In this episode of the Sales Trajectory Podcast, Jason Howes explores one of the most misunderstood drivers of sales performance: compensation and incentives. 

Drawing on more than 37 years in sales, sales leadership, recruitment and coaching, Jason shares real-world observations on why many businesses are investing more in sales talent yet still struggling to achieve the growth they expected.

The discussion covers the common mistakes companies make when designing remuneration and incentive programs, why paying a premium for experience doesn't always deliver results, and how poorly aligned compensation plans can unintentionally reward the wrong behaviours.

You'll learn why incentives should be aligned with business strategy, how motivation differs from one salesperson to another, and the critical questions leaders should ask before changing salary structures, commission plans or bonus schemes.

Whether you're a business owner, sales leader or sales professional, this episode will challenge you to rethink what you're really rewarding and whether your compensation plan is helping or hindering growth.

Key Topics:

• Why compensation is really about driving behaviour
• The danger of overpaying for experience
• Common incentive plan mistakes
• Aligning rewards with business strategy
• How to build incentive programs that support sustainable growth

Question for listeners: If we reviewed your compensation plan today, would it tell us exactly where your business is trying to go?

Connect With Our Host 

Jason Howes
Managing Director | Arrow Executive Sales

🌐 https://www.arrowexec.com.au

🌐 https://jasonhowes.com.au

🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-howes-arrowesc/

We greatly appreciate any feedback

People, process, leadership and technology working together

In this episode, Jason Howes and Violette Bouvier explore a challenge many business leaders face: why good people can still struggle to perform.

The discussion highlights how sustainable growth is rarely the result of a single hire, a new system or a training course. Instead, success comes from creating the right environment where people have clear expectations, structured onboarding, effective leadership, practical coaching and technology that supports both growth and accountability.

Key Takeaways

✅ Role clarity matters
Without clearly defined expectations, even talented people can struggle to succeed.

✅ Onboarding sets the foundation
Consistent onboarding, training and support significantly improve performance and retention.

✅ Leadership drives adoption
Processes and technology only work when leaders actively reinforce standards and accountability.

✅ Coaching beats hoping
High-performing teams are developed through regular coaching, feedback and continuous improvement.

✅ Technology should support growth
Systems must help teams work smarter, improve visibility and create better customer outcomes, not simply add administration.

The Outcome

Businesses don't achieve sustainable growth through people alone. Growth occurs when the right people are supported by the right processes, leadership, technology and culture.

Working alongside our strategic HR partner HR Tactics, Arrow Executive Sales helps organisations strengthen recruitment, onboarding, leadership capability, people processes and sales effectiveness to create environments where teams can perform at their best.

Final Thought

Before looking for a silver bullet, make sure the foundations for success are in place. The strongest results come when people, process, leadership and technology work together.

Connect With Our Guests

Jason Howes
Managing Director | Arrow Executive Sales
📧 [email protected]
🌐 https://www.arrowexec.com.au
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-howes-arrowesc/

Violette Bouvier
Business Analyst & Process Improvement Specialist
📧 [email protected]
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/violette-bouvier/

Connect With Our Podcast partner  
 🌐 HR Tactics 

🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackie-strachan-0005011a/

We greatly appreciate any feedback

In this episode of the Sales Trajectory Podcast, Jason Howes sits down with Arrow Executive Sales' newest team member, Violette Bouvier, an experienced ICT Business Analyst, CRM specialist, and operational transformation professional.

Originally from France and now based in Australia, Violette shares her journey from working across CRM, ERP, and business transformation projects in Europe to helping Australian businesses improve performance through better systems, processes, and technology adoption.

The conversation explores the growing challenges facing business leaders today, including talent shortages, increasing costs, sales productivity, onboarding, and the struggle many organisations face when implementing new technology.

Drawing on over a decade of experience, Violette explains why technology alone is never the answer. Success comes from combining the right people, clear processes, strong leadership, and systems that support execution. She discusses the importance of customer relationship management (CRM) platforms, data quality, onboarding, user adoption, and why so many technology projects fail when teams aren't properly supported through change.

