A SPIFF (often spelled SPIF, and sometimes expanded as Special Performance Incentive Fund) is an immediate, targeted bonus layered on top of a rep’s regular pay. Where commission rewards the overall outcome, a SPIFF rewards a specific behavior right now: sell this product line this month, book five demos by Friday, clear the aging deals in the pipeline.
SPIFFs work because they’re fast and concrete. The reward is small, the window is short, and the desired action is unmistakable — which makes them ideal for steering effort toward a temporary priority without touching the comp plan.
They go wrong when they’re overused (reps start ignoring anything that isn’t SPIFF’d), when the goalposts are unclear, or when only the top reps can realistically win. The fix is the same as with any incentive: make the target reachable for the middle of the team and tie the reward to behavior people can control.
SPIFFs are a natural prize layer for a sales contest — the contest creates the game, the SPIFF funds the reward.
Grit Board turns this exact mechanic into a game: Bounty Board lets a manager pin a limited-window target in seconds, scores it automatically from the data the team already uploads, and stamps the claim on the board for the whole floor to see — a SPIFF that runs itself instead of dying on a whiteboard.