Petra Lindqvist· Benefits Analyst, Lumen Biosciences
Asked in Sales Compensation ·
We are a 900-person software and services company in Bengaluru selling into India and the Gulf. Until now every seller has been on 60/40 base to variable. We are splitting the team: 25 enterprise account executives with deals that take nine months and average around 40 million rupees, and 60 SMB sellers closing several small deals a month.
The enterprise leaders want 70/30 because their sellers can go two quarters without a close. The SMB leader wants 50/50 to drive volume. HR is worried about two classes of seller with different total pay.
Is a different mix by segment normal practice, and how did you handle people who move between the two?
12 helpful · 4 insightful · 1 agree · 3 replies · 140 views · 2 following
Noor MensahGRS, CBS
Global Mobility Manager, Halcyon Financial Group
Different mixes by segment are very common and I would be more worried if you kept one. The usual logic is that the more the individual seller's persuasion decides the outcome and the shorter the cycle, the more pay goes at risk. We run 50/50 for transactional sellers, 60/40 for mid-market and 70/30 for strategic accounts, all with the same grading structure underneath.
Benefits Manager, Steinbach Industrie
On movers: we hold total target cash constant for the level and change only the mix, effective from the first of the next quarter. Someone moving from SMB to enterprise gets a base increase and a variable decrease that net to zero. Without that rule people treat a move to enterprise as a pay rise and a move back as a demotion.
Benefits Manager, Steinbach Industrie
A caution for India specifically. Several statutory and benefit calculations key off fixed pay, so a shift from 60/40 to 50/50 at the same total reduces more than the monthly salary. Our SMB team noticed that before we did. Worth working through the full effect per person before you announce.