Violette also shares insights into the differences between French and Australian business culture, highlighting Australia's fast-moving market and the importance of balancing agility with structured processes.

Together, Jason and Violette discuss:

✔ Why many businesses struggle to gain value from their CRM systems
✔ The biggest mistakes organisations make during system implementation
✔ How strong processes improve onboarding, retention, and productivity
✔ Why leaders need visibility into their sales activities and data
✔ The role of technology in helping businesses do more with less
✔ The importance of aligning sales, marketing, and operational teams
✔ How experienced employees can help capture critical business knowledge before it is lost

This episode also introduces the vision behind Arrow's work in sales transformation, helping businesses create scalable systems that combine recruitment, onboarding, coaching, technology, and best-practice sales execution.

Whether you're a business owner, sales leader, operations manager, or someone responsible for driving growth, this episode provides practical insights into building a business that is less dependent on individuals and more driven by process, visibility, and continuous improvement.

Key Takeaway:
Technology doesn't create results on its own. Sustainable growth happens when organisations combine the right people with the right systems, clear processes, quality data, and leaders who are willing to drive change.

We greatly appreciate any feedback

In Episode 3 of the Sales Trajectory Podcast series on aligning HR and sales, Jason Howes and Jackie Strachan discuss why onboarding is one of the most critical and overlooked parts of the hiring process.

They explain that recruiting the right person is only the beginning. Without a structured onboarding process, businesses risk poor performance, low engagement, cultural misalignment, early turnover, and a significant loss on their recruitment investment. Jackie shares research showing that onboarding starts well before day one and plays a major role in long-term retention and productivity.

The discussion covers practical strategies including pre-boarding, onboarding checklists, role clarity, coaching, cultural integration, shadowing opportunities, and leadership involvement throughout probation. Jason also highlights the importance of giving salespeople clear expectations, customer insights, performance measures, and ongoing support to help them succeed.

The key message from this episode is simple: hiring the right person matters, but creating the environment for them to succeed matters just as much. Businesses that combine strong recruitment, structured onboarding, leadership support, and a positive culture achieve higher retention, better performance, and a lasting competitive advantage.

About Our Guest

CEO & Founder | HR Tactics

Jackie Strachan and her HR Tactics team are highly experienced HR professionals  who help Australian businesses build stronger, more compliant, and higher-performing workplaces. Through HR Tactics, Jackie supports organisations with HR strategy & advice, Fair Work & WHS compliance, employment contracts, policies, position descriptions, recruitment processes, performance management, leadership support, employee relations and employment law. 

Website: https://hrtactics.com.au
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackie-strachan-0005011a/

About the Host

Managing Director | Arrow Executive Sales

Jason Howes is a highly experienced sales leader, recruiter, and business growth specialist who helps Australian businesses attract, recruit, and retain high-performing sales professionals. Through Arrow Executive Sales and his Crystal Ball Recruiting framework, Jason supports organisations with sales recruitment, candidate assessment, onboarding, sales team development, sales process improvement, training, and sales transformation strategies designed to accelerate growth and improve performance.

Website: https://arrowexec.com.au | https://jasonhowes.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-howes-arrowesc/

We greatly appreciate any feedback

Many businesses today don't have just a people problem. They have a people and clarity problem.

In a rapidly changing market, organisations are often trying to achieve tomorrow's growth opportunities with yesterday's structures. The wrong people in critical roles can certainly hold a business back. But equally, good people can underperform when expectations are unclear, roles are poorly defined, processes are inconsistent, and success isn't properly measured.

The challenge for leaders is knowing the difference. Is it a people issue, a role issue, a leadership issue, or a combination of all three? Because when the right people are placed in clearly defined roles, supported by the right systems, technology and accountability, performance becomes far more predictable.

Jason Howes explores one of the most overlooked drivers of business growth: clearly defining the role.

Drawing on Chapter 3 of Crystal Ball Recruiting, Jason challenges business leaders to rethink whether underperformance is truly a people problem, or whether the real issue lies in unclear expectations, outdated structures, and poorly defined responsibilities.

