From Subjective Rewards to a Performance-Driven Incentive System
The engagement concluded with a complete bonus and incentive program redesign and a restructured sales commission model — aligning compensation with measurable behaviors that drive project profitability and long-term customer relationships.
CLIENT
Advanced Tower Services (ATS) has served the broader Albuquerque area for over 25 years, providing full-service radio tower communications site construction and staffing. Annual revenue exceeds $8M.
CHALLENGE
ATS’s existing commission structure was generous but didn’t incentivize the key behaviors needed for growth and customer retention. The bonus system was subjective, and sales commissions were overly rewarding certain product sales at the expense of the company’s bottom line and long-term relationships.
RESULTS
Ascent delivered a new performance-based bonus program tied to measurable project behaviors, a restructured tiered sales commission model aligned with company and individual goals, and clear written narratives that gave every employee transparency into how the system works.
Do your incentive programs reward the wrong behaviors or rely on subjective judgments?
The Ascent Difference
We replaced a subjective, lopsided compensation structure with a data-driven incentive system that aligns every employee’s rewards with the behaviors that actually drive profitability and growth.
Advanced Tower Services had a successful business and a loyal team. Their existing compensation structure was generous — but generosity without alignment is a liability. The bonus program relied on subjective assessments rather than measurable performance, and the sales commission model had unintentionally created misaligned incentives: rewarding product sales that didn’t support long-term customer relationships or the company’s bottom line.
Principal Lori Henz captured the issue clearly: although the commission structure was generous, it didn’t incentivize the behaviors necessary for sustainable growth. ATS needed a system that was fair, transparent, measurable, and aligned with where the company was going — not just where it had been.
Ascent engaged through financial analysis, collaborative workshops, and program design. Our engagement included:
- Detailed financial analysis to identify profit drivers and areas of opportunity
- Workshops to uncover key behaviors impacting project-level profitability
- Performance measurement framework design to replace subjective assessments
- Bonus program design with project-level funding pools and role-based payouts
- Sales commission restructuring with tiered benchmarks for individual and company goals
- Deliverable: Complete incentive system with bonus calculators, commission models, and employee-facing narratives
“Not only did Ascent provide us with an incredible insight into industries similar to ours, they also conducted a deep dive into our financials and what small changes could be made that would have a big impact.”
— Lori Henz
Principal, Advanced Tower Services
The new bonus program creates a pool of bonus money at the project level based on the team’s contributions to project success — giving employees a direct, visible connection between their performance and their rewards. The straightforward calculator makes administration easy while keeping the system transparent for every participant.
The restructured sales commission model introduced tiers for individual and company sales benchmarks, bringing payouts in line with industry norms while still providing substantial earning potential. Written narratives for both programs ensured every employee understood the rules, the metrics, and the opportunity.
For construction companies, compensation is one of the most powerful levers for driving behavior — and one of the most commonly misaligned. When bonus programs are subjective and commission structures are lopsided, the company pays more and gets less. The firms that attract and retain top talent are the ones that make the connection between performance, profitability, and rewards transparent and measurable.
Is your compensation driving the right behaviors?
If your bonus and incentive programs aren’t aligned with profitability and growth, let’s talk about how Ascent designs compensation systems that reward performance and drive results.