So it happended again!

Wholly Geez! What is the point with this? Sales is losing one entire week of selling. We need to have the equipment installed by month end to account for sales in a given month. Then they require 60 cold calls? What the heck? It is not quantity but quality of the calls which will lead to appointments, etc. What is management trying to drive?

What is management trying to drive? You ask. Whatever they can get away with - obviously they haven't considered, nor care little for the ramifications of their short notification. Your selling month as well as theirs, will simply be shorter and your sales cycles are disrupted once more. Perhaps there are bonus' at stake that owners can minimize?

If there is one thing I have never tolerated with an employer its messing around with contracts/pay/ground rules etc.

Is there perhaps a better place you can take your expertise?

Come work down here I will find you a job!

Wow! Another moving target for you Art. This is easy for management to do because in the end they will not need to pay the extra dollars because reps will be short to make the bonuses. Have you ever wondered do your management people read your posts. That would make an interesting picture.

Dealers like to close the month early so they can get all the paperwork processed and get people paid by the end of the month. But this system makes it very challenging for reps to hit their marks in a short month.

I would get you a job in a heart beat. It is time to leave the place....things will not change.

RBS has been doing this for some time now. Month end is a week early because of the massive paperwork required.

Much ado about absolutely nothing.

The next month starts on the 24th. The months don't get longer or shorter, this simply allows the deal to be delivered, funded, booked, and paid in the same accounting period. A sales month of July 1st to July 31st is NOT longer than one from June 24th to July 23rd (for example).

Now, if you take off from the 24th to the 31st every month, then it's tougher to make your numbers. And at the front-end of the transition, the very first month on the new program is shorter. But the rep still has the exact same number of business days to make the sale in every month after the first month.

As companies come under more scrutiny (Public companies from regulation, private companies from bank covenants, etc.) and the pressure to accurately report revenues increases, expect this to become the norm. The old "We sold a million! And booked/delivered/invoiced half a million!" won't fly these days.

CashGap....you make some valid points however in Art's case management changed the month end date in the middle of the month which Art did not know until he returned. He planned his month accordingly to close his deals. Then returns to find the month is now shorter.

What management should have said is the 23rd close date will start NEXT month and not the current month. Easy way for management to not pay reps for their bonuses and deals. I have seen this happen several times before and a rep has no say in the outcome.

montecore is correct, it's more about the notification process and I don't believe it's about the bonus structure since our plan is built on revenue.

cashgap is right with his point, that one month will now be longer and all of the months will fall in order after that.

There's another story in this and "shame on me", we were given new pricing/comp plans for the new quarter. We were interviewed each before getting the comp plan & pricing. Of course I looked at what would effect me the most and skimmed over the rest. I was told today that low and behold on page #whatever of our 25 page plan that the month would now close on the 23rd. NO one caught this, not me, not the sales managers, nor the other reps.

I now feel like and ass because I did not read the entire comp plan. I should have, however I also believe that this should have been reviewed and brought to our attention the day the new comp plan was launched.

As montecore stated I planned my month on the available "selling days". I mark all of the selling days for each month so I can get a handle on when there is a short or long month.

I appreciate all of the comments from everyone!!

That is one heck of a comp plan 25 pages!! No wonder no one had time to read it.

I am surprised the managers missed that as well. Most of the time they part of that discussion. There might have been an explanation in there why the change.

If your plan is on revenue and you are 100% or higher don't you get a bonus?

Are you on a GP & revenue plan?

montecore, check that, the pages are two sided!!

We are now a hybrid plan of GP and revenue, bonus for every month and quarter that you attain 100% or better. Will not discuss %'s here, the percentages are not a big deal unless you are hitting 70 to 100K per month and or 150K per quarter or more.

quote:

Of course I looked at what would effect me the most and skimmed over the rest.

That's usually what it comes down to, once all the fire and brimstone dies down. AMX mails me a new card agreement, I throw it in the garbage, then complain when they charge me a higher fee for a replacement card, which was explained in the document I chose not to read.

CashGap:

I agree somewhat, will everything I have to do, research, prospect, sell, paperwork, return emails, the last thing I had time for was to read a 50 page comp plan. Again, it's my bad, however as important as the monthly quota, comissions and these were items that we reviewed the new close of the month is just as important and should have been mentioned in the meeting.

Art...yes you would have think it would be mentioned however it is in the management favor to not say anything because they know once again if deals are not in by the 23rd then they close the month early and not have to pay....means more money for them. It puts the pressure on the rep to read and understand the comp plan. It is not right but management is really only looking out for the owners.

[QUOTE]Ooops Duplicate!

quote:

Originally posted by Art Post:
CashGap:

I agree somewhat, will everything I have to do, research, prospect, sell, paperwork, return emails, the last thing I had time for was to read a 50 page comp plan. Again, it's my bad, however as important as the monthly quota, comissions and these were items that we reviewed the new close of the month is just as important and should have been mentioned in the meeting.

It's the first priority. Not last.

I can assure you that no matter how often or how well it is explained, the attitude is "If I don't like it, you never told me". There isn't time to videotape the presentation and have a transcript notarized. And short of doing that, the response will be "You never said it because I never heard you".

quote:

Originally posted by montecore:
Art...yes you would have think it would be mentioned however it is in the management favor to not say anything because they know once again if deals are not in by the 23rd then they close the month early and not have to pay....means more money for them. It puts the pressure on the rep to read and understand the comp plan. It is not right but management is really only looking out for the owners.

LOL. Yeah, it was all a scheme to save 1.49% on a couple of grand one time for one month. If commissions were $1,000,000 in the affected month and every single deal rolled to the next month, this moved saved the company $1,200.

And commissions probably were less than $1m, and most deals probably did book in time, so maybe the impact to the company was a one-time savings of a couple hundred bucks. Seems to me that maybe the motivation was the stated motivation, getting the deals booked, billed and delivered by the last day of the month to eliminate the difference between sold and financially recognized.

It may just be that we assign motivations to actions depending on which side of the paycheck we sign!

I agree with CashGap. Zig Ziglar used to say, "Some people go around looking for fault as if there was a reward for it." Should management have better communicated...absolutely. Is it true that management does not care enough about the attitudes and feelings of sales reps...probably. However, if sales reps treat everything as a travesty, travesties will be treated with mediocrity.

quote:

Originally posted by Old Glory:
if sales reps treat everything as a travesty, travesties will be treated with mediocrity.

Great Quote.

I don't see what the big deal is. When I get an order I get it delivered and invoiced as quickly as possible. My thought process is not how it will affect my numbers or to get it done or hold it off so it helps me hit a number.....its just get it done. If the time frame for month end gets moved, no big deal it just may make next month all that much bigger.

quote:

Originally posted by fisher:
I don't see what the big deal is. When I get an order I get it delivered and invoiced as quickly as possible. My thought process is not how it will affect my numbers or to get it done or hold it off so it helps me hit a number.....its just get it done. If the time frame for month end gets moved, no big deal it just may make next month all that much bigger.

I think it matters more depending on how your compensation/bonus package is structured. In some comp plans that are tiered based on the % attainment versus quota, getting a deal in once month versus another can have a substantial affect on the amount of compensation the rep receives. This is particularly important if rep is compensated more for having a big month (Additional 2% of revenue for being 125% of quota as an example) having (2) consecutive 100% months as a result of a deal pushing into the following month can result in substantially less commission than a 125% month & a 75% month. In these kinds of plans, it is all about timing.

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In these kinds of plans, it is all about timing sandbagging.

Fixed that for you.