SME Compensation Heartache

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Anonymous

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Compensation is the biggest joke!

We are measured on that and then if the KAE isn't doing their bit we are screwed. God for bid you attempt to help or make an effort to generate more business in the territory it is so bogus you want to vomit. If it has tanked you will pay no matter how hard you worked to maintain anything that really matters.

A fellow SME here just speaking the truth. What we are measured on is a big joke!
 


















I found that working closely with your KAE is the key. If you work as a team - there is incentive to look out for each other. In other words, you as an SME should be looking to fill the KAE's book of business, so that the KAE has incentive not to lose business - (outside of the normal business pressure). A seasoned KAE (who is looking out for you) can also find you NEW business and be a major player in setting up the chips for a new account.

That KAE won't mind going the distance at all (if you work as a team) because they know you are looking out for their commissions/success as well. If you work as a team, a KAE will feel a personal connection to making sure they do all they can for you. In the end both players just want to get PAID :)

Lastly, a KAE can rarely up-sell their way to success - it's all about keeping what you have together and adding new. Business is most successful (in my opinion) when there is a WIN-WIN combination. (Oh, I think egos should go bye-bye too - in order to work as a real team). Just some thoughts - :) Good luck, I hope things turn up.
 






In a perfect world, this is totally accurate....but IME most SMEs and most KAEs do no GIVE A F*&K about growing business or maintaining. All they seem to care about is keeping their jobs by doing the least amount of work possible. I met some of the lightest-weight salespeople at this company, most were SMEs who aren't doing a damn thing and should have been canned on the spot. A good salesperson who returns phone calls within 24 hours,works more than 35 hours per week, and actually cares can do pretty well here.



Anonymous said:
I found that working closely with your KAE is the key. If you work as a team - there is incentive to look out for each other. In other words, you as an SME should be looking to fill the KAE's book of business, so that the KAE has incentive not to lose business - (outside of the normal business pressure). A seasoned KAE (who is looking out for you) can also find you NEW business and be a major player in setting up the chips for a new account.

That KAE won't mind going the distance at all (if you work as a team) because they know you are looking out for their commissions/success as well. If you work as a team, a KAE will feel a personal connection to making sure they do all they can for you. In the end both players just want to get PAID :)

Lastly, a KAE can rarely up-sell their way to success - it's all about keeping what you have together and adding new. Business is most successful (in my opinion) when there is a WIN-WIN combination. (Oh, I think egos should go bye-bye too - in order to work as a real team). Just some thoughts - :) Good luck, I hope things turn up.
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Funny thing is, most sales people spend more time trying to figure out their comp plan than they do actually selling. It would be a compliment to say the plans are designed to limit commission payouts. Rather, the truth is keep in mind the level of people maintaining the compensation systems within Labcorp in Burlington! Therein is your problem.

Just as a for instance, for years managed care has been paid their commissions at plan simply because Burlington lacks the ability to produce a report to generate commission numbers. So KAE's and SME's next time you see your local managed care rep, think about the $150k or so they pull down for what they do!

Enjoy!
 






I want one of those manage care jobs.
The ones in my division are all retreads who flunked out of sales and instead of getting fired, got parked in managed care. Seems like a good gig where you don't work very hard.
 






OP is idiotic. You have far more accounts, far more room for growth potential than your KAE. Your KAE can only upsell an existing account and has a monthly quota 1/3 of yours. Leave your house and do more than just try to make monthly quota. Actually visit the accounts not using LCA and see what you can do to get a piece of the business.

Small streams make great rivers. That's where your big months come from, not relying on KAEs trying to upsell new testing.

I'm disgusted by this entire thread. If you're not happy or good at your job, do the entire company a favor and go away.
 






The biggest problem is that KAE's worry about their quota upsell and forget to maintain their overall book of business. What good is a monthly upsell of $3,000 if your overall book goes down $10,000. The Rule 21 and 78 is a fricken joke.
 






Anonymous said:
The biggest problem is that KAE's worry about their quota upsell and forget to maintain their overall book of business. What good is a monthly upsell of $3,000 if your overall book goes down $10,000. The Rule 21 and 78 is a fricken joke.
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This is extremely correct! If lCA wants to create territory managers across the board, then do so already. If not, then take the KAE quota add it as a internal scorecard track, there are a lot of KAE that can sell and retain. But when mgmt is constantly threatening KAE to get that quota make sure you are calling in, etc it causes panic. It takes the attention away from the original reason we were all successfull. Look at the regions where SME and KAE work as a team, WIN/WIN across the board. YES, there will always be a reason a KAE territory will have a bad month, it has always been this way. That is why corp made the KAE comp plan more forgiving, rolling 6 month vs year over year, made a big difference. The SME comp plan, is ridiculous! LCA has taken away the urge for a SME to hunt for new business, walk into a non LCA account, this comp plan is the reason a SME has to worry about KAE up sells, etc. kAE will always need their SME to have some involvement with existing accounts, because those accounts came to LCA b/c of the SME ,90% of the time, so keep that relationship. It will help if the acct is ever in jeopardy. Take the SME comp plan and put a bonus type structure in it for overall territory retention, pay them to bring, in new business!!
 






Yes, the KAEs are too busy worrying about their stupid call to visit all of their accounts every month. The call is ridiculous. Like you said, you spend all month trying to make sure your called account makes their $3000, that you forget about the others in your book of business and end up losing larger accounts. Completely backwards....what is management thinking? Obviously, they are not.
 






Look at the KAE manager in Los Angeles. All she cares about are call-ins. Screw Rule 78 or 21. Look at her book of business. She has zero leadership skills. Nobody respects her. Motivation at an all-time low.
 












Anonymous said:
Compensation is the biggest joke!

We are measured on that and then if the KAE isn't doing their bit we are screwed. God for bid you attempt to help or make an effort to generate more business in the territory it is so bogus you want to vomit. If it has tanked you will pay no matter how hard you worked to maintain anything that really matters.

A fellow SME here just speaking the truth. What we are measured on is a big joke!
Click to expand...

Compensation heartache? How about you do something useful? Help your fellow employees in the Northeast some of whom have no home left! Do something to help them.
 






























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