Subscriber Discussion

Are You A Million Dollar Man?

U
Undisclosed #1
•Feb 27, 2015
IPVMU Certified

At a previous engagement, there was a tradition of recognizing those employees who were top performers. One strange milestone was the award of 'million dollar man', to engineers who had actual billings over 1 million dollars, and to salespeople who had sold over 1 million since joining the firm. Reaching this level was the equivalent of being a made man in a crime syndicate.

i'm sure quite a few members have reached this status many times over, but how long did take? Accuracy not required.

and do you have any similar award/recognition where you work today, for the 'big dogs'?

JH
John Honovich
•Feb 27, 2015
IPVM

The monthly quota for Avigilon sales people is $1 million a month or else you get fired.

I kid....

All seriousness, I don't think $1 million is what it used to be.

Quite a number of manufacturer have million+ quotas per year. Even integrators, I have to imagine that a lot of integrators have annual quotas at or near a million. You figure $100-$150k comp for a sales person, margins what they are, it's got to be around there.

Curious to hear feedback from others.

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U
Undisclosed #1
•Feb 27, 2015
IPVMU Certified
In reply to John Honovich

On the technical side though it much harder to 'bill a mil', even at full utilization:

40 hr/wk for 50 weeks at $75 per hour for 7 years = $1,050,000

though I'm sure there's more than a couple that have done it in both sales and billings.

JH
John Honovich
•Feb 27, 2015
IPVM
In reply to Undisclosed #1

Agreed, billing out as an individual is harder, though $75 per hour is low even for physical security.

Security Integrator Hourly Rates

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TC
Trisha (Chris' wife) Dearing
•Feb 27, 2015
IPVMU Certified
In reply to John Honovich

The monthly quota for Avigilon sales people is $1 million a month or else you get fired.

No steak knives???

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JH
John Honovich
•Feb 27, 2015
IPVM

This is terrible but I can't resist because it's appropriate:

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U
Undisclosed #1
•Feb 27, 2015
IPVMU Certified
In reply to John Honovich

I see your point, I will raise my 'demand':

"Is there a billion dollar man amongst us?"

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #2
•Feb 27, 2015

I feel like a million dollar club isn’t that impressive, 10 million would be more respectable.

To answer your question, we don’t openly recognize sales reps for their sales. I have found it causes major problems with office staff and installers when you start mentioning things like a, “million in sales”. I had some office staff freak-out one day when they found out what the commission percentage was. With previous employers I have recognized sales reps in sales meetings and asked them to keep our conversations "in the room".

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GC
Greg Cortina
•Feb 27, 2015
I remember many years ago being pretty proud to attend a big sales contest award meeting for hitting my lofty goal of almost 7 million in a year. That included a single month over 1 million. Then they presented the award to a woman in another division for hitting her 100 million goal. I guess it's all in perspective.
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AD
Andrew DeMattos
•Mar 01, 2015
IPVMU Certified
My personal quota is over 2 million a year and another few million for my team. A new rep typically needs 12-18 months to fill pipeline and start hitting million dollar targets.
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U
Undisclosed #1
•Mar 01, 2015
IPVMU Certified
In reply to Andrew DeMattos

Are the reps responsible for their own lead generation?

JH
John Honovich
•Mar 01, 2015
IPVM
In reply to Undisclosed #1

That's a good question, in general. FYI, we are going to do a sales survey later this month asking about topics like that - lead generation, CRM software, close rates, quotas, objections, etc.

AD
Andrew DeMattos
•Mar 02, 2015
IPVMU Certified
In reply to Undisclosed #1
To an extent, yes of course they have to get In front of prospects, discover goals and needs, and tell our story and ask for the right to quote the work. But we work as a team from the CEO down and we strategize to create effective initiatives and marketing. Reps are well supported for surveying sites, designing, estimating, creating proposals and of course presenting and negotiating. I also have them aligned vertically so they are very knowledgable and comfortable in front of prospects...name drop, draw from other experiences and failures. We are also adding an admin to the team to help with managing the process. Any reps in NM a want to join a great team?
Avatar
Paul Boucherle CPP CSC
•Mar 06, 2015

Very interesting topic which is subjective and objective.

Objectively getting to large numbers and actually delivering on them takes a team approach. This relates to the culture, position and growth path of companies from my experience. If you are a Rainmaker in a new market with a new technology the dynamics and compensation models are very different. If you you are expanding existing markets with a new strategic approach to selling you must consider the net margins/ team effort in compensation and recognition.

I think $1-2m an average range for mature companies with competitive advantage pretty normal for a $125-150k sales person.

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U
Undisclosed #1
•Mar 07, 2015
IPVMU Certified

It just occurred to me that besides whatever John points had 'put on the board' before starting IPVM, as a publisher he must have reached Million Dollar Man status a few years back.

Thousands of subscribers x avg sub price x several years = Way to Go!

JH
John Honovich
•Mar 07, 2015
IPVM
In reply to Undisclosed #1

As noted above, being a million dollar man is not the big of an accomplishment these days...

but thank you...

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