As markets evolve, customer buying behaviour changes, and technology continues to accelerate through AI and automation, many organisations are still operating with sales structures designed for a different era. The result is predictable: Business Development Managers become customer service representatives, Sales Managers become firefighters, and CEOs find themselves spending too much time managing sales activity instead of leading the business.

Through real-world examples, Jason explains how people naturally gravitate towards activities they are comfortable with when roles lack clarity. He shares the story of a client whose BDMs were spending most of their time handling administration and incoming enquiries instead of developing new business, highlighting the gap between job titles and actual behaviours.

The episode also explores how forward-thinking organisations are redesigning roles to support growth, including the introduction of Sales Development Representative (SDR) positions focused exclusively on prospecting, pipeline creation and opening new opportunities. By creating clear accountability and removing distractions, businesses are finding it easier to measure performance, improve productivity and generate sustainable growth.

Jason discusses the importance of defining role expectations around daily activities, customer engagement, new business development, pipeline creation and leading KPIs. He also explains why technology, CRM systems, AI and automation are no longer optional and how leaders must help their teams embrace change rather than resist it.

Looking ahead to the opportunities being created by Brisbane 2032 and the significant growth expected across infrastructure, manufacturing, construction, technology and professional services, Jason argues that the organisations that succeed won't necessarily be the biggest, they'll be the clearest.

This episode is a practical guide for business owners, CEOs, Sales Leaders and HR professionals who want to improve performance, create accountability, maximise productivity and build teams capable of capitalising on future growth opportunities.

Key Takeaway

Growth becomes predictable when the right people are doing the right activities in clearly defined roles, supported by the right systems, technology and leadership.

Because role definition isn't simply about writing a position description.

It's about creating clarity, accountability, career pathways and a framework that helps people succeed.

🎙️ Listen now to discover why your next breakthrough may not come from hiring more people, but from creating greater clarity around the people you already have. 

We greatly appreciate any feedback

Host: Jason Howes, Arrow Executive Sales
Guest: Jackie Strachan, CEO, HR Tactics

In Episode 2 of the three-part recruitment and retention series, Jason Howes is joined by Jackie Strachan, CEO of HR Tactics, to explore one of the most costly and critical challenges facing Australian businesses today: selecting the right person and reducing hiring risk.

Building on Episode 1, which focused on defining the role and creating clarity, this discussion dives into the selection process itself. Jason and Jackie unpack why too many hiring decisions are still being made based on gut feel, industry experience, or whether someone simply "feels right" in an interview.

The conversation highlights the importance of moving beyond resumes and focusing on what really predicts future success: past performance, behaviours, mindset, personal qualities, and cultural alignment.

Key Discussion Points

✅ Why clear and current position descriptions are the foundation of successful recruitment.

✅ The difference between skills that can be taught and personal qualities that are much harder to change.

✅ Why businesses should stop searching for the "perfect unicorn" candidate and instead focus on developing the strengths of strong performers.

✅ How behavioural interviewing helps uncover past performance and conduct.

✅ The role of reference checking, assessments, and structured interview processes in reducing hiring mistakes.

✅ Why sales leaders and HR professionals must work together to ensure hiring decisions align with business goals.

✅ The hidden cost of slow decision-making during recruitment and how top candidates are often lost through delays.

✅ Why candidates are evaluating employers just as much as employers are evaluating candidates.

✅ Real-world examples of recruitment successes, mistakes, and lessons learned.

✅ The financial impact of poor hiring decisions and the importance of building a repeatable, structured recruitment process.

Key Takeaway

Great recruitment is not about filling seats. It's about aligning the right person with the right role, the right expectations, and the right environment for long-term success.

As Jackie shares throughout the episode:

When recruitment is approached strategically, businesses improve performance, increase retention, reduce costly hiring mistakes, and create a stronger foundation for growth.

Coming Up in Episode 3

Jason and Jackie will discuss:

Onboarding and Aligning Culture to Drive Performance and Retention

This episode explores why onboarding starts long before a new employee's first day and how culture, preparation, leadership, and employee experience all contribute to long-term success.

