Hey fellow sales savage,
I'm currently talking to a startup that wants me to come onboard as their CRO and essentially build out their entire sales org. The challenge I'm having is that they want to build minimum quota attainment into my plan for receiving any commission.
I think this is a terrible idea, I have something similar to where I am now and it sucks because let's face it, its enterprise SaaS and deals take time which means you will have ebbs and flows. Honestly, this is a great opportunity that includes significant co-ownership of the business, so I might accept it for myself even though I don't like it.
However, I'm more concerned that it will set precedence for the AEs and SDRs I will bring on board for the team, and I definitely don't want something like that in their plans.
Anyway, I have tried to explain to the chairman and majority owner the downside and unfairness of something like this. I have told him that there will be ups and downs and sometimes you will have somebody who won't get to the threshold one quarter even though they have been working their ass off. Perhaps they just closed a big deal last quarter at 200% of their quarterly number, but then they get to 49% the next quarter and get nothing and this will be highly demotivating to them.
On the other hand, he has said that if we don't get to our minimum threshold then we as a team are not succeeding and he wants everybody to know that and feel it. I can understand his point, and I also want everybody to understand that not making your number is not acceptable. However, I still think this is not the way to accomplish it.
I have proposed that we instead incorporate a sliding scale for commissions, so if you make 0-25% of your quota you get 25% of your normal commission percentage, if you make 25-50% you get 50%, and so on. He said he is open to discussing and also mentioned that maybe the attainment could be annual instead which I think is complicated.
He has asked me to come back with suggestions for a different model and so I turn to you guys:
- how would you articulate that the model of a minimum threshold for attainment is not reasonable?
- what other model would you suggest that still addresses his need for making it clear that we are not succeeding at 50% of our number?
I could only find one other post on this topic, so I assume this is not that common and the post also didn't go into alternative models. You know either than PAY ME ;-)
Thanks for your input!
Anywho here is that other post: https://bravado.co/war-room/posts/50-minimum-quota-to-qualify-for-commissions
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