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It’ll be a near miss for me, the first miss in six years. To say it feels like I’ve been kicked in the balls is an understatement, especially as Mrs K is out of work. Next years targets - TBC - look even more challenging. I’m looking forward to the “week of forgetting both temporarily” coming up.
How are you getting on ?
After an Mbo in may we changed to financial year but me and the team are 182% of revenue target at the moment. Been an exceptional year & told them to quieten down for Xmas .
Wow that's excellent, congrats!
Our year end is July, but currently on 60%, 40% through the year, so looking good 😊
I am not in sales but am still bonused. It has been a rough year mostly and whilst you are always told that a bonus is exactly that, I haven’t missed one for over 10 years so you do kind of come to depend on it as part of your salary.
This year might be the once in a decade year!
My old firm used to have a word for folks who hit their targets year after year...... sandbaggers 😉
It's not a reflection of your ability or effort, sometimes shit happens. Assume you will still get some form of PRP, and as solarider said you should treat it as a bonus, not something to count on.
This quarter isn't good tbh....
Declining market and a belief we can increase volume isn't compatible
it would be interesting to know what industries you are in?
My old firm used to have a word for folks who hit their targets year after year…… sandbaggers 😉
Not sales myself but have sales people in my remit. Nothing wrong with a bit of sandbagging, the bottom draw is being filled now so we start the new year “better than expectd” 🫣
ah yes, I did some time in sales (didn't like it) but a lot more in supply chain including allocations when demand was tight. I know how tough sales is but some could get very aggressive when an allocation based on business priorities meant they missed a quarterly target!
I also has the ability to request a waiver with sales directors where targets did get missed, how often that would be called on never depended on how rude they'd been in our discussions!!
And the daftness of 'if this order goes out on Monday rather than Friday then the whole world implodes' I never really got over.
It’s not a reflection of your ability or effort, sometimes shit happens. Assume you will still get some form of PRP, and as solarider said you should treat it as a bonus, not something to count on.
Personally I've always lived to my basic, and my commissions are used the year after e.g. this years holiday is paid for my last years commissions so I'm not under extra pressure to pay back something I haven't yet earned.
No PRP for me as I understand it, I'm staring at 85% OTE. But, I've ranged anywhere from 112% - 206% over the last six years so I guess the balancing had to happen at some point. Industry is mainly public sector and I represent a new entrant into a mature market so its going to be a bumpy ride for sure. But, I changed jobs 12 months ago from the leading Supplier to test my mettle as a Sales Director/Senior AE launching a new line of business into the Org, so I brought this challenge upon myself!
I’m just thankful I never made the decision to go into sales. I just know it’s something I’d really struggle with. Congratulations to everyone who’s done well in a truly challenging year.
Work to financial years, but just hit 82% of target 75% of the way through the year, so won’t be stewing too much over the next week.
Won’t be as big a year as last year was post covid, but anything over 100% is a bonus!
Not in sales, but annual bonus is around 25% of total pay and tied to company performance, bounded to between 80% and 125% of target. Looking like 80% this year, and a below-inflation pay rise. That said, many other companies in the sector are laying off and we (so far) are not so it's a price I'm willing to pay.
Like others I usually live off basic, and bonus pays for nice things like holidays. Unusually I have "pre-spent" a chunk of my bonus this year on a new bike for Christmas (first new-bike Xmas since a Raleigh Tomahawk in the 70s!).
My rationale was to spend the money before inflation kicked in, and got a 0% finance deal so I don't have to pay most of it until the bonus arrives anyway. Just as well I bought when I did, as Bird have announced the end of 0% financing this month!
Recruitment (that's sales, right?) here.
122% of target in a really tough, candidate driven market.
Pretty pleased with that.
And on that note @Lunge, when you're next in London / the SE let me know, I owe you a beer/coffee/lunch for the intro to Mark.
It's been a solid year. Globally I think we finish around 25% up on orders in, but about 15% on sales. Still a bit of a backlog due to the supply issues. Personally I've just finished ahead of target as I got lucky with a few nice orders going out in the last couple of months. Will be the first time in a few years. Very much up and down in our industry. Next year will be more of a challenge I think.
@kryton57, thank you, I'll drop you a DM when I'm down. Mark's a good guy, hope he helped.
Do all companies not have people at the top who set mental targets then use them as an excuse to not pay bonuses? Must just be the ones I pick then!
I asked why our reasoning for lower than expected sales wasn't adjust during the year or set at a sensbile level as it must have been set in full knowledge that Covid was a thing, I didn't get a sensible answer. Got to love investment funded start-ups who have hungry investers asking why they aren't seeing loads of money rolling in yet!
About 110% for the year. Very pleased with that as the expectations have gone up considerably. Got a great team of very well trained lead generators which makes my job easier. It has taken a lot of effort to get them there but it is paying dividends now.
Have never worked in sales - it's just not for me. A totally different mentality!
I worked at an ISP for a bit. It was early in the life of the company, and they'd decided not to pay commission/bonuses to sales people, because they didn't want their staff giving it the hard sell. A laudable approach.
But without bonuses, the two sales guys literally didn't work. They rocked up at 11am, put their feet up for a bit, and left at 3. Until they got fired. And the company realised that sales people needed a different motivation to the rest of the staff...
Anyway, good luck to all those struggling. Hope it turns out well for you in the end.
Do all companies not have people at the top who set mental targets then use them as an excuse to not pay bonuses? Must just be the ones I pick then!
No, and I think that says a lot about the company to be fair. Motivating sales people is a different ideology to other areas of the business, so giving them something totally unachievable will have the opposite effect, but as we all live in a world of growth expectation, there should always be an element of stretch to a target.
We mitigate it differently, with a two stage bonus. The standard scheme is a % of salary, based on EBIT, as we want profitable business, not just business for the sake of it & then I give my Head of Sales some key stretch targets which can be growth, product or segment based (or all three). He then chops it up by the sales team. The stretch targets have some big bonus numbers attached to them, which is what I would expect if it was myself doing the job.
In terms of ‘22 targets, we will be down on revenue, but come in on budget for EBIT, which is ultimately the important number. I work for a big global Tier 1 OEM in the automotive world, but we have increasingly relied on our aerospace & military segments over the past 12 months, as the automotive world is still struggling & forecasting to do so for at least another 12 months.
‘23 will be interesting for us, and me personally, as I am going from just the UK to Commercial Director for Northern Europe. There will be a few more zeros on the budgets & a few more on the headcount to worry about, but its the next step on the ladder.