EdChambers

Account Executive

Opinionated

Executive

Contributor

Docked pay for meetings booked for an AE?

hey all - quick question..

has anyone heard of a company docking an AE's pay for not self-generating enough pipeline in a month?

My company changed our commission structure (11 days into a new quarter) and the AEs now how to hit a certain amount of self-generated meetings monthly or else we only get 90% of our commission on our closed deals.

Am I crazy or is this not a standard practice for normal organizations?

📅 Booked Meetings

🍾 Commission

☁️ Software Tech

35 comments

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jefe

Arsonist

🍁

That sounds like some bullshit. I've never heard of that.

Incent, don't punish.

This is going to result in some BS meetings to protect commission rates.

EdChambers

Opinionated

Account Executive

That was my first thought. They should be incentivizing us and not punishing. I'm definitely pushing back on this but if they don't adjust it, looks like it's time to game the system.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Get creative and tell us all about it!

Phillip_J_Fry

Opinionated

Director of Revenue

Time to book meetings with my buddies to talk fantasy football for 30 minutes on Zoom.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

ERP Sales

There are going to be so many fake meetings, where the prospect "was not interested and not a fit"
When you take away money, this causes so much push back, rather than a bonus for hitting the goal of self gen meetings

EdChambers

Opinionated

Account Executive

Couldn't agree more.

pirate

Big Shot

Account Executive

Definitely not a standard practice, that sounds horrible

EdChambers

Opinionated

Account Executive

It makes no sense at all. Not to mention it was just presented to us today with 12 business days left in the month.

pirate

Big Shot

Account Executive

Absolutely ridiculous.

Sunbunny31

Arsonist

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

That’s dog crap. I’m sorry. Are they running out of money?

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

There are always KPIs that you have to hit, and that might be one of them. I have a few that make little sense, but I have to figure it out. Honestly, as long as you get most of the way there, you should be set. The 90%, that’s just BS. It is used as a way to weed people out. Not to hold back commission.

EdChambers

Opinionated

Account Executive

I agree that this is a goal that we should have to hit. AEs should be responsible for building their own pipeline as well but I agree, commissions shouldn't be docked for not hitting it. I think the thing that's so frustrating is the comp plan was presented on the 11th, and there's 12 business days left in the month (we're off on Black Friday).

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Yeah, you should have a waiver on the first quarter, or at least a ramp. Sorry man, it happens.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

That's not standard. AE's generally are not comp'd on meetings/demo's, etc. They are comp'd on Sales.

If you can close your annual quota with 1 sale or with 10 - who cares?

Its obviously a measure to deal with low productivity though. So you need to ask "why" they did it, not that they did it.

EdChambers

Opinionated

Account Executive

The "why" is that we just need more pipeline. There was a RIF at our company earlier this year and a few other reps have left. So there's been a dip in AE self-sources meetings but it's because we're so busy with existing pipeline and what the SDRs provide as well.
Doesn't make sense IMO to take away money from reps for not hitting a meeting goal.

Revenue_Rambo

Politicker

Bad MFer

Sounds like a fantastic way to create an inflated pipeline full of garbage.

EdChambers

Opinionated

Account Executive

It's already happened with the SDRs since they're comp'd in a similar manner.

Gasty

Notable Contributor

War Room Community Manager

Just another way to cut down on commissions!!
BS!

EdChambers

Opinionated

Account Executive

Seems awful convenient that I have a few bigger deals that are tracking to close this month too lol

Justatitle

Tycoon

Account Executive

It's a great way to create fake opps and inflated pipeline

EdChambers

Opinionated

Account Executive

They may be leaving us no choice...

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Do you have BDR or partner support?

EdChambers

Opinionated

Account Executive

Yes, we do

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Then…the function is working and they’re mad about it? GTFO!

TheEnglishMajor

Opinionated

Account Executive

Sounds like a crumbling company that missed the mark on marketing and is now making sales suffer the consequences.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

So their bonuses get docked too right 🤔

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

This is not normal. Companies find innovative ways that don’t make sense.

SportsSalesGuy

Tycoon

Enterprise Account Executive

thats bullshit

MRK47

Tycoon

VP of International Sales

Not standard. Changing incentives mid-cycle is a pre-cursor of future wider problems. As others stated, recipe for filling pipeline with poorly qualified leads to game the system...which itself is self-defeating as time / focus will now be spent on likely non-rev generating activity (meeting with unqualified prospects)...obviously also means sand-bagging / lack of urgency to close genuine opps if meeting volumes are below target in a given period.

Does it work at the other end....exceed self generated meeting targets and receive higher comms on closed business....didn't think so!

Retired Sales Professional

That sounds like a load of:

ChumpChange

Politicker

Channel Manager

When you think you have the solution and all you've done is make 3 more problems. All this is going to do is incentivize bogus meetings which is going to throw off the pipeline forecasts.

Notmyrealname

Politicker

Just asking for calendars and crms to be loaded with fake info. Going to really mess up revops.

upsidedowngoldfish

Contributor

Creator of Newsletters for GenX & Boomers

It's clear based on the other comments that this is total crap. It sounds like another decision made by an elite MBA'er, who has never sold a thing in their life. Well the spreadsheet said that X # of appts = Y amount of $. Looks like our AE's are falling short - let's force them to set more appts. We're smarter than that - you better ask SFDC to allocate more digital space for all of the BS appts that will be set.

Account Executive

When a company changes its commission structure (11 days into a new quarter), it is not a good sign of things to come. Companies screw with their Sales Reps when they are having financial struggles. Keep your ears open.

cw95

Politicker

Head of SDR

Docking pay is odd. But these days you get too many farmers and not enough hunters. I always implement a rule whereby when a new AE starts, they do not get anything from the demand gen team until they can show they can do it themselves. Which I guess, in a cyclical way is docking pay via commission but of course it depends on the team etc etc.

I’m bias though as I’m in the demand gen team.

Surely they can’t do that if the contract doesn’t say so?