C
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comissionimpossible

Enterprise Account Executive

Fire Starter
Contributor
Old School Bravo

Should I still carry a personal sales quota if I'm getting promoted to sales manager?

My manager mentioned to me that I'm getting promoted from an enterprise AE to the Head of Enterprise sales in a couple of months. I'm super pumped for the opportunity to step up. They also mentioned that I might have to carry a portion of my quota as I manage the team.


Has anyone had a similar experience?


Would love some guidance on advantages / disadvantages of carrying personal quota whilst managing a team. Would also like to hear from anyone that's moved from being an individual contributor to the manager of that team.

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14 comments

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sales7
Politicker
6
Commercial Product Enablement
I would not advise that they do that as it splits your focus between managing & selling individually.

It sounds like they want their cake and to eat it too. Figure out which role you want and make arguments that you need 100% of your time for that focus
CuriousFox
WR Officer
4
🦊
No. The either want you to be a manager or they want you to be a rep. Which is it?
braintank
Politicker
2
Enterprise Account Executive
This! If you're doing two jobs you should get two salaries too.
UrAssIsSaaS
Arsonist
2
SaaS Eater
Double tapping on everything others have said, its a bad idea and you should push back hard. it divides your time and you end up 75% effective at both best case scenario. 
FeedTheKids
Politicker
1
Solutions Consultant
Depends on the market. I have a buddy who did this and was able to cleanup nicely. 

Don't think it's do-able in my current company... 

Conflict of interests. (Selling vs helping someone else sell) biggest thing is availability. As a manager you need to have time for your team, as a rep you need to be busy selling. 
desperado
Politicker
1
Head of Sales
I do this now and it’s kind of a nightmare. Definitely have your quota be reflective of the team rather than splitting responsibilities managing & selling.
alecabral
Arsonist
1
Director - Digital Sales Transformation
Well, it's not like you can say no, or can you? If you can get away from it, I'd say do so. In my opinion, it doesn't make sense that you as a manager have the same responsibility as an IC. This will distract you from your actual focus as head of sales, which is to actually serve your team, not compete with them.
comissionimpossible
Fire Starter
1
Enterprise Account Executive
Biggest concern management is the short term (annual target) impact the switch might have on revenue. I'm definitely going to give it my best shot though.


I'm thinking that I can ease off prospecting so that I can gradually shift into a full time manager position. 
softwarebro
Politicker
1
Sales Director
Have been in the player/coach role before. I made commission when I closed deals and I made commission when my team closed deals. Truthfully I really enjoyed it. My guess is your company is on the smaller side?
comissionimpossible
Fire Starter
0
Enterprise Account Executive
We're about 70 people. 5 AEs, no SDRs, marketing function kicking off shortly. Yeah I think I'll need to have a blended quota but can stop prospecting as heavily so that I eventually phase myself out of being an IC.
softwarebro
Politicker
0
Sales Director
It can be fruitful if the comp plan and expectations are agreeable
CaneWolf
Politicker
0
Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
SaaSguy
Tycoon
0
Account Executive
No. You can either lead of carry a bag, doing both is distracting from doing either one well.
SportsSalesGuy
Tycoon
0
Enterprise Account Executive
uhhhhh no

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