The four charts I bring to the annual plan review, and the one I dropped

Each October I present a review of the sales incentive plan to our executive team at a logistics software company in Australia, 150 quota carriers. Over the years I have cut the pack to four charts that actually lead to decisions.

One, the distribution of quota attainment, to see whether targets were set sensibly. Two, pay against performance for every seller on one scatter plot, to see whether the best paid are the best performers. Three, cost of sales compensation as a share of bookings over five years. Four, voluntary turnover split by attainment band, because losing people at 120% is a very different problem from losing them at 60%.

The one I dropped was benchmarking of target pay by role. It produced long debates and no decisions. What do others bring?