KindSalesGuy

Sr Account Director

Should all reps be paid the same pay structure?

What does everyone think regarding companies paying all reps the same comp structure? Should there be variance based on experience or should it be equal for everyone and truly only affected by sales production?

💰 Compensation

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funcoupons

WR Officer

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Same title? Same structure.

If you want to pay more experienced people more, that's cool but then you need different titles (Senior AE vs Junior AE) and different quotas. I expect that someone getting a base of 40k a year is going to have less expectation placed on them than someone getting 100k a year.

Also, it needs to be transparent as to why some people have higher comp than others. Like, in writing so reps know what's going on. "To be a Senior AE you need x years of experience/this quota attainment," and everyone needs to be treated the same. None of this "we worked together at x company so he gets 20k more. That poisons the well so fucking fast.

youKNOW

Politicker

Sales Manager

I agree with Coup on this. My company's structure has nothing to do with amount of time in the role, it's essentially totally merit based. As you build a larger and larger set of business, the pay increases on both the base and commission end with the title changing as well.

To answer the question...yes, the structure should be the same, but the pay rates can differ based on how well you sell.

KindSalesGuy

Member

Sr Account Director

Love the train of thought here and I agree with the logic here. It makes sense to have different titles and roles which one can progress through though these should be merit based.

Tomahawk

Member

Director of Commercial Sales

We have multiple levels within tiers in our org (SDR 1-3, AE 1-5, EAE 1-5) and each comes with a necessary threshold of experience and performance in the previous tier to promote. Higher tiers come with larger books of business and larger spend account as well as commensurately large quotas. On thing that is the same across all QCR positions is the commission rate.

KindSalesGuy

Member

Sr Account Director

Question, I've seen tenured reps so really well for a long time.. what should happen when a tenured rep stops producing for a period? Do you think it should be a hard "missed your numbers so we are letting you go" or does it make sense to potentially have a demotion structure?

Like if you promote to a high level in an organization but stop producing at that level does it make sense to let them go? Drop them to a lower title?

youKNOW

Politicker

Sales Manager

We've had it happen here. It usually involves a discussion with management and agreement that their business is underperforming. If everyone agrees, there's a reduction in goal and a corresponding reduction in pay.

Tomahawk

Member

Director of Commercial Sales

I see the value in having a ‘downgrade’ option but I also see two other points from personal experience (might not be super accurate): many sales pros would leave a position and seek out something else before taking a downgrade and if they got there, they’re likely to be able to perform at that level after a slump unless they got there on accident (which is a different problem altogether).

Avon

Politicker

Senior Account Executive

I left a (BDR)job because I was getting paid over 10k less than my coworker who I consistently outperformed. There’s no reason for this and it’s purely discrimination

Gyro25

Notorious Answer

Account Executive

If experience leads to them producing more, then maybe they should be paid a little more. But like you said, that's dependent on sales production. I'd be curious to know what others think of this.

Whosaidit

Politicker

Business Development Representative

I believe they should be payed differently dependent on the of level rep they are. For example, SDR1s should all be payed the same, and SDR2’s should be payed more but all of them should receive the same amount, Etc. Production should be a factor for better pay in my opinion as well.

KindSalesGuy

Member

Sr Account Director

AnchorPoint

Politicker

Business Coach

Not a yes or no question. It would rarely make sense for a new rep to be compensated the same as a veteran. At the end of the day, both should be based on results.

Whosaidit

Politicker

Business Development Representative

That’s a tough one. I’ve never believed demotions are ethical in a business sense. If the trend continues I would let them go or have a 1 on 1 to see why they are slacking. Also my friend, this is a anonymous war room. I’d change your name and profile pic!

cw95

Politicker

Sales Development Lead

100% NO. They should be paid on experience and what they've added.

linkedinconnectmaster

Politicker

CEO

GDO

Politicker

BDM

Theoretically no. Practically yes.

KindSalesGuy

Member

Sr Account Director

What do you mean by that? Is that an assumption that companies always tweak salary pay arbitrarily or companies aren't good at comp structures that are purely merit based?

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KindSalesGuy

Should all reps be paid the same pay structure?

17 comments

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