About Our Guest

Jackie Strachan

CEO & Founder | HR Tactics

Jackie Strachan and her HR Tactics team are highly experienced HR professionals  who help Australian businesses build stronger, more compliant, and higher-performing workplaces. Through HR Tactics, Jackie supports organisations with HR strategy & advice, Fair Work & WHS compliance, employment contracts, policies, position descriptions, recruitment processes, performance management, leadership support, employee relations and employment law. 

Website: https://hrtactics.com.au
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackie-strachan-0005011a/

About the Host

Jason Howes

Managing Director | Arrow Executive Sales

Jason Howes is a highly experienced sales leader, recruiter, and business growth specialist who helps Australian businesses attract, recruit, and retain high-performing sales professionals. Through Arrow Executive Sales and his Crystal Ball Recruiting framework, Jason supports organisations with sales recruitment, candidate assessment, onboarding, sales team development, sales process improvement, training, and sales transformation strategies designed to accelerate growth and improve performance.

Website: https://arrowexec.com.au | https://jasonhowes.com.au/

We greatly appreciate any feedback

Making an ROI on Your Salespeople (Chapter 2)

Most businesses don’t actually know if their sales team is profitable.

In this episode, Jason breaks down how to turn sales hiring and performance into a measurable ROI engine, so you can stop guessing and start making confident, high-impact decisions.

What you’ll walk away with:

• Clarity on the true cost of a bad hire
  Understand how a wrong sales hire can cost $100K–$200K+ within 6–12 months—and how to avoid it.
• A framework to calculate ROI on every salesperson
  Learn how to apply 3x–5x return benchmarks and reverse-engineer compensation to drive profit, not just revenue.
• How to design incentive plans that actually drive performance
  Build clear, motivating structures that reward the right behaviours—new business, margin, and growth.
• A more effective way to hire (beyond gut feel)
  Replace instinct with data and assessment so you don’t hire based on experience alone and repeat costly mistakes.
• How to fix underperformance before replacing people
  Identify whether the issue is the person, the role, or the system—and take the right action.
• What high-performing sales teams do differently
  Clear role definitions, aligned targets, structured onboarding, and consistent coaching.

The bottom line:
Sales success isn’t about hiring more people, it’s about building a system where every salesperson earns their right to deliver a return.

CTA:
If you’re unsure whether your sales team is delivering ROI, or want a clear framework to improve it, connect with Jason or explore the Sales Trajectory approach.

We greatly appreciate any feedback

🎙️ With Jackie Strachan, HR Tactics (Part 1)

In this episode of the Sales Trajectory Podcast, Jason Howes sits down with Jackie Strachan from HR Tactics to explore what effective HR actually looks like inside SME environments—where resources are tight, roles evolve quickly, and getting people decisions right is critical to growth.

The conversation moves beyond theory into practical application, highlighting one of the most common challenges in growing businesses: poorly defined roles. Without clarity around what success looks like, recruitment becomes inconsistent, onboarding is fragmented, and retaining high-performing employees becomes increasingly difficult.

Jackie shares why dynamic position descriptions—built to evolve with the business—are far more effective than static job specs, and how clear role design directly impacts performance, engagement, and risk. In sales environments particularly, misaligned roles and unclear expectations can lead to underperformance, disengagement, and broader psychosocial risks.

A key theme throughout the discussion is leadership accountability. Culture is not accidental—it is designed, reinforced, and communicated consistently. From setting behavioural expectations to ensuring non-negotiables like workplace conduct are clearly understood, strong leadership creates environments where individuals know how to succeed.

The episode also addresses the realities of cost pressures and organisational change, with practical advice on how to manage shifting responsibilities without creating confusion or setting employees up to fail.

For sales leaders, the message is clear: success is not left to chance. High-performing teams are built through structured onboarding, clear expectations, and ongoing support—not by expecting new hires to “figure it out” on their own.

