Wellss

Channel sales

Deceived on end of year bonus

At the beginning of Q4, our CRO announced an end of year bonus that we could qualify for if we hit a certain target. I was given my target that I had to hit in the quarter in order to qualify for this bonus.

In November, I catch up with my manager and he lets me know that I'm almost at my target. Come December, I finish out the year at 125% of my given goal.

NOW, pay day comes around in January & I don't see my bonus. So I ping my manager & ask when I should expect to be paid. He pings me back and says "Hey, sorry to tell you but you actually didn't hit the target. I was given the wrong numbers and you actually missed it by less than 5%"

So, not only did he give me the wrong target but he didn't let me know that it had changed until after the fact & I couldn't do anything about it. I've complained to anyone that will listen & still have no bonus in my wallet. Has this ever happened to anyone else? If so, how do I fight this?

Has this ever happened to you?

Attached poll

Yes - sadly no thank gooooodness

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

💰 Compensation

🤷‍♂ Poll

14

25 comments

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CuriousFox

WR Officer

3

🦊

@poweredbycaffeineWWYD?

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

6

☕️

Well, I’d have my managers head on a platter. The responsibility for the miscommunication and subsequent miss by a hair falls on them, BUT you also are responsible for your finances and should have triple checked the targets and goals with Ops or even the CRO directly.

Trust but verify, ya dig?

CuriousFox

WR Officer

2

🦊

I dig, I dig ‼🐈‼

Wellss

Tycoon

2

Channel sales

One of my biggest issues is that no one is owning up to giving the wrong number in the first place. My manager is blaming his manager, so I went directly to her & she won't own up to it either. I understand that I'm responsible for my finances but if I had to went to the CRO & asked what my target was, he would've told me to check with my manager. So we'd then be in a never ending loop

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

2

☕️

Sounds like you need a strong RevOps team to build better dashboards for promotions like this.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Do you have the target your manager provided you in writing? The one he says was incorrect?

Wellss

Tycoon

1

Channel sales

Yess I do. I have the original goal in writing & where he confirmed that was the given goal after the fact. I tried using that in my defense but didn't get me very far

Sunbunny31

Politicker

0

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Reading through the rest of the comments, and I'm aggravated on your behalf.
It seems as though you are not going to get far on receiving this bonus, as not one person is willing to go to bat.
Do not forget this happened, and if/when something like this happens in the future, check and double check, but it's obviously broken any trust you have in this company to get things right or make them right when they mess up. I'm sorry.

Diablo

Politicker

2

Sr. AE

Sorry to hear that. If anything like this happens we get in writing that we need to sign. I discuss my achieved numbers during my 1-1 as well to make sure we are on the same page.

Wellss

Tycoon

0

Channel sales

I do have it in writing, in a powerpoint doc that he shared with us at least haha but even with that, we discussed the target throughout the quarter & he told me in November I was almost there already

TennisandSales

Politicker

2

Head Of Sales

Holy fucking shot i would be so pissed!!

Did you have any of this in writing? I would be going to HIS boss and throwing a fit.

Wellss

Tycoon

1

Channel sales

Oh trust me, I have it in writing & threw a fit to anyone that would listen. No one owned up to giving the wrong original wrong number in the first place so I'm basically at a stand still

youngsmoky

Celebrated Contributor

2

Senior Account Executive

That honestly sucks because it's their fault but I'd refer to your handbook.

I had a boss say if they didn't calculate our commission right and we corrected them, we'd get the money back. If they accidentally sent us more, it was ours to keep.

I looked at my commission report and I was accidentally awarded my coworker's $ for a client. So I reported it to payroll.

Turns out the "you keep it!" rule only took effect until after the check was cut. But they let me keep half.

(side note - the real term is "gypped" which refers to gypsies and people consider that a slur so I'd avoid it in the future.)

Wellss

Tycoon

2

Channel sales

Unfortunately we're still very start uppy and don't really have much in our hand book that relates to this. Would def be useful though!
& thank you for informing me on that! I didn't know that, learn something new everyday. I picked a new word in the title to be safe!

youngsmoky

Celebrated Contributor

2

Senior Account Executive

Haha I like it! Deceived does make it sound more devious.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Jumping in to say that I appreciate your correction AND the context.

HVACexpert

Politicker

1

sales engineer

This sounds awful and I’m sorry

Wellss

Tycoon

0

Channel sales

appreciate it!

RandyLahey

Politicker

1

Account Executive

This is disgusting.

LightingLeader

Politicker

1

Specification Sales

I would start looking for another job and maybe even sue for that bonus

Wellss

Tycoon

1

Channel sales

My initial reaction was to start looking for a new job but to add a bit more context to this - I've been at the company three years now & this is my first actual complaint with them.
So all things considered, they've been great to me for the most part! I think problems are now arising because of new management they've brought in. Still want my money though

saaskicker

Celebrated Contributor

0

Enterprise AE

If you're comfortable, i think you can go above the CRO and ask for it. Worst thing they can say is no. If they continue to brush you under the rug, go rogue and post the powerpoint slides in writing of your goal, the number you hit and post in a very public slack channel asking if anyone else is struggling to get their bonus payment.
lmk if you go the public shame route, want to follow along with some popcorn.

ChumpChange

Politicker

0

Channel Manager

Yeah... this definitely an escalation. There has to be accountability on their part because this impacts compensation which impacts your life outside of work.

goose

Politicker

0

Sales Executive

That's bullshit. Either they were stringing you along or they moved the goal post. Should have gotten something in writing that clearly articulated the goal and your achievement.
Next time...

Mendizo

Opinionated

0

Sr. Director

I'm sorry this happened to you! Assuming that there was no legitimate mistake (and doesn't sound like it frankly), you may be SOL.
Frankly, I think this is a good signal for you to consider a move. Any company that messes with Sales comp is NOT trustworthy enough to be at. I can't even begin to count how many stories I've heard where these companies ultimately do more and more to pay out less, trying to boost their margins, and ultimately end up in the toilet (figuratively, if not actually financially).
Integrity is #1 for Sales, and that goes just as much for leadership as for an AE. Compensation drives motivation and behaviors, and if they are willing to mess with stated incentives and then not own up to it, they are not to be trusted on anything else.

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