Quote:
Originally Posted by CTinline-six
Sales in general is a shitty field. Yeah you can make good money, but you will always be pushed harder by whoever you work for to sell more than last quarter. It's not as bad if you really enjoy the products you sell, or work for a more laid back company. I have several vendor contacts in the IT field, and even the ones who are extremely successful often question if the compensation is worth the time spent away from their families and hobbies and constantly being on the road.
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I've coined the annual quota increase as the "Success Tax". It really depends on the company how egregious it will be. Also a lot of it depends on your manager. One of the past companies I worked for in sales, my then manager had a lot of discretion on how the overall team quota was distributed to the individual engineers. While this is nice to help out those that are facing a tough budgetary cycle with their territory, it can fall into being totally unfair due to the specter of favoritism. As an engineer, I've had an individual number I was responsible for and now I'm on a team quota. I prefer the team quota as it promotes collaboration among team members to help each other out. While I won't potentially make as much as if I had an individual number, I'm ok with that. Also, bumping up ones quota has been a method of forcing out a person that in the view of the company has become expensive.
Money in sales isn't about just straight commission payout either. All companies have a concept of accelerators where each dollar of commission pay out above your quota is paid out at a multiple. The one company I worked for paid out 2x from 100 to 125% of quota, 3x from 125% to 150%, and 1x after 150%. I made a ton of money during my time at this company but as stated, the work life balance wasn't worth it. Then there are the special bonus programs called SPIFFs which can also add significantly to your yearly payout. I had pulled in one SPIFF bonus where I was paid out about $30k if I remember correctly.
Sales also has a lot of flexibility which you won't get from a normal butt in seat position. I have tons of flexibility with my work schedule where I can set meetings when they're more convenient for me. I work from home. Any travel expense to visit clients or partners is paid out such as mileage, tolls, parking, etc.
Again, it's about finding the right company to work for. I'm over the moon with my current employer and have no desire to go anywhere.