While most executives recognize that portfolio quality matters more than origination volume, their incentive structures continue to optimize for immediate transaction generation over long-term customer value. The result is a industry-wide misalignment that rewards salespeople for creating tomorrow’s credit problems while penalizing those who build sustainable, profitable relationships.

The traditional commission structure—paying salespeople based on funded volume with minimal consideration for deal quality or customer performance—made sense in an era when credit was simpler, competition was limited (for the few minutes that ever happened), and customer relationships were primarily transactional. Today’s equipment finance environment demands longer-term thinking, but compensation plans remain stuck in the past, creating incentives that optimize for individual short-term gain at the expense of company long-term value.