What was your best commission check that, if you were being honest, you didn’t really earn?

I was in an overlay role where I only had to be tagged on the opportunity in order to get credit. Didn’t have to source the opportunity, lead the sales motion in any way, or even close it.


Three monster deals happened to close in the same month that I was tagged in and the next month I caught myself a tidy little $90,000 check. Two months later the “business reviewed the viability of keeping the team” and I was given a month to find something new in the company.

🏰 War Stories
📈 Closing
🎉 Wins
20
CuriousFox
WR Officer
10
🦊
Shit I wish this happened to me. Unbelievable check friend 🎉
jefe
Arsonist
1
🍁
Amen
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
8
☕️
You earned it fair and square, my friend, by simply breathing. The best checks.
milestones
Fire Starter
1
Sr. Named Account Manager
Definitely didn’t lose sleep over it. 😂
Incognito
WR Officer
7
Master of Disaster
Telling someone to call someone else for 10%of a $250,000 deal. 

Horse sales be like that. 
BmajoR
Arsonist
6
Account Executive
A win is a win, I sleep just fine regardless of how the money came to me. 
someoneinsales
Tycoon
4
Director of Sales
Same situation happened to me. The company I was at was acquired. I was an overlay and all I had to do was build a 1 slide PPT for the AE. The AE closed the deal for $702k and I got 12% comish on that since it brought me into accelerators as well. 

Left the company because I knew the overlay team was either going to be let go or moved under a different team.
milestones
Fire Starter
1
Sr. Named Account Manager
Overlay roles are always fickle. I knew it wouldn’t last. 
someoneinsales
Tycoon
1
Director of Sales
Get the easy comish and get out.
SaaSam
Politicker
4
Account Executive
I had a pretty cool manager once that would slap my name on his deals for my first quarter. I would maybe listen in on some of the demos but that's it.

I'm sure he benefitted and it wasn't purely out of the goodness of his heart but still, cool guy.

That first quarter brought in a $9,000 check.
jefe
Arsonist
0
🍁
I've done that where I got the same upside no matter what, and needed to throw a bone to people on my team. There was a commission gateway/minimum to get paid out at all, and I didn't want people not making money for the work they did.
UrAssIsSaaS
Arsonist
4
SaaS Eater
Had a rep depart on my team and right after they left and account IBed for a 200k deal. Took my team into the juicy part of my comp plan and added like 10k to my commission. I think I spent all of 4 minutes on the phone with the decision maker. Took me longer to draft the contracts than anything else. 
funcoupons
WR Officer
4
👑
An easy few thousand when my sales manager closed a deal right before he was officially promoted but put it into my name because he wasn’t eligible for commission anymore. He did it for each one of us so I didn’t feel guilty. 
rubberducky
Politicker
3
SAE
Covid hit. I was selling collaboration software and did my year in about 2 weeks and received about 100 inbounds a day. This continued until the beginning of this year. They spread the pay, and I received around €20k a month for 8 months.
CaneWolf
Politicker
2
Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract
Wow, this makes me insanely jealous. Bluebirds have been a minimal presence in my career and certainly never earned me more than a few grand total.
artofsales
Good Citizen
2
Sr. Director of Enterprise Sales
Closed a deal which was $200k MRR is 2.4mn ARR. Largest ever deal in the company Got the usual commission with a cut off at 150% achievement.
jefe
Arsonist
1
🍁
I never understand why leaders cap commissions.
alecabral
Arsonist
1
Director - Digital Sales Transformation
50k just for being the previous territory owner of an account I had started prospecting in but had to drop as the FY changed. Loved it.
mitts2
Politicker
0
Account Executive
Colleague transitioned to a different position internally leaving me with a contract that just needed to be routed for signature. They signed a few days later. Easiest couple grand I've ever made.
SiliconBBQ
Politicker
0
The Metal Rooster
did you work for Snoracle?
milestones
Fire Starter
1
Sr. Named Account Manager
Never.
SiliconBBQ
Politicker
0
The Metal Rooster
smart
Prunetracey
Fire Starter
0
VP Growth
You fell ass backwards into that. Nice.
milestones
Fire Starter
0
Sr. Named Account Manager
You always work the hardest on the small ones. Nice when the inverse is true. Such is the life of a savage.
burytherail
Opinionated
0
New Logo AE
Had an overlay role a few years back where I had to be involved in at least one meeting with the client, or source the deal to get credit.  Management realized how easy the commission could be halfway through the sales year and canceled a $40K check due to me on the day that commissions were finalized because they "decided to interpret the comp plan differently."  I lost that battle even after pointing out that management's the one who published and signed the comp plan.  Almost quit that day.  Still my highest earning year to date.
draculina
Fire Starter
0
process development specialist
my first ever. sales support here, we got yearly commission based on the conracts we were involved in selling. it was my 8th month, obviously i didn't sell anything because i was not involved in many projects, but my manager told me i was gonna get a commission.

he was explaining that it was a small amount but i was new, and i interrupted him to ask "wait -- i haven't sold anything. why would i get a check?" he was surprised by that question to say the least lol.
8

Best way to spend a big commission check?

Discussion
13
28
Members only

What is the first thing you treated yourself to from your first commission check?

Question
34
55
Members only

Sales milestone: Received my first 5 figure commission check!

Discussion
38