Your thoughts on Sandbagging

Salespeople get paid to sell. If the management structures a comp plan that incentivizes sandbagging then the fault is theirs. Write a comp plan that does not encourage sandbagging and it won't happen.

Amen to that!!

^^^This.  As long as it doesn't negatively impact a client, a rep has to sell in the way that makes the most money.  After all, while we may be loyal to our companies, the ultimate loyalty lies with the families that count on us to support them.

I actually have never understood the corporate objection to sandbagging. So they get paid on that deal a few weeks later. If the company is that desperate for the money, then sandbagging is the least of their worries. As a Sales Manager I have had times where a sales reps sandbag cost me a bonus but I still didn't blame the rep. In the past when I had total control of the comp plan, I always allowed for any deficits to be recovered up until the last day of the year which made sandbagging much less necessary. If your YTD reaches 100%, you were paid as if you had been 100% all year.

That's the way it should be instead of the traditional comp plans that rely so much on timing with their various gates, qualifiers & "gotchas" to keep reps from maximizing their income.  I think dealer principals & sales managers would be amazed at how much more production they would see & how much more positive their cultures would be if there weren't almost constant battles over comp plans.  

Bingo!!!

wow, all this time I thought I was on an island all by myself!!!My quota is so high that I hit my bonuses maybe 50% of the time.  I've never hit every month and every quarter. But how much harder can I work, some will say work smarter, well I do, but I also sell in the one of the largest markets in the US.  The competition is fierce and what all really boils down to is that we are stealing each others business.

 

Just pay be me a higher percentage of GP, remove the gates, the bonuses and just let me sell!!

We don't get bonuses at our workplace, and honestly, it's best that way. We get great comp plans and everyone stays satisfied without worrying about hitting silly targets. Most of our reps are consistently at 100% of quota.

We don't have bonus plans either. This year at our Christmas party several received bonuses for outstand jobs but that was the first time in many years that has happened. We don't have a set bonus plan other than the yearly presidents club trip.

 

Just this past month I convinced our president and CFO to sandbag a few orders based on pipelines that the reps had and also based on how the current month was going. We looked at it and realized by starting the 1st day of the month with a handful of orders would help us more than trying to stack more orders on an already good month on the last day. We don't typically have the problem of sandbagging as whole since we do not have the bonus plans etc. in place.

 

We also do not change our comp plan at all unless we have had a compelling reason to do it. We have not changed it in at least 7 or 8 years. It is what it is and if someone doesn't like then they either live with it or can choose to work elsewhere. They know this up front before they sign on to work for us.

I understand the sentiment but if I sell 2X, should I make the same as 2 reps selling 1X? Think of the salary and benefits the company has saved by me doing twice the sales. 

Then there is the incentive piece. There really is incentive in bonuses. We would all like to say that we put in 100% all the time, but who hasn't put in those extra hours in order to reach a bonus. Many of us followed with great interest, Art's daily accounting of his days leading up to the end of the year as he labored, even on weekends, to reach the goal. I'm guessing there was a bonus incentive pushing him along.

Fair point. If you can consistently sell 2x more than other reps, then you have other negotiation power for other things. Ask for a higher commission percentage on each deal, negotiate a better salary, more territory, or ask for a small percentage of the service profit as an incentive to offer sell higher CPC rates.

 

At the end of the day, what I love about this job is that it's MY business. Business owners don't sandbag so why should we?

As a Sales Manager I think sandbagging is a waste of time but I don't fault my reps for doing it. There are times when I will address the problem like when the rep is way behind plan YTD. If you are behind plan then you don't have the luxury of playing games. Year end will also bring light and heat on sandbagging if the team is down.

 

I would love to have a comp plan that paid out deal by deal and we didn't close books every month, have a rolling total and quota through out the year.

Never did it, always blow out my quota, and let the dice end up as they roll. 

 

If you're an overachiever, you'll have enough business and never have to worry about it.  If you sandbag, your simply not writing enough business, you're just barely getting by.  People are BUYING FROM SOMEBODY, as the movie "GlenGary GlenRoss" said, their begging to give you their money, are you man enough take it?

 

My fiscal just started a few weeks ago and I'm back at the bottom of the heap, but by quarter end, I'll be back at the top.

 

I don't mean to sound hard core, but I'm working 10-12 hours days, including weekends, and flat out obsessed,  until I'm # 1, again.  Which I will be at end of quarter and rest of the year...

I get what you're saying, but if you have a pay plan that pays you differently based on your % of quota,  sandbagging at times is the only way to maximize your compensation.  If you get paid the same commission percentages if you're at 1%, 50%, 100%, 150%, etc., it's irrelevant.