Despite the ongoing headwinds (trade wars, tariffs and geopolitics), companies have continued to prioritise their top-performing employees, as the gap between their pay and lower performers’ pay keeps on getting bigger each year.
As per a new report from sales commission software provider Xactly, while average on-target earnings saw a slight dip in 2025 among account executives, who are responsible for finding new business and closing deals, the gap between account executives’ on-target earnings at the 25th and 90th percentiles widened by about 1.7% compared to 2024, reaching from USD 199,000 to USD 195,600. By definition, on-target earnings signify the total pay a salesperson expects when reaching 100% of their sales quota.
Low performers averaged USD 95,000 in on-target earnings, while their high-performing counterparts earned USD 294,000. For sales-oriented companies, the latter have boosted the average annual on-target earnings for account executives with more than five years of experience by USD 26,000 since 2021. Those with one to three years of experience have gained USD 7,300 on an annual basis, while pay for account executives, with less than one year in sales, has gone down by USD 16,000. The professionals with one to three years’ tenure have seen their pay package go down by USD 3,000.
“Organisations are investing in proven, tenured sellers who can deliver more predictable revenue. This change also reflects tighter ROI scrutiny on sales headcount, as companies would rather retain and maximise productivity from experienced AEs than hire fresh talent,” Xactly wrote in its report.
However, it termed this preference a possible representation of a trade-off.
“While it can boost short-term efficiency, it can also weaken long-term outcomes if lower early-career compensation stifles motivation, increases ramp-time attrition, or makes the AE role less appealing,” the Xactly report noted.
For account managers, especially those charged with expanding revenue from and retaining the customers that account executives bring in, things look different. At the 90th on-target earnings percentile, earnings for account managers, in 2025, plummeted by USD 21,000 to USD 245,000, after growing from USD 199,000 to USD 266,000 between 2021 and 2024.
“The gap between account managers’ compensation at the 90th and 25th performance percentiles narrowed by 10.7% in just one year, from USD 181,500 to USD 162,000. This suggests a recalibration in how organisations pay AMs. After a stretch where compensation increasingly favoured top performers, organisations appear to be moving toward more balanced pay structures for AMs,” the report continued.
Many companies will look to tighten pay accelerators by placing more weight on asset managers’ base salary or rewarding account coverage and retention more than pure staff expansion.