Incentives Drive Behavior — So What Are You Really Paying For?

Most contractors think a salary is a compensation plan.

But according to Consulting for Contractors’ Scott Lollar, that mindset might be quietly costing your company money.

In this episode of Success Beyond The Brush, Mark Black and Scott Lollar break down how contractors should think about compensation plans for overhead positions — especially sales and production leaders.

Instead of paying fixed salaries regardless of performance, Scott argues that anyone directly responsible for revenue or production should have a meaningful portion of their income tied to results.

Why?

Because incentives drive behavior.

When compensation is structured correctly, it creates motivated “hunters” who are focused on hitting revenue targets, protecting gross profit, and driving company growth.

When it's structured poorly, it often creates comfortable employees who earn the same paycheck whether the company wins or loses.

Scott and Mark unpack:

• Why 100% commission sales roles often outperform salary models
• The difference between estimators and true salespeople
• Why paying commission on gross profit instead of revenue matters
• The hidden risks of promoting technicians into management roles
• How draws against commission help bridge the training period
• Why operations leaders should also have performance-based compensation
• How company-wide profit sharing can align the entire team

If you’ve ever struggled with questions like:

“What should I pay a salesperson?”
“How do I motivate my operations team?”
“Why are my overhead employees expensive but not productive?”

This episode gives you a framework for designing compensation plans that reward performance while protecting your company’s profitability.

In This Episode, We Cover

• Why salary alone is not a real compensation plan
• The difference between estimators, salespeople, hunters, and farmers
• How commission structures motivate better performance
• Why compensation should be tied to gross profit instead of revenue
• The pros and cons of base salary vs draw vs commission
• How to structure incentives for production managers and operations leaders
• Why company-wide profit sharing can align the entire team

🔗 Links from This Episode

✨ Free Discovery Call with Scott Lollar

👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/discovery-call/

🏗️ Consulting 4 Contractors Website

👉 https://consulting4contractors.com/

⚙️ Operations Module Demo Video (YouTube)

👉 https://youtu.be/0IUmPWk4GRI

✌️ Operations Module 2.0 Update Video (YouTube)

👉 https://youtu.be/JTHtbLXyMBI

📲 C4C on Instagram

👉 https://www.instagram.com/consulting4contractors/

👥 C4C Facebook Community

👉 https://www.facebook.com/consulting4contractors/

💼 C4C on LinkedIn

👉 https://www.linkedin.com/company/70241567

📧 Want to Be a Guest?

Send us an email → [email protected]

🎧 Credits

🎙️ Hosts:
Scott Lollar — Founder, Consulting 4 Contractors
Mark Black — Owner, Men In White Painting, Mt. Vernon, IL

🎵 Production:
Siren Mastering — Original music, artwork, transcripts, show notes & audio engineering
https://www.sirenmastering.com

• (00:00) - Hunters Not Order Takers