| ▲ | sofixa 3 days ago |
| Because sales people are used to work on incentives, including going over and getting rewarded for it. If they have a fixed salary with a high objective to "make it" (e.g. if you sell less than $X, you get fired), lots of sales folks will skip on it because they can't go over, and most probably prefer to have a quarter or two or year at e.g. 70% salary while working on longer term deals, rather than losing their job for not being good enough within that arbitrary time period. And going over their quota can be wildly lucrative depending on the terms. |
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| ▲ | Quarrel 3 days ago | parent [-] |
| FWIW, it seems like nowhere is this truer than SF/SV. Outside the bubble, it isn't always the case, or the structure can be a bit different, but salespeople in the Valley (as it were) are a different breed. |
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| ▲ | sofixa 3 days ago | parent | next [-] | | No, it's just how sales works, it's almost always on commission. | | |
| ▲ | vlovich123 3 days ago | parent [-] | | Tesla salespeople do not work on commission. Also you can align incentives through stock grants which appreciate by you selling more. | | |
| ▲ | sofixa 3 days ago | parent [-] | | > Tesla salespeople do not work on commission I work with tech salespeople with a variety of former employers as tech sales people, and I've never heard of anyone having worked without a commission. I'm vaguely in tech sales myself (solutions architect) and I'm on commission too, and so is everyone who joins our division from similar employment (solutions engineers/architect, or even customer success folks). | | |
| ▲ | vlovich123 3 days ago | parent [-] | | While I agree it's the norm, clearly Tesla has gone a different route and it's possible to do so. |
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| ▲ | cestith 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Ask a local real estate agent or real estate broker how much base pay they make. Or, heck, a car salesperson or an ad salesperson at your local TV or radio station. It’s all commission-based. In some of these fields in the US the norm is 100% commission-based with no base pay. In others someone might make one to three times minimum wage, but will end up being some of the highest-paid people in the company based on commissions of anywhere from 1% to 50%, depending on the industry. | |
| ▲ | Aurornis 3 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Sales has been commission-based everywhere I’ve worked, including companies based in other countries. Commission based sales was definitely not a Silicon Valley invention. |
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