I've been working as a sales manager with five AEs on my team for the last 9 months after working as a successful AE at my company.
The first quarter went well and I hit just over 100% of my team target as well as ~125% of my own target (was a player/manager for the first three months). Things haven't been going as well over the past six months and one of my big concerns is money.
I know that I can consistently earn $20K in commission each quarter (on top of an $85K base salary) and there is minimal risk as there is no cliff so if I had a bad quarter and I'd still get some commission at least.
In comparison the management role requires me to hit 70% of my target to get 70% of my bonus and considering that 80% is seen as success in our company (100% is a stretch target) it is incredibly hard to get to that target.
I've not gotten my bonus last quarter and it's doubtful that we'll make it this quarter so it feels like I've taken a 50% pay cut for more responsibility which keeps increasing (targets have gone up from $420K a quarter to $750K with no additional headcount).
Therefore I'm thinking of going back to being an AE, not having to deal with any of the added pressure and earn more money. The concern here though is that this is my shot at management at an org that I've been at for almost four years and if I call it quits now I've blown my shot and wouldn't be considered for roles like this again unless I jumped ship.
Would be interested to get some thoughts from fellow salespeople as to what they would do in my situation.
