Sales_or_die

Account Executive

Valued Contributor

Compensation with New Company

Hey everyone,

Late last year, I was recruited by an old Head of Sales to a new company after I was, unfortunately, a part of some layoffs. He now runs Revenue at our Series A startup. We're friends and can confide in each other when we disagree on things.

The people running the company have historically f*cked their sales reps by having a shitty, complex, and convoluted commission structure. So, when I joined, I negotiated something I was happy with. They are now changing the commission structure so that everyone is operating under the same standards - which I am on board with. I want shit to be fair and equal. Also, the commission structure is much improved and a win-win for all parties (I believe).

Here is my dilemma:

They are putting a clause in the commission statement that states, 'we are only eligible for 100% of earned commission if we meet a monthly outbound revenue quota. If we fail to do so, then we will earn 50% of our earned commission'.

That is no easy outbound quota. It's actually a very difficult one. We have no SDRs. I hate that clause because it's essentially a 50% decelerator.

I said something to my VP of Revenue (and friend today). I was completely honest about how I felt it was BS, and I have never seen a decelerator like that. That said, I feel bad cause now I feel like the squeaky wheel because I'm always trying to get this company to stop trying to fuck their AEs with comp.

Thoughts? What would y'all do?

💰 Compensation

13

17 comments

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braintank

Politicker

3

Enterprise Account Executive

That's a shitty comp plan. If you don't speak up who will?

Sales_or_die

Valued Contributor

1

Account Executive

Hear you, man. And no one will. I'm lucky that I've worked for companies with good and bad comp plans, so I can see through it, but I don't think the other two AEs know any better.

Maximas

Tycoon

3

Senior Sales Executive

And what was the response of your friend!
I totally disagree with killing half of your money,try negotiating a bit further ,if they still persist though,then it would be the time to jump ship!

Sales_or_die

Valued Contributor

1

Account Executive

I hear you! I don't want to leave just yet. With me being laid off in November and being in the role for less then a year, I feel like this could have some bad career implications if I leave. So I'm dead bent on making it work for a while.

Based on what I'm hearing, you guys are all validating my opinion, and I'm going to negotiate further.

Like I said, I kind of had a weak moment of feeling bad for being the squeaky wheel. I keep having to advocate against bad sales comps or ideas they have.

Sales_or_die

Valued Contributor

0

Account Executive

As for his response, he said that this clause ensures he'll meet his quota.

Filth

Politicker

3

Live Filthy or Die Clean

I feel that worst that can happen is they say no, especially if your a good player and bringing in revenue.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

3

🦊

Never know til ya try 🤷‍♀️

Pachacuti

Politicker

2

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

That same exact situation happened at my previous company and they lost 80 to 90% of all their sales people in the subsequent eight months. A lot of great sales people walked out the door because they had a bad month or two even though historically they’ve been over 100% a quarter and some of them over 200%.

They created a sales compensation structure which destroyed the moral in the earning power of the sales team and the sales team bought it with her feet.

I would try to mention this potential consequence to your management and see how they react. Maybe they don’t care? But the cost of training up a new sales team is far higher than paying out a good sales team who is performing on a consistent basis.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I probably would have said exactly the same, but I notoriously have little patience and no filter.

That's a cop out on the part of the company to try and get out of paying their reps based on some stupid metric they invented.

It's highly demotivating. Honestly, I think you did the right thing to alert your VP. Ultimately it means losing good reps because of a bad plan.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

2

🦊

Do not feel bad for standing up for getting paid. Do not sign the agreement.

Justatitle

Big Shot

1

Account Executive

Revenue is revenue whether it is outbound or inbound. If you meet quota why does it matter where it comes from(I know this answer, they feel if they don't need to spend on marketing they'll save the money with you outbounding. it's a terrible strategy and never works.) So is there a way you can ask why it matters provided the numbers are being met?

Sales_or_die

Valued Contributor

3

Account Executive

The main reason that my VP recruited me here was to drive outbound growth. The company has grown profitably through inbound only. A big initiative for the company was to get outbound going, so that's why it's written in there.

That's another reason I'm concerned. I'm the only person in essentially the history of them having AEs that has closed any outbound, and they want me to stake my comp on an outbound quota that has never been done before lol.

Justatitle

Big Shot

2

Account Executive

If they refuse to remove an outbound portion go for it being smaller something around 20%

Armageddon

Opinionated

1

Enterprise Account Executive

thats a brutal comp plan... Glad you gave your feedback. I once had a mandatory 10k cliff on all monthly quota. If you didnt close more then 10k in the month you got 0%. Anything above 10k you would start getting comped 10% on everything above 10k, so no matter how you split it you were giving the business back 1k in commission every month assuming you always closed more then the cliff.

Revenue_Rambo

Politicker

0

Director, Revenue Enablement

That model is BS. Comp plans should be designed to incentivize desired behaviors. If a rep does their part why should they be penalized. If anything just the sales leader should have the deceleration clause so they are incented to work and develop reps who put their success in jeopardy.

Diablo

Politicker

0

Sr. AE

It sucks and I appreciate you talking about it. At least they know what everyone thinks about the plan as a team.

Sales_or_die

Valued Contributor

0

Account Executive

Just seeing the new replies y’all. Spoke up and they redid a comp plan for everyone that is better. Our company is series A and is run pretty lean, so it’s not the best in the world, but now I don’t wake up like I’m getting f*cked.

Thanks for all your advice!

Even today I got my VP to admit it was a terrible comp plan.

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