sahil

Deepak Chopra of Sales

Notable Contributor

Celebrated Contributor

Notorious Answer

+13

[Poll] - Should reps be paid for progress on deals?

Talked to the CEO of SetSail.co recently, who has a unique idea for sales compensation:

1/3 Base

1/3 Commission

1/3 "Deal Progress"

Deal Progress = You did the right things in the sales process, even if customer didn't get closed.

Example: You sent reminder email 1 day before call. You ran a good disco and uncovered pains. You replied to a customer email with 60 minutes with answers. The customer viewed the proposal. You got to the economic buyer from the champion. Etc.

Basically, you did the things that you can control right.

Thoughts on this?

Should a portion of rep OTE be tied to "doing the right things" in a sales process?

Attached poll

Yes No I have no idea wtf that means Other (comment below)

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

🧢 Sales Management

🤷‍♂ Poll

💰 Compensation

24 comments

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salesnerd

WR Officer

Head of Growth

When you think about it, this is how SDRs get paid a lot of the time.

Demo completed = progress
Sales accepted = progress
Deal closed = progress (duh)

I understand that there is value in completing each of the actions you listed (You replied to a customer email with 60 minutes with answers. The customer viewed the proposal, etc.) but those are all points in the sales process that should be handled via coaching vs. payment.

fuzzy

Notable Contributor

CMO (Chief Meme Officer)

This just makes me think back to school when I'd get the right answer in algebra but just make up my work, so I'd get deducted points.

CashKing

Good Citizen

Sales Manager

Did Jordan get points for crossing the half court line? Did Brady get points for getting the ball to the red zone? Helllllll no

RedLightning

Politicker

Mid-Market AE

field goals?

CaneWolf

Politicker

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

There's a double-edged sword aspect to this proposal that I think demands caution. Raise your hand here if you follow the exact process your company lays out every time to close a deal. Nobody? This can also be an excuse to NOT pay people who find different ways to get deals done.

At my last job, the CEO was a deal killer who would rather you follow his perfect little process then actually get the deal done. I closed some deals despite him but if he had the ability to take away 2/3 of my comp for not following the process, he absolutely would have.

This, like many things, is a good idea but absolutely lethal in the wrong hands.

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

It’s an interesting question. Never heard of this proposed before...

However, at the end of the day, someone needs to be held to account for revenue growth and its a large burden to shoulder and its the one thing that can’t be faked. So, as an AE, yeah, why not? I’d love to be paid for failing to close 😂

What I’d be interested to know is... are you just pulling this model out of thin air or have you seen this implemented?

sahil

Notable Contributor

Deepak Chopra of Sales

@CadenceCombat - this model was implemented at Google, and it improved sales efficiency by 50%. Then the CEO built a whole company around the same thing.

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

@sahil Well, then yeah, that 100% gets my attention. Would love more info about how Google implemented this. Where can I read about it?

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

I've been thinking about this lately...how someone can be a rock star salesperson but still won't close every deal because there are deal killers that can happen that are beyond what a salesperson has control over.

On one hand, that's life. Not every deal is going to close. This is why we get a salary.

On the other, it really does suck to spend hours on a deal, doing all the right things only to lose it because of something outside your control. We work hard, it would be nice to be compensated for that even when a close doesn't happen.

However, some tough questions would arise such as:

- At what point would a salesperson be compensated?

- How much compensation is fair?

- What things are considered outside of one's control? Who decides that?

I like this idea but there would be a lot to iron out, and I can see it becoming a point of contention between managers/salespeople.

Dancingking

Good Citizen

Account Manager

No, this is what my base is for.

RedLightning

Politicker

Mid-Market AE

I really think there are too many variables for this to be universally applied. I think the concept is pretty interesting, but you'd need the company to be killing it, have an extremely airtight process that is repeatable, and you'd need a pretty big customer universe to sustain it. It could end with a stagnation point where nothing new is tested.

Salespreuner

Big Shot

Regional Sales Director

Partial yes and majorly no. Revenue counts more!

LordBusiness

Politicker

Chief Revenue Officer

This is funny, its like a sales participation trophy

Stringer

Arsonist

SDR

My previous co I worked 1.5 MM deals. If they paid me based on how far along the deal was, they would lose money. 70% of deals get to negotiation/pricing and never close. Imagine if they were cutting me checks before it ever closed... When the deal is done, and the customer paid, 10% would hit my bank account. I'd rather have the full commission at the end, because progress payment would be shit

Now my deals are 15K - 40K, way too short to get paid based on the progress of the deal. It's either a good fit, let's move to a decision, or it's not a good fit, and let's shake hands as friends and part ways.

NorthernSalesGuru

Politicker

Manager, Outbound Sales

I don’t know how measurable and scalable this would be...

seems very subjective.

and not to be a downer but kind of sounds like a “participation” medal. Companies don’t keep the lights on long term unless business is won.

SalesViking

Valued Contributor

Partner Dev Consultant

If that is what you want, then go apply for an SDR role

hooraysales

Old School Bravo

Sales Manager

lol... no.

Accidental_Sales_Guy

Politicker

Account Executive

I can already see Sales Ops and Commissions losing their minds over this

GigabitChaser

Valued Contributor

Sr Account Executive

You get paid to close.

softwarebro

Politicker

Sales Director

Sales is about performance and execution but producing revenue IS your job.

komcalpine

Valued Contributor

Corp Account Exec

Whats stopping reps from progressing every meeting they touch to the stage before closing?

SalesSpectre

Opinionated

Paying me to update the crm? Nah still not doin it

stanrym

Valued Contributor

CEO

who has successfully done that? with "deal process" commission?

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Wouldn’t want this logic to work against me in the case where I was way above my number and then some portion would be dictated by proper follow up on other items. Doing the right things should lead to a signed agreement.

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sahil

[Poll] - Should reps be paid for progress on deals?

Should a portion of rep OTE be tied to "doing the right things" in a sales process?

24 comments

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