Replacing Sales Quotas With KPI-Driven Collaboration

Tetiana Gorbunova, Chief Sales Officer at Jooble, explains why quota-driven bonuses can sabotage ABM by pushing sellers to chase late-stage deals and pressure prospects. She shares how her team removed the bonus system and replaced it with KPIs, development plans, and structured performance reviews. She explains how this shift reduced desperate outreach, improved nurturing, and increased knowledge sharing across the team. She also describes why the result was stronger revenue, better team morale, and faster skill growth.

Tetiana Gorbunova, Chief Sales Officer at Jooble, challenges a default assumption in B2B sales leadership. She argues that quota-driven bonus systems can quietly push sellers into behaviors that damage conversion, weaken early-stage nurturing, and create internal competition that slows learning. Her team made a decisive shift by removing bonuses and replacing them with KPIs, personal development plans, and structured reviews. The result, in her words, was stronger revenue outcomes, better satisfaction, and faster skill growth.

“We just canceled the bonus system. Now, we have KPIs and personal development plans with personal goals for each salesperson and each customer success. We conduct performance and salary reviews once a year. We have, on a regular basis, monthly reviews where everyone brings some successful or unsuccessful cases with the customers, and it really helps to grow the whole team.” – Tetiana Gorbunova

Key Takeaways:

Quota bonuses can drive pressure and poor outreach choices
KPIs and development plans can improve nurturing consistency
Collaboration increases when internal competition is reduced

To catch the full interview with Tetiana on “Replacing Sales Quotas With KPI-Driven Collaboration,” CLICK HERE.

Article: “Replacing Sales Quotas With KPI-Driven Collaboration”

This article is based on an interview with Tetiana Gorbunova, Chief Sales Officer at Jooble

Quota pressure can break ABM execution

Tetiana explains that a quota-and-bonus system can create a predictable failure pattern when teams are focused on closing deals rather than learning and nurturing. She describes how her team observed repeated instances in which sellers tried to force outcomes through high-volume outreach. “These cases, they happened almost every month when the sales team started to pitch the prospects, just to call them, to mail them, to message them in all possible messengers.” She then explains why the outcome was predictable. “These prospects, they didn’t convert into real customers because it was a really bad decision. But for a salesperson, it was important to close the deal.”

Her point is not that sellers are acting irrationally. Her point is that incentives shape priorities. If compensation pushes urgency, urgency becomes the strategy. In an ABM model where teams need to start conversations earlier and nurture longer, that pressure can become a direct blocker to trust building. She describes the leadership decision that followed. “That’s why we decided that, ‘Okay, we will work in the other way.’ We just canceled the bonus system.”

Replace bonuses with KPIs and structured accountability

Tetiana outlines what replaced bonuses, and why it changed behavior. “Now, we have KPIs, and we have personal development plans with personal goals for each salesperson, for each customer success.” She adds the operational cadence that keeps accountability real without turning it into short-term pressure. “Then we have like a performance review, and we have a salary review process, we have like once a year, and we don’t have these bonuses.”

She also points to a practical effect that leaders can monitor quickly. “That’s why we don’t have this problem when, for example, we see that a salesperson does something really strange.” The phrase is simple, but the underlying idea is important. If compensation is driving reactive behavior, leaders spend time policing tactics. When incentives are reset, leaders can reallocate time to coaching, processes, and execution.

She also notes a hiring implication that many teams overlook. “When we hire new people, it really is a shock for almost all salespeople when they ask how it can be? You don’t have these bonuses, how can you work then?” In other words, the system itself becomes a filter. It attracts people who value stability, learning, and team outcomes.

Nurturing becomes a defined process, not a personal preference

One of Tetiana’s strongest points is that ABM nurturing fails when it is not operationalized. She explains why nurturing matters even when the offer is strong. “You have several potential customers and your offer is really great, but now it’s really just not a good time for them. They will be open to work with you, but now it’s not really good time. That’s why it’s important just to be in touch with them.”

She then translates that belief into practical execution guidance. “Maybe you can also work with them in the CRM system that, for example, these prospects are on this stage where we have just to nurture them, just to contact them.” She also explains what nurturing should look like, and what it should not look like. “Maybe you can also make some understanding who these people are to make also some very personalized mails. Not with like, ‘Let’s work with us,’ but just with some information that you think will be really useful for them, just to let them know that you exist.”

Her core goal is top of mind relevance. “You can touch them in couple months, and then when they will be ready, or for example, just when they will think that, ‘Okay, now I have this pain. I need to ask for like consultation.’” The payoff is memory and trust. “Okay, yeah, yeah. I received an email. Okay, you’ll be like on the top of their lines.”

Collaboration and knowledge sharing become a growth lever

Tetiana describes a hidden cost of quota-driven sales teams that shows up long after compensation decisions are made. When bonuses are personal, knowledge becomes private. She states the problem clearly. “When people had personal bonuses, there was almost no knowledge sharing inside the old sales team.” She acknowledges that some sharing still happened, but it was limited. “Sure, it was in some way, but I just wanted to make this transformation and to be everyone much more transparent, to share knowledge, to share best practices.”

She explains why this matters operationally. Teams often rely on a few top performers. “Almost all the time, you have superstars who know everything, who close deals, who make super great upsells.” But if incentives reward personal wins, those superstars may not help the team scale. She describes the mindset that can form. “I know how to close a deal, but number one, I would like to receive the biggest bonuses.” She calls out the impact. “It has a really harmful impact, not only on the team.”

To fix it, she describes the mechanism she used to change behavior. “Now, we have, on a regular basis, monthly reviews where everyone brings some cases, like successful or unsuccessful cases with the customers.” The goal is practical learning, not reporting. “It really helps to grow the whole team.” She explains the payoff in skill development. “It means that the seniority of the team grows much faster, and that’s super important.”

She also points to an additional benefit that executive teams will recognize as a compounding advantage. “In these very meetings, I see new ideas, not only in the scope of our responsibilities, but sometimes some ideas that we can also bring tothe product team.” She gives examples. “Oh, let’s make some changes in our product because it will help our customers,” and “It will help us to work better with our customers.”

Conclusion

Tetiana Gorbunova’s model is a reminder that ABM success is not only about targeting the right accounts. It is also about building the internal conditions for consistent execution. When quotas drive urgency, sellers chase late stage deals and pressure prospects. When KPIs and development plans drive accountability, teams can nurture with patience, learn from real outcomes, and collaborate instead of competing.

ELEVATING CONTENT MARKETING STANDARDS RAISES A CRUCIAL QUESTION:
Why shouldn’t the very act of creating thought leadership content also spark new conversations with in-pipeline deals, top prospects, and high-priority customers for revenue expansion? Or serve as the cornerstone for learning and applying voice-of-customer strategies? That’s the power of ABM Podcasting—engaging B2B buyers and customers in meaningful conversations that uncover essential go-to-market insights, support long sales cycles, reinforce your market perspective, build peer-level trust, and dismantle objections that kill deals.

Steven MacDonald

Steven MacDonald is the founder of Content Strategies, CEO of a MarTech SaaS Company, fractional CMO consulting with leading B2B companies and former Director of Strategy and Client Service at top ten digital marketing agencies.

Follow Steve on LinkedIn.

Steven MacDonald

Follow Steve on LinkedIn.