saler

Is this normal?

I just learned my company's commission structure only gives you accelerators when you hit 80% of your *annual* quota. This means that even if you crush for a few months/quarters you won't have any accelerators applied until you are at that 80% threshold. This could conceivably mean you only have a few weeks a year to close deals that could have accelerators applied to the commission!

What's crazier to me is less than 50% hit 80% which means less than half the team ever sees an accelerator. Is this normal?

💰 Compensation

15 comments

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funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

Doesn't sound totally unusual to me.

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

It’s certainly not unheard of. I’ve been in that situation before. The main question is, is your quota attainable. If it is push for them to lower it anyway, so that you hit accelerators sooner. If quota is out of reach, as is 80% ask questions as they may have set this purposefully to keep compensation down.

How big is the sales staff? How mature is the company?

saler

Valued Contributor

Company is 1k+ employees but the enterprise sales team is quite new. There’s about 25 on my team, but probably have 75 AEs total

Jewcan_Sam81

Politicker

Account Executive

Definitely feel this. If your quota is totally insatiable than getting to 80% is gonna be the real kicker, let alone making your number

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

Not crazy at all. @mitts2 this is how your structure is correct?

mitts2

Politicker

Account Executive

The unusual thing here is that 50% of the team hits 80% of their quota. To me, that seems pretty concerning.

Regardless, this is pretty standard and honestly seems better than other comp structures I have seen. My company is no accelerators until you hit 100% and then pretty solid accelerators above that. We also have kickers for certain deal circumstances (i.e. multi-year agreements get a kicker depending on how many years).

mitts2

Politicker

Account Executive

For a short time we had a structure that was 7.5% commish from 0 - 50% of your quota, then 12.5% from 50 - 100%. It ended up evening out to 10% annually which was our standard but it tried to incentivise closing more deals early in the year cuz that was our slowest quarter. Only lasted for a year and then went back to the normal 10% commish rate from 0 - 100% of quota.

goose

Politicker

Sales Executive

Seems completely normal. Organizations are looking for people to perform consistently. One and done performances are less appealing to CEO's and they'd prefer to avoid paying for them.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Yup.

QueenSoopers

Opinionated

Account Executive

we don’t get accelerators until we hit 100% of our annual quota. we really don’t even have hard monthly or quarterly goals.

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

For me it's normal. Have seen this before.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I've seen it, particularly when the company provides you an annual quota overall. It's not unusual.

ChunkyButters

Tycoon

You want a bonus for doing 80% of your job?

Very normal. 99% of the time, accelerators are to reward EXCEEDING your targets. Most everyone doesn't have accelerators until 100%+. It's to incentivize you for continuing to sell after hitting you "minimum sales number" (aka your quota).

Now <50% of your reps getting to 80%?? That might be a little low. That's a different discussion. Usually only top performers hit accelerators because they are the ones exceeding quota.

dwightyouignorantsale

Politicker

Account Executive

This is how our commission structure is too - annual accelerators.

SaaSData

Catalyst

VP of SaaS & Unit Economics 🏴‍☠️

Sounds normal.

What do you think the financial impact to you will be?

Will you make your number and be in accelerators?

There is a great strategy I recommend to people in SaaS.

If you get screwed on your plan, the second you close that big deal you go to your boss to go to the CRO and you ask him for a base increase for you. If they're any good they will get it for you immediately.

Base is key.

-SaaSData
lmk if i can help

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saler

Is this normal?

15 comments

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