Rock-the-boat Delta

SDR

Do you trust commission plan calculations?

I have struggled with legal documents and the line items in commissions slip.

Most adjustments don't make sense. Everytime time I go to my manager about a dispute, I am explained why deals were not considered for this or that reason, while my colleagues who haven't yet booked go laughing to the bank.

Quite strangely it seems okay to go on like this? is there any method to the madness ????

trust commission plans?

Attached poll

29%

yes

63%

dont care

😓 Applications

😟 bitch

🍾 Commission

17 comments

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Gasty

Notable Contributor

War Room Community Manager

Hey!!
Welcome to the War Room.

This is Gasty - WR Community Manager. Just wanted to highlight a few points before I talk about the post.

WR is a Sales Community Platform with some of the best Sales people and their advice is pure gold. This is an anonymous platform and I see that you’ve got it covered. Kudos for that.

We consistently post Leaderboard’s, Fun Friday’s, who’s hiring and more.

This isn’t LinkedIn, you can go as detailed as you want. Just focus on providing value.

You can also use the search bar, you’ll get all the posts related to this, that we’ve had a discussion on.

Lastly, have you checked out the commission store yet? If not, I highly recommend. Earning those points is also super easy. Upvotes get you points. We got some amazing goodies that you can bag. Just be more active, post more, engage more.

Now to talk about your post;

I do trust commission plan calculations but you always need to cross verify. Moreover, I think you can write your concern a little more detailed to get better answers, what exactly is making you concerned, Is the role that you're working in has problems with the commission plan calc?

SDR

How do you cross verify - most agreements cannot be shared anywhere ?

Sunbunny31

Arsonist

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Who’s in charge of commissions? The VP? CRO?

Based on your comments, it doesn’t sound like the policy or plan itself is the issue. It’s the fact that there are exceptions and those are inconsistent. I’m not sure what the structure at your company is like, but my past two employers have had compensation plans managed by operations that ultimately roll up to the CFO. The VP or sales manager in my experience are your advocate in case of exception - to back you up when there should be one for whatever extenuating circumstance has arisen. They’re also supposed to help you navigate the plan so that you understand what’s going on and are compensated fairly. Mistakes can happen; your sales leaders should be helping those get corrected, and your comp team should be able to clearly explain what deals are being paid out on, and when.

It sounds like you believe you’re dealing with favoritism. That’s a whole other situation.

SDR

Yes thats what I think it is. My next gig I am going to be smarter when I negotiate

SDR

About who’s in charge i think it’s more our VP, maybe it happens with other teams as well

Sunbunny31

Arsonist

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

There’s always more to learn. Don’t beat yourself up too much. A situation like this would be hard to detect when you’re interviewing. But to that point, it’s one reason the group here recommends finding current & past reps to connect with during a job hunt. Things like this may come up.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

I can't say much without the details of your plan/situation, but TRACK EVERYTHING.

And then compare. Google sheets is a great tool to do so, and it's in the cloud so safe. Just make sure it's on a personal account.

SDR

Got it. I am not an Google sheet nerd but will try this in simple way. Maybe in a Google doc

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Don't need to be a nerd, but it totals things nicely for you with a SUM. You can likely find a bunch of templates, pick the best, and tweak where necessary.

What you SHOULD be a nerd for is Bravado upvotes. Throw the people responding some sweet commish as a thank you.

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

Check every single line, every time.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Exactly 🔥

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

I trust comp plans to tell me what the company's management values at the time. The shorter the plan (1-2 pages) tend to favor the sales rep and the longer plans tend to favor the company and screw the rep.

SDR

Interesting

startedatatechunicorn

Personal Narrative

Sr. Account Executive (Client Dev) | Sales Team Lead

To echo those above, *always* cross reference and double check. You received a copy of your comp plan upon taking the job or your most recent promotion/title change so you can look back at the split/numbers. Also highly recommend keeping a running tally (and ‘job journal’) where you add your CW rev (or anything else you’re judged on) in a simple running g sheet. When EOM comes you can easily check and make sure you’re getting sure you receive credit where credit is due (and don’t need to spend time going back to dig around). Plus is good personal documentation to have (plus any key accomplishments, accolades, projects etc for an internal or external resume going forward).
Team just switched to captivateIQ after no official systems, still has some bugs, and ultimately - as I’ve been told by my first manager - no one else is going to advocate for you. It’s your money, make sure you are tight/on top of it and get’s what yours.
(Also coming from personal experience of various months being underpaid, improperly paid commission, etc. if I hadn’t caught it and escalated it to manager, Revops, leadership, I never would have seen a dime that was rightfully mine. I like to think it’s simple lack of oversight or poor operations, not that they’re trying to fuck you, but who knows)

SDR

Appreciate your feedback will modify it. Thanks again

Justatitle

Tycoon

Account Executive

How does the business structure payouts? Is it on bookings is it when the client pays you get paid? What is their policy for you to lean on?

SDR

The policy is incomprehensible - on paper it is when client pays, but the VP some times is okay with some reps getting paid before client pays. Should I share the commission plan with some intelligent nerd to get it.