🎯 Key Takeaways

Role clarity is the foundation of effective recruitment, performance, and retention.
 Dynamic position descriptions outperform static job descriptions.
 Poor role design can lead to disengagement, underperformance, and psychosocial risk.
 Culture is shaped through clear expectations and consistent leadership.
 Sales teams perform best when onboarding and support are structured and intentional.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Introduction to HR Tactics & Jackie Strachan
 08:20 – Why defining roles properly changes recruitment outcomes
 19:00 – Managing cost pressures and evolving roles
 23:39 – Sales management and onboarding challenges
 32:24 – Building a culture that supports sales success

We greatly appreciate any feedback

Guest: Naomi Herzog – Director of Growth & Strategy, Marchese Partners Architects

In this episode, Jason Howes is joined by Naomi Herzog, Director of Growth and Strategy at Marchese Partners Architects, to unpack the forces shaping Brisbane’s built environment and the future of architecture, housing, and city growth.

Naomi shares her career journey—from questioning the quality of housing available to young families in Brisbane, to building one of Australia’s earliest modular container homes, and now stepping into a senior leadership role helping shape large‑scale, luxury, and community‑focused developments across Queensland.

The conversation explores how business development in architecture has evolved, shifting away from transactional wins toward deep strategic relationships, collaboration between practices, and long‑term capability building. Naomi explains why partnering with other architects, consultants, and contractors is no longer optional—and how this approach helps firms grow sustainably without burning out teams or over‑hiring during boom cycles.

Together, Jason and Naomi dive into the once‑in‑a‑generation transformation of Brisbane, driven by Olympic preparation, major hospital expansions, and unprecedented infrastructure investment. Naomi offers a candid view on the risks facing the industry, including escalating construction costs, feasibility pressure, and the danger of chasing work that doesn’t align with a firm’s true strengths.

A central theme is housing affordability and liveability. Naomi outlines why density must be done better—not bigger—and advocates for smarter, design‑led solutions such as mid‑rise developments, co‑living models, modular construction, and well‑planned inner‑city density that supports essential workers, families, and ageing Australians.

The discussion also highlights:

• What high‑performance architectural cultures look like today
• Why retaining experienced project architects is becoming a critical challenge
• How flexible work models and senior mentorship can strengthen teams
• Lessons architecture can learn from European cities around density, wellbeing, and design quality

This episode is a thoughtful, practical conversation for leaders in property, construction, architecture, and city‑shaping roles—and for anyone interested in how Brisbane can grow without losing its soul.

🏗️ Major Projects Featured in This Episode

• Chevron One – Gold Coast
  A landmark 41‑level luxury residential tower delivered in partnership with leading consultants and contractors.
  👉 https://chevronone.com.au/
• Palmera – Gold Coast
  A 52‑storey, high‑end residential project setting a new benchmark for luxury apartment living, developed with tier‑one builders.
  👉 https://palmeragoldcoast.com/

We greatly appreciate any feedback

This episode aligns directly with Chapter 1 of Crystal Ball Recruiting, where Jason Howes challenges leaders to assess their current sales team capability before making costly hiring decisions.

As businesses head toward the end of April and into EOFY, Jason shares a timely update on current market conditions and the pressure leaders are facing, balancing sales targets, budgeting, forecasting, and strategic planning in a tougher, slower‑moving market.

Drawing on live sales and recruitment activity, Jason explains why access to buyers is more difficult, why decisions are being delayed, and why many organisations are pressing pause until the new financial year.

The episode covers:

• Why hiring another salesperson isn’t always the right move in tough conditions
• The real cost of having people in the wrong role
• How removing poor‑fit or disengaged performers can fund training, systems, and process improvements
• The importance of clarity around who’s on your team, what roles you actually need, and where sales effort should be focused

Jason unpacks common challenges he’s seeing across sales teams right now, including reactive selling, lack of planning, unclear ideal client profiles, outdated incentives, and pipelines filled with activity—but not the right opportunities.

He also explores where leaders should be investing now: better targeting of dream accounts, stronger coaching and sales management, internal and SDR support roles, automation, and AI‑enabled sales processes.

The episode closes with a clear message from Crystal Ball Recruiting:
This market won’t get easier. Growth starts by assessing what, and who, you already have, then leveraging it properly. The businesses that win will be the ones that act now, getting the right people in the right roles, equipped with the right tools, and focused on the activities that truly drive growth.

We greatly appreciate any feedback