Are there any design principles you recommend I use to differentiate between existing products to new customers and new business/new products?

Generally a sales comp plan may pay differently for new products or new accounts in order to recognize a few typical characteristics of these sales:

1) They may take more time and effort on the part of the sales person, so should pay more as a percent of sales to make them worth that time investment

2) They may pull sales people out of a comfort zone, and so should be more attractive to help them focus on new behaviors

3) They may be more difficult from a goal/quota setting point of view, with little/no history to use as a basis, and so goals/productivity expectations may have serious accuracy challenges compared to the base business.

Here are the typical comp mechanics to recognize these challenges:

Characteristic of the sale: Takes more effort

Comp mechanics: Pay a slightly higher rate – 15% to 50% more than base business is about right, depending on the degree of difficulty

If the “more effort” is only a startup challenge, make it clear that in the future it will revert to a lower rate – so they have every incentive to get these sales going quickly (for new products); if it will always take more effort, the rate should probably not revert (new customers)

Characteristic of the sale: New / out of comfort zone

Comp mechanics: Pay a higher rate on the new stuff and a lower rate on the old stuff – to provide “carrots” and “sticks” – so ignoring the new stuff would mean less earnings than last year for the same results as last year; and meeting expectations on both old and new would result in slightly higher earnings

Again, make it clear that rates will not stay this high on the new stuff forever, so it will be in the sales person’s best interest to get a fast start

Characteristic of the sale: Difficult to set goals

Comp mechanics: Pay on the new stuff (products/customers) from first dollar, without a lot of dramatic acceleration or bonuses around quota/productivity expectation. If you know your goals are rough, don’t make attainment of them a high-stakes event for the company or the sales person. In fact, a straight commission (at an attractive rate) without any acceleration is a reasonable arrangement in the first year.