A friend of mine is an established, successful salesperson who is looking for a new opportunity. He recently received an offer from a large corporation that had a 6 or 7 page commission document. The document looked like a court filing. After sifting through as much as we could tolerate, we came across this gem:<\/p>\n
All newly hired participants will receive a quota for incentive purposes on or before the 30th day<\/strong><\/font> of their territory assignment and no later than the 90th day<\/strong><\/font> of their territory assignment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSo, for sure before the 30th day. Unless it is no later than the 90th day. Obviously, it cannot be “on or before” while simultaneously being “no later than.”<\/p>\n
This commission plan is a good example of why it is important to keep them relatively simple. Few things turn off a good salesperson faster than a suspiciously-worded commission document. Keep it simple and always walk a candidate through an example of how the commission plan works. If you leave it up to them to sort it out, you may just lose the strong candidate.<\/p>\n
BTW, my friend turned down the offer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A friend of mine is an established, successful salesperson who is looking for a new opportunity. He recently received an offer from a large corporation that had a 6 or 7 page commission document. The document looked like a court filing. After sifting through as much as we could tolerate, we came across this gem: All newly hired participants will receive a quota for incentive purposes on or before the 30th day of their territory assignment and no later than the 90th day of their territory assignment. So, for sure before the 30th day. Unless it is no later than the 90th day. Obviously, it cannot be “on or before”… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"","bgseo_robots_follow":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hiring-salespeople","category-sales"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5Oho-7j","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":540,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/01\/pour-some-sugar-on-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":453,"position":0},"title":"Pour Some Sugar On Me","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"January 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Each morning I peruse the sales employment ads to see who is hiring and what ads they are placing. I came across a local company I have never heard of and was impressed by a bullet point in their ad: Accountable for achieving sales goals within an assigned territory which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Compensation"","block_context":{"text":"Compensation","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/compensation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1238,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/10\/product-vs-service-sales-compensation\/","url_meta":{"origin":453,"position":1},"title":"Product vs. Service Sales Compensation","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"October 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We have been running into this topic of late with offers in different industries and it is a real stumbling block for some companies.\u00a0 I have worked as a salesperson for both product sales and service sales with different commission plans.\u00a0 The crux of the issue falls on margin. We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Compensation"","block_context":{"text":"Compensation","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/compensation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":371,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/10\/sales-comp-potpourri\/","url_meta":{"origin":453,"position":2},"title":"Sales Comp Potpourri","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"October 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"We are working through some offers for sales candidates with multiple clients this week and thought it would be helpful to discuss some general points. Salary - we're big believers in a modest\/decent salary. The best plans we see provide a salary to cover the basic needs of the salesperson.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Compensation"","block_context":{"text":"Compensation","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/compensation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":160,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2006\/07\/right-rewards-for-a-money-motivation\/","url_meta":{"origin":453,"position":3},"title":"Right Rewards for a Money Motivation","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"July 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Money motivation amongst salespeople is one of the most misconstrued points in successful sales management and hiring. At the risk of splitting hairs, motivation needs to be separated from reward. This distinction is the key to differentiating between what motivates strong salespeople - money - and what rewards them. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Hiring Salespeople"","block_context":{"text":"Hiring Salespeople","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/hiring\/hiring-salespeople\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1180,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2007\/09\/sandbagging\/","url_meta":{"origin":453,"position":4},"title":"Sandbagging","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"September 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"We're working through some commission plans with our customers and one of the plans has a function to where the salesperson has to clear a certain quarterly revenue level before the commission plan kicks in.\u00a0 This approach is somewhat common and has its merits.\u00a0 Personally, I am not a fan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Compensation"","block_context":{"text":"Compensation","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/compensation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/windowslivewritersandbagging-cc85money-bag-picture.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1668,"url":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/2008\/07\/a-fundamental-lack-of-communication\/","url_meta":{"origin":453,"position":5},"title":"A Fundamental Lack Of Communication","author":"Derrick Moe","date":"July 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The more companies we work with, the more we see communication breakdowns being the root of most problems.\u00a0 Our work with our clients spans more than just recruiting.\u00a0 We assist them in onramping their new salesperson.\u00a0 This function places us in the unique position of working with both the salesperson\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Communication"","block_context":{"text":"Communication","link":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/category\/communication\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/selectmetrix.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}