinction when deciding whether a held meeting or a qualified opportunity earns the main credit. A meeting target can create congestion when the receiving team has no room. A qualification target can leave useful calendar capacity unused when more introductory meetings are needed.
Review:
- Is the receiving calendar full or empty?
- Which outcome can the next team accept without extra rework?
- Does the current credit event encourage that outcome?
Change the event only when the operating need changes, and publish the new rule with its effective date. Keep the previous rule available for work created under the earlier policy.
Keep activity in its place
Activity can show effort and help diagnose coverage. It needs a careful role in crediting because the action itself may not prove that the business outcome occurred.
Activity means anything the SDR fully controls and can vary according to effort.16 Examples include cold calls made, emails sent, and new companies prospected.17 Managers should use activity as a quota when activity is low and needs to increase.18 If SDRs focus only on theoretically high-value accounts or contacts, adding an activity quota can improve the quantity of opportunities.19
Use activity to correct a coverage problem, then check whether the credited outcome follows. Keep the activity definition separate from the event that earns outcome credit so the record shows both effort and result.
Audit edge cases before launch
Run the rule through the cases that usually create arguments. This exposes missing conditions while the policy is still easy to change.
Check a meeting that is held, a meeting that is rescheduled, an account worked by several people, and an opportunity that advances after handoff. For each case, write the event, the owner, the controlling date, and the proof in the record. Ask someone who did not write the policy to apply it from the record alone.
If that person needs a manager to interpret the rule, add the missing condition. If the answer changes because the opportunity is more attractive, the account is shared, or the handoff happened late, tighten the event or stage definition.
What not to do
- Do not use activity as the sole quota metric, because cold calls and cold emails have no intrinsic value on their own.20
- Do not pay for too many competing metrics at once, since the plan can then be argued in any direction.21
- Do not expect results that the plan does not compensate for, because teams tend to produce the results they are paid to produce.22