Sourpatch100

Account Executive

What are your thoughts on quarterly commissions?

Fellow Sales Savages,

What are your thoughts on quarterly commissions payout?

The industry seems to be changing.

60/40 base to commission, no guaranteed 90-day payout and quarterly payout on closed won deals

What do you all deem the most common plans and what to look for or avoid?

💰 Compensation

42 comments

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DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

Rolling 20's all day

It's my money, I NEED IT NOW!
I'm a fan of monthly payouts. For arguments sake, I don't want to wait 3 months to be paid on a deal I closed at the start of the quarter.

MCP

Valued Contributor

Sales Director

JG Wentworth, 877-CASH-NOW

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

JG Wentworth is that u?

Sourpatch100

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

You are right! Is this something you’d feel comfortable negotiating? If you get an offer letter of course.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

Rolling 20's all day

Small org and open to change.. maybe yes? If it is somewhere that they value the individual to help shape the company structure and success, you might give it a try.

But if it's not a small company, or if this is how their entire large team does it I don't think you will be able to.

Sourpatch100

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Most definitely. My head is spinning trying to understand why some orgs operate this way.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

Rolling 20's all day

What do they sell? I think that may be the main factor. Sorry, it's hard to tell not knowing context.

Sourpatch100

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Video conferencing software

CoorsKing

WR Officer

Retired King of the Coors Knights

Monthly payout on closed deals from the month prior.

sometimes there are claw backs for churn/overdue accounts, sometimes not

Accelerators vary by company & team

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Give me monthly or give me death.

Sourpatch100

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

I was waiting for your response 😂 There was a feeling I’d see your screen name soon😎

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

I don't play about my money. 🥳

Sourpatch100

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

👏🏼👏🏼

Gyro25

Notorious Answer

Account Executive

Yeah, I get paid monthly on commissions.. Quarterly doesn't sound great unless you have a super high base to cover all your expenses.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

Live within your means and your base should be plenty. The commissions are where you get to be a little reckless depending on your personal finance preferences but if you cant cover your daily living with your base salary, you're living beyond what you can afford.

FattySnacks

Politicker

Senior Account Executive

^ probably one of the best pieces of advice you’ll see on here. If you can live off your base you can do a lot with commissions. Never gamble on money that’s not guaranteed to afford your lifestyle.

Do.it.for.the.checks

Politicker

Account Executive

So true. I'll admit it's hard, but very very good strategy.

Plis it's kind of a built in savings strategy. You get a decent commission that you don't need for your lifestyle. Drop it in a robo advisor account and jump your savings goals

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

I currently get quarterly commissions because your quotas are quarterly and my comp is based off of my teams performance for the quarter, and I dont really like it. Its nice when it comes every 3 months but its not something I think about or rely on. Would much prefer monthly.

Do.it.for.the.checks

Politicker

Account Executive

Fuck thay shit. I aint your bank

Sourpatch100

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

💯I’m curious why companies are starting to offer quarterly?

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Usually it is due to making accounting easier internally. Usually not always. It also is easier to track accelerators as opposed to monthly tracking if you have a quarterly quota

Sourpatch100

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Thanks for the insight. It made me flinch just a tad as my current situation only has 1 person in accounting, financing and legal department . Payments & invoicing tend to always be late 😞

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

That’s usually the way it is unfortunately. Wouldn’t stress about it too much. That person agreed to the job and it’s your companies problem not yours

Sourpatch100

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

🙌🏼

Sourpatch100

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Most definitely. That’s the tough part in this whacky world of sales. What do you deem as a high vs a low base?

CaneWolf

Politicker

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

I had it at one company and was a pretty big fan. That typically means your quotas are quarterly and reset so you can KILLLLLLLL it in a given quarter.

nevercoldagain

Opinionated

Account Executive

I worked for a company who switched us from monthly goals+commission over to quarterly goals+commission. The reason was that the top 10% reps could sandbag a couple blowout months, hit all their monthly accelerators with ease, and exceed their OTE without actually hitting their annual targets.

Basically, it was a move for the company and against the reps. But it didn't affect the bottom 90% reps almost at all as far as I could tell.

So I guess my point is, weigh all the factors and figure out how the different plans will affect your ability to hit your OTE.

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

sales

Have had it all. Best job I had was selling credit card processing software. It’s the software that runs when your credit card swipes. Got paid weekly there. Every Friday. It was dope.

MCP

Valued Contributor

Sales Director

I used to get every pay period. Typically $5-$10K, sometimes $15K, but it was paid against collections, not bookings.

Sourpatch100

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Damn that is dope. What the heck am I doing with my life?

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

sales

I only made like $900 a week but I was loaded

sellingsellssold

Politicker

SDR

I like to know that I’m actually getting paid for what I’m doing and I use my commission as my spending money and my salary I try to save

Sourpatch100

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Yes! I too am a fellow saver. Sales gives us the opportunity to live differently through financial freedom. Keep crushin👊🏼

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

I have been paid quarterly in my previous company and my current one. It’s fine by me. Monthly is nice but the quarterly commission works as well. Also I only get paid if the client pays us so there are times my commission is monthly due to payment terms and such

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

Director Sales and Market Development

Monthly, no question. Unless your quota is quarterly, then fuck it, sandbag that shit till last month of quarter. Instills bad behavior as you can tell from my last sentence.

ragnarlothbrok

Politicker

Key account manager

Not gonna lie I hate quarterly comp plans

OldDogNewTricks

Opinionated

Sales guy

Our parent company has always had monthly quotas but as our ICP has moved from SMB to mid market and enterprise, so has the sales cycle stretched out. So we've recently switched to quarterly quotas and comms. Which sucks tbh, i want my money sooner rather than later.

dwightyouignorantsale

Politicker

Account Executive

My company went from monthly to quarterly payouts last year and it fucking sucks. Not only do I only see commission checks 4 times a year instead of 12, they also have a lag period on top of the quarterly so technically it could take up to 5 months to get paid on a deal, depending on when it’s closed. Monthly > Quarterly always.

Sourpatch100

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Yikes. The lag is real. What was their reason for making the switch?

dwightyouignorantsale

Politicker

Account Executive

It was apparently easier for finance to calculate commissions quarterly vs monthly, which I don’t fully believe.

AnchorPoint

Politicker

Business Coach

I'm a big believer in 100% commission paid twice a month. Salary/Base is simply a commission paid over 12 months.

burytherail

Opinionated

New Logo AE

My company has quarterly payouts, however there’s a two month lag AFTER the quarter ends for them to “vet” the payouts before the check arrives. In other words, if you close a deal in month 1 of the quarter, you’re waiting 5 months to get paid. As a result, I’m a huge advocate for monthly.

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Sourpatch100

What are your thoughts on quarterly commissions?

42 comments

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