conversation: User (blendedgoodness): "Hey guys, I need some advice on how I should handle this situation with my boss/company. \n\n\nBackground: I work in a sales job with a team of about 8 other people and despite it being a sales job, we are not under a commission structure. Instead, we are on a bonus structure that compensates us depending on whether or not we hit our monthly/yearly team goals (more details below). I'm also making $12/hr. This year I've sold about 1.7 million dollars, but I'm on pace to make about $9,000 less than what I did last year despite selling $600,000 more. My bosses finally see the flaw in our "bonus structure" and has asked me if I had any ideas on how to improve it, so I wanted to see if any of you guys might have any ideas.  \n\n\nBonus Structure: Beginning of each year, our management comes up with a sales goal for the team that we're expected to hit by the end of the year. We'll call this the 100% goal. The 100% goal is then split into a monthly goal, which we're expected to hit each month. Every time we hit our monthly goal, $8,000 ($1,000 x 8 people) goes into the bonus pool. We are each then given a discretionary bonus based off of our individual sales #s, performance, etc. The bonus that each person receives is NOT a direct percentage of their sales #s.\n\nThere is also an escalating 90%, 95%, and 100% goal on top of the monthly goals -\n\n* 90% - $1,500 / person bonus\n\n* 95% - $2,000 / person bonus\n\n* 100% - $3,500 / person bonus\n\n\n**After the 100% bonus is reached, there is another $1,500 per person bonus that goes into the pot for every $500,000 we sell as a team. Again, all of these extra bonuses that we receive are discretionary based. \n\n\n\nThere is a very good chance we will not hit our 100% goal this year. (Last year we hit 3 of the additional $500k sales bonuses, so we all had an additional $4,500/per person into the pot). This is a total of about $8,000-$9,000 that I will not be making because of the arbitrary 100% goal # that our management came up with in the beginning of the year. I feel like they gave us a much more difficult sales goal to obtain because they saw how much extra we made in the additional bonuses last year. \n\n\n\nPersonal Info: I'm #1 out of my team in terms of total sales brought in this year (#2 last year). The #3 person this year has sold about $400,000 less than what I've sold and the #8 person has sold about half of what I've sold up until this point. Each month I'm typically given a bonus of $1,200 - $1,300, which is above the $1,000 average, but overall I still feel like I'm getting extremely underpaid considering my sales #s compared to everyone else. \n\n\n\nDoes this make sense to anyone? I've sold $600,000 more this year yet I'm getting paid a lot LESS than last year because a) ridiculous sales goals and b) my other colleagues aren't pulling their weight to bring in sales. \n\n\n\nMy management doesn't believe in a commission structure because it creates a hostile environment, there are too many black and white rules, etc, which is why they prefer the bonus system we have in place. As I mentioned before, my boss has asked me what they could do to fix the current system so that everybody is paid reasonably. Any ideas?\n\n\n\n\n\n"
  Self: "What type of product is this? Seems extremely low comp for extremely high sales numbers"
  User (blendedgoodness): "I work for a sports team, so we're talking about Season Tickets, Mini Plan packages and Group sales."
  Self: "Oh. Makes sense, the marketing is the larger expense than the sales team.\n\nGet into a more lucrative sales position. High sales performers should always be rewarded. The old addage is 20% of your sales staff makes 80% of your sales"
  User (blendedgoodness): "Thanks for the advice. I do love my job however and would love to stay, so I'd like to figure out a way to change the current structure to properly compensate everyone. "
  thelaminatedboss (thelaminatedboss): "I'm surprised you even get a bonus in a role like that. Don't most people just call or buy season tickets online. How are you able to do so much better than others"
  User (blendedgoodness): "Upsell Mini Plan holders to purchase Season Tickets, organize large group nights for 1,000-5,000, etc. Some people just don't have that drive."
  