Companies that have punitively restructured their comp plan, rarely walk it back.
A return to a fair comp plan only happens when one of three breaking points hits:
Regrettable Attrition Hits Top Performers: Right now, Dell is fine with underperforming and mid-tier reps quitting. They want forced attrition. However, when more of the top 10%–15% of enterprise account executives defect to HPE, Lenovo, Cisco, or Super Micro (taking billion-dollar accounts with them), Dell will care.
Legacy Business Collapses Faster Than Expected: While AI servers get the headlines, Dell still relies on high-margin storage, servers, and commercial PCs to fund its bottom line. If gutted sales territories and demoralized reps cause traditional enterprise renewals to plummet, finance will be forced to re-incentivize the sales floor.
Competitors Steal Market Share on Customer Relationships: When buyers get frustrated by constant rep turnover and chaotic internal processes, they eventually move their budgets to vendors with stable account teams.
These things ARE happening. But I don’t think Dell executives recognize the path they’re on. In 2-3 years, they will learn the error of their ways and attempt to reclaim market share, and customer and employee confidence.