I once created a revenue bonus that worked almost too well.
In my retail business, the rule was simple:
Hit 30k in monthly revenue, and every salesperson got a bonus.
Hit 35k, another bonus.
Hit 40k, another one.
Clear threshold, clear reward, easy to understand.
In good months, especially during the season, the team earned more.
In bad months, salaries were lower.
At first, it felt fair.
The business does better, the team does better.
Simple.
But then I saw what the formula was really teaching.
One month, revenue was just short of the next threshold.
Around 29,800 out of 30,000.
The people on shift bought a few products for themselves at cost price to push revenue over the line.
They were not cheating.
They were responding logically to the rule I had created.
And that was the lesson.
The bonus worked.
It created focus, teamwork, and attention to the number.
But it also taught them to chase the threshold.
Not necessarily margin.
Not necessarily better contribution.
Not necessarily a healthier business.
Just the number.
This is where revenue-based bonuses get tricky.
Revenue is visible and easy to explain, but revenue is not the same as profit.
And in agencies or service teams, this matters even more.
More projects do not always mean better margin.
More clients do not always mean healthier delivery.
More work does not always mean a better business.
So the real question is not only:
“How do we make people care about revenue?”
The better question is:
“What behavior are we actually buying with this bonus?”
If you reward revenue, people will chase revenue.
If you reward thresholds, people will chase thresholds.
If you want better contribution, the pay formula has to reward the contribution you actually want repeated.
That was my mistake.
I thought I had created a simple performance bonus.
In reality, I had created a game around a revenue number.
And the team played it exactly as designed.
Every pay formula teaches people what game they are playing.
Before tying money to a metric, ask one more question:
“What behavior will this rule create?”
Because people do not just follow compensation rules.
They adapt to them.
Does your bonus system reward the behavior you actually want repeated?