Paying the same rate on renewals as on new business: are we overpaying?

A differential on its own did not move new business for us. We cut the renewal rate from 5% to 2% in a data subscriptions team and what we got was the same people earning less and resenting it, with new logos unchanged. They were account managers by temperament. New business only moved when we hired four people whose whole quota was new logos.

Agree with the reply above and would go further: one plan cannot make a farmer hunt. But you can at least stop paying hunters' rates for farming. We introduced a separate new-logo quota worth 25% of target incentive, with a gate so the renewal accelerator only opens if at least 60% of the new-logo quota is met.

Gates like that are risky in a business where most of the money is renewal. If a seller concludes in September that they will miss the new-logo gate, you have removed their reason to push renewals in the last quarter, which is when your sponsorship money is decided.

It ranges from 71% to 96% by seller, so they are being sold. I am going to propose the three-rate structure with uplift, and separately make the case for a small dedicated new business team, since the second reply matches what I see in our own people. Thank you, this gave me a much better answer than the one I was about to give.