Money in tech sales “OTE” broken down

The one thing I never understood when I joined tech sales was ote. So I'm going to break it down for you first. OTE simply stands for on track earnings. And on track means it's not guaranteed. Tech sales jobs are comprised of two different components. There's a base pay, which think of that as like a base salary that's guaranteed and fixed. And then there's a variable component that's commission based. Most organizations structure it so that it's 50, 50 base and then variable, meaning if my on track earnings was 200,000, that means my base would be 100,000 and my variable would be 100,000. So in that same example, my 100k is guaranteed because that's my base. But the 100k variable is not guaranteed at all. In short, that 100k is the estimate if I hit exactly 100% of target. The catch is that very few people hit exactly 100% of target. Some people will hit 50% of their goal, meaning they might only make half of that, and others will hit 200% of goal, meaning they might make more than 2x that estimated amount. That's why when going through the interview and hiring process, it's so critical to understand what percentage of first year sales reps actually exceed or over exceed 100% a goal. The key is asking what percentage of first year reps do that and not just in general what percent hit the target. Because odds are there's reps that have been there for five, 10 years that have a really good territory, really good account accounts and fully understand the business that might be putting up 200% of goal, but that might not be achievable for a first year rep like yourself. Thanks so much and follow along for more sales tips.