elc718

VP Sales

Comissions Upon Resignation

Hi Everyone,

Recently accepted a new offer and submitted my notice. During my exit interview, I inquired about pending commissions and was told the bulk of the money will not be paid as comissions on sales are considered "earned" when the invoice is paid by the client.

I had a few decent sized commissions tied up due to my former employers' failure to deliver on time (progress billing on projects), which is one of the main reasons I'm leaving.

My question is, do I have any right or claim to this money?

Thanks in advance.

💰 Compensation

🍾 Commission

30 comments

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antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

Bravado's Resident Asshole

There are a few posts about this kind of thing you can find in the search bar.

Depending on how much, is what would make sense for you to try to go after it.

elc718

Contributor

VP Sales

Thanks. Should have taken the obvious first step of searching prior to posting.

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

Check your employment contract. I’ve had colleagues in the same situation. The one that comes to mind did finally get their commission check but only because the sales director went to bat for her and fought for her to get it but they had every intention of withholding it. It amounted to a 5K payday but she had to make a thing about it and have someone in leadership standing up for them to make it happen.

elc718

Contributor

VP Sales

No mention of it other than me being "eligible" to receive commissions. Other than that I just have an e-mail that says commissions are "paid upon cash receipt". My amount is somewhere between $20-$30k, so it is a decent amount of money I'm leaving on the table.

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

Are you actually the VP of Sales or is that just a pretend title?

elc718

Contributor

VP Sales

It was my technical title however functionally, that was obviously not the case (pretend title).

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

Yikes. If you’re going to be carrying a VP title, don’t ask entry level questions.

20 - 30K is enough to warrant burning a potential bridge from a former employer if you already have another job lined up. I would have held out on the notice until getting paid. Not much good to do right by a company that so easily takes a paycheck you earned away from you on a technicality. Since your title is so inflated, its obviously a small company with no name recognition anyway.

Hard lesson learned, Amigo.

elc718

Contributor

VP Sales

"If you’re going to be carrying a VP title, don’t ask entry level questions."

^ Not really sure what you're getting at here. The title was nothing other than for the purpose of the anonymous post so I put in what my title was.

For all intents and purposes I was an Account Executive. The title was given organizationally to make me seem more important than I actually was.

The issue with me holding out on notice until getting paid is that I have projects that are 6+ months past delivery. Waiting on those to come to completion would have cost me 6-12 months at minimum not to mention continued damage to existing relationships that I held. I also closed a pretty substantial 2 year contract, so I was always going to be leaving money on the table at some point.

"Since your title is so inflated, its obviously a small company with no name recognition anyway."

^ This

Hard lesson learned, Amigo.

^ And This

Appreciate the responses.

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

I was shitting on you a little bit which ya probably don’t deserve but I guess what I’m getting at is employers aren’t your friends.

If they’re willing to give you a VP title when it’s really not reflective of your role, or even worse, they think you’re stupid enough to believe the title is worth anything, that doesn’t scream “integrity”.

Additionally, any company that treats their customers like shit (6+ months project delivery delay) isn’t likely to treat their sales people much better.

Hindsight is 20/20. I hope your next gig is with a more reputable company but even if it is, don’t count on them doing the right thing and risk your paycheck in the process.

elc718

Contributor

VP Sales

I'm aware you were, I was just trying to get you to admit it. I'm also well aware that employers aren't my friends. Truth be told, I was in a tight spot when I agreed to sign on and the company definitely leveraged that to my advantage (shame on me for being impatient and not doing my due diligence).

I wholeheartedly agree with everything else you said, which is why I left a fairly large sum of money on the table for what I hope are greener pastures.

Trust me, the lesson was learned and I don't plan on being in this type of situation again.

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

Happens to the best of us.

playing monday morning quarterback, i would have tried to sit them down and negotiated better commission payout terms to continue working there. They know you’re being fucked over as much as you do. Extract as much of your commission as possible and quit at the soonest opportunity. Otherwise, drag your feet and let them fire you even if you already started working at the other place.

Fuck employers that hold their employees to a higher standard of integrity than they deliver. Totally unacceptable.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Probably not, unfortunately.

Check your employment agreement.

elc718

Contributor

VP Sales

Was thinking the same thing. A great deal of gray area here and I acknowledge that I probably should have cut through some of that prior to coming on board.

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

Do you always get paid out after invoice is paid? if you were made aware of this at any point in writing you might be shit out of luck

elc718

Contributor

VP Sales

Yeah, I have always been paid on cash receipt. All I have in writing is "paid upon cash receipt". My question results from "earned" being different than "paid". I know employment law in many states entitles commissioned reps to "earned" commissions even after they leave the company.

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

Yeah might have to look up what local law says. Do you know how much you should be “earning”? Another thing to keep in mind is if you find yourself in a fight, is it financially worth it to get into the fight? Not saying to chose one way or the other, but it’s a question to consider

elc718

Contributor

VP Sales

This is something I've considered. Will the money still be worth it after taxes, legal fees (if necessary), time, energy, burned bridges.

I think at this point I'm trying to access if I at least have some recourse to apply a basic level of pressure.

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

For is it’s clearlymentioned that we are not entitled to get commissions on the realized revenue unless it’s paid and received by the company. Your employee agreement will be the best place as many mentioned

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

Certainly, but at first check if any term in your contract regulates that situation, follow up with the HR and financial team about it and finally make sure to be persistent to let em feel that you're not gonna let it go so easily!

GingerBarbarian

Opinionated

Lead Sales

Not paying commission is illegal. The question is whether it is worth fighting. It depends on the commission.

They reaching out to Dan Goodman of TruCommish. He know more about commission laws than anyone else I have ever met.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

What does your new hire paperwork say? What did you sign?

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

No you usually don't. If your comp plan says you only get paid when the company gets paid - if you're not there to get the $$ you don't get paid.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

If it’s not in your comp plan as an explicit hold over clause (paid post resignation) then you may be out the money without any recourse.

AnchorPoint

Politicker

Business Coach

Totally depends upon your written agreement.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

From what I read seems like an uphill battle and its really depends on the company/your comp plan

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

your first problem is that you waited until the exit interview to ask about this....MASSIVE mistake. you need to look into ALL of the company's documents around this and get the confirmation you need before you officially leave.

i had to deal with this before I made my last move a few weeks ago. check my previous posts for the details.

elc718

Contributor

VP Sales

Thanks for the response. Can't disagree here. Tough for me to navigate asthe company wasn't going to pay until invoices were paid and most of these projects are MONTHS away from that due to the previously mentioned delivery issues. I knew that once I decided to leave, my only potential path to the money was going to be through taking some type of action. Trying to determine if there is any recourse to do that (and if it even makes sense). The company has very little documentation around this (as I mentioned in some replies, that's on me) and only mentions that commissions are paid upon receipt of payment.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

ah....so if the comp plan/policy states that commission is paid once invoices are paid....it will be a REAL hard case to win.

GDO

Politicker

BDM

Problably somewher ein your contract.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Most companies have verbiage in contracts that they won't pay out when you leave. Might be worth pursuing but you're like SOL

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elc718

Comissions Upon Resignation

30 comments

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