Ian O'Shaughnessy

Is my sales job abnormal?

Hey folks. I want to know whether my sales job is atypical, or if this is normal in the startup world.

So, some background. I work for a SaaS company in the medical technology space. We have two products, which I'll call Product A and Product B. For Product A, I get $100 for each meeting booked. For Product B, I get $250 for each deal closed. Both products range widely in deal value, from $10K to $100K+.

My title is AE, but I'm basically the whole sales team. I handle inbound leads, prospect for outbound leads, and manage the whole sales process start to finish.

Here's the weird part: I have no quota, no accelerators, no dials-per-day, etc. No metrics of any kind really. My base pay is 70K, and I'm set to make about 85-90K this year due to commission. Is this an odd arrangement/commission structure?

🐱 Off-Topic

📊 Metrics

26 comments

Sort by:

SalesBeast

Politicker

Sales Director

$250 for closing a 100k deal is shameful. 250 on a 10k deal is pretty bad. You’re underpaid.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Yea that immediately rang some alarm bells. Sounds like a no pressure environment, but one in which he's getting hosed.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

My thoughts exactly

unclespacejam

Politicker

ur dad’s brother

Ian you are getting fucked

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

sans lube

My thought is to hang tight for a year, build a lot of goodwill, then renegotiate. Looking for 1% in commission!

unclespacejam

Politicker

ur dad’s brother

Pretty standard baseline commission % across almost all SaaS companies is like 10% dog. I would strongly suggest finding something similar or adjacent to the company you’re at. You would nearly double your income, doing the same work

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Depends on the product, but 5-12%. Pure SaaS, 10% is optimal and not uncommon at all.

1% is nothing.

sugardaddy

Politicker

🍬

Indeed on this. 250 dollar on a 100K deal, seems quite crazy.

I’d never heard of a flat-rate commission structure before I took this job. Glad to know this is weird.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Hi ex pharma here! That's some weird ass shit. @detectivegibbles ain't you in med?

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

very odd, but hey if it works don't go creating alarms where there isn't a fire

I’ve only been here for like six months. I’m pretty happy with my 70K base, so my plan is to wait a year, close a bunch of high-value deals and build a lot of good will, then renegotiate.

oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

This ain’t the least bit normal, but I wouldn’t say a word. Seems you’re the captain of your own ship.

BigShrimpin

Catalyst

Account executive

focus on what pays the most

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

This is very wrong, in many ways. Most/all AE roles pay for closing. The SDR/BDR get paid to book meetings.

There are no SDRs/BDRs. My title is AE, but I’m handling everything.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Yeah, which is why it wrong. You need to get paid on closing. Extra base if you are doing multiple jobs or a higher % of close.

detectivegibbles

Politicker

Sales Director

I’m in med device sales. Thanks for sharing.

Lot to unpack…

How big is your company? Whats your ICP?

Are both/either/neither products recurring or non-recurring?

Admittedly I don’t know the software world as well as I should in the medical space….however your situation is raising some flags.

$10k - $100k - commish is the same for both even though you handle all lead qualification and close the deals?

Are expenses higher on the $100k products?

Feel free to DM me. I’m curious 🧐

Company is very small, like ~15 employees.
ICP is super broad, but mostly large e-commerce businesses who have some connection to obese patients. Think bariatrics supplies, CPAP, etc.

Both products are paid on a per-patient, per-month basis. Contracts are one year. So definitely recurring.

detectivegibbles

Politicker

Sales Director

Have equity?

Are you getting$250/month per product? Or is it just a one time $250 commish?

No equity. One-time payout of $250 commish per close, regardless of deal size.
One wrinkle here is that because we get paid on a per-patient, per-month basis, these deals start out very small and then grow over time.
For example, if the client signs a $4,000 quote (very small, but very normal), but adds 100 patients at $25 PEPM, that's $30K in value over the course of a year (100 x $25 x 12). If they add 1,000 patients, that's $300K in value over the course of a year. I want to get comped based on the size of the deal over time, not based on the value of the quote.

detectivegibbles

Politicker

Sales Director

Yeah this seems pretty fucked in more ways than one frankly.

$70k base is solid for AE role but usually OTE is going to be near double that at minimum.

My base is less than yours, but I make money in 3 different ways (capital equipment sales, purchases (based on pegged margin once sold), and service contracts).

I think you should be looking for ways to get compensated based on the customers you land and their growth, if I’m following correctly.

Beans

Big Shot

Enterprise Account Executive

You're not comped a %? You're getting fucked.

My goal is to renegotiate for 1%

AnchorPoint

Politicker

Business Coach

Is there a normal sales job?

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

Press Careers

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.

Ian O'Shaughnessy

Is my sales job abnormal?

26 comments

Related posts

What Would Your Job Be If Not Sales?

Sales job for seniors