NEWS
Sales incentives misaligned with what drives performance, EMEA study finds
New research from BI WORLDWIDE reveals a persistent gap between what sales teams say motivates them and what drives performance, raising questions about how incentive programmes are designed.
The study, spanning 100 sales leaders and 200 salespeople across EMEA, finds that many organisations continue to base incentives on what employees say they want, often cash rewards, even though behaviour shows other types of incentives are more effective in practice.
This disconnect is having a measurable impact. While 85 % of sales leaders believe their incentive programmes motivate their teams, over 30 % of salespeople disagree. The gap points to a mismatch between how incentives are designed and how they are received on the ground.
At the heart of the challenge is how motivation is understood. What people say they want is often shaped by instinct or habit, with cash seen as the default answer. Motivation is influenced more strongly by how incentives feel in practice, including whether they feel fair, relevant and personally meaningful.
The data highlights how this disconnect plays out in programme design. Leaders tend to prioritise public recognition, cited by 45 % as the most motivating non-cash incentive, while salespeople place greater value on flexibility and experiences, such as travel or exclusive events. This misalignment helps explain why many schemes struggle to land in practice.
BI WORLDWIDE has published a data backed playbook to address the issue, setting out how organisations can close the gap by designing incentives around observed behaviour rather than stated preference.
Saudi organisations must focus on practical AI in physical security
Genetec, a global leader in enterprise physical security software, has highlighted the need for organisations in Saudi Arabia to focus on practical and responsible applications of Artificial Intelligence( AI) in physical security, as security teams manage growing volumes of video, alarms, sensor and incident data amid the Kingdom’ s rapid infrastructure expansion.
AI is drawing greater attention across the physical security industry. In the 2026 Genetec State of Physical Security report, based on input from more than 7,300 security professionals worldwide, AI ranked alongside access control and video surveillance as a key priority for the year ahead. However, the research also found that 70 % of end-user respondents are concerned about how AI systems are designed and implemented, underscoring the need for organisations to focus on trusted and measurable use cases rather than adopting AI for its own sake.
In Saudi Arabia, this is becoming increasingly relevant as organisations continue to invest in modern, connected security infrastructure. The Saudi Arabia findings from the 2026 State of Physical Security Report show that 43 % of respondents reported increased physical security budgets in 2025, nearly double the EMEA average of 24 %. The Kingdom also recorded the highest
proportion of cloud-based physical security systems in EMEA, with 13 % of respondents using cloud security systems compared to the EMEA average of 7 %.
“ AI has the potential to support security teams in meaningful ways, but its value depends on how responsibly and practically it is applied,” said Mohamad Saad, Country Manager – Saudi Arabia and Bahrain at Genetec. x
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