TheEnglishMajor

Account Executive

No one has ever hit plan at my company.

We went to market in 2019, huge start with big customers. I started in 2020 as the 4th AE. The team has turned over except for two people, new leadership has been in place for over a year and team is growing again (at 8 AES now), and the whole time, no one has ever hit their quarterly quotas.

is this normal? the teams quota combined is probably about 10x what we're trying to hit in ARR this year

💰 Compensation

☁️ Software Tech

📠 Startup

22 comments

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Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

The pandemic hit a lot of sales teams hard. I wouldn’t pass judgement just yet.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

We got hit pretty damn hard too. I get it.

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

Absolutely

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

Usually that means that the funding is based/targeting on a higher ARR. They can’t plan lower since that means that the targets aren’t getting hit. Your management needs to adjust expectations, but I doubt that would happen.

Filth

Politicker

Live Filthy or Die Clean

Always a shame that management/exec don't pivot expectations as quickly as the market shifts.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

I mean, you have to change expectations, management just doesn’t want to do that.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Are you getting paid enough, or is the quota miss making everyone unhappy? Are things looking up at all?

Filth

Politicker

Live Filthy or Die Clean

Right? If you are making enough on what you close individually regardless of hitting plan/quota then it shouldn't much matter. Now if those individual commissions are penalized by not hitting, then there is a problem.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Exactly. The other downside is missing accelerators, if those are applied to overachievement.

TheEnglishMajor

Opinionated

Account Executive

Also we have been at the same ARR since dec 2020

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

You haven't grown since 12/2020?

butwhy

Politicker

Solutions Engineer

DANGER, WILL ROBINSON - DANGER.

goose

Politicker

Sales Executive

This is a problem.

Hoopnip

Politicker

Commercial AE

Crazy that we as reps still stay loyal to companies like this… It’s like believing you can change your husband or wife but it’s still the same person years later ….

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Really a tough call without more background but no one hitting plan likely means MGMT needs to review targets

LasVegasLyle

Fire Starter

Senior Account Executive

Suck at comp planning but sick music

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

I laughed out loud, thank you sir

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

Professional Day Ruiner

management has unrealistic expectations. At least it doesn't sound like they're holding it against you that you aren't hitting quota.

It's also probably the reason theres so much turnover though. No one wants to be in a role where they feel like they can't perform well

SaaSguy

Tycoon

Account Executive

Move on, you cant get paid if you arent selling a product that people buy

CastleIsland

Tycoon

Associate Account Director

Definitely move on, what your describing is a horseshit, can't be fixed situation. Run!!

andrea

Valued Contributor

Global Head of Partnerships

This is unfortunately the case in many companies. I used to work for a tech giant where 0/70 sales from my team hit the yearly quota.

Eventually, over 55 people left within the first year, but they never augmented the quota.

Some companies fail to understand that quotas should be realistic above all.

It is particularly the case in EMEA where sales cycles last longer and the ACV is lower.

AnchorPoint

Politicker

Business Coach

That is not a plan... find another home.

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