Jason M. Lemkin warns sales VPs against aggressively pushing for huge OTE and equity packages. Even if a CEO grants an outsized request, you'll get a mark on your back that follows you. Online checklists telling you to ask for 7% equity with a single trigger are misguided.
It's the massive OTE. It's pushing it. Pushing. Too many VPs of sales push too hard. And when you do, you'll get it in this market. But no one forgets. No one forgets. Get shorter and shorter. Oh, it's not just that. When you ask for the high end of normal, if your CEO loves you, like we talked about, you'll get it. Okay? If the CEO loves you, when you push beyond normal. In the old days, you wouldn't get it. Today, you'll get it. But it will never be forgotten. It will not. There will not be one day for your whole career. Now listen, if you build up the next snowflake, they'll laugh about it. But you know what? You'll be laughing about it in 10 years, because it'll be never. Do you want that mark on your back? I actually think most VPs of sales don't want the mark on their back. They don't want to walk in with a target on their back. And so when you look on these online groups and they all tell you to ask for the most and ask for 7% equity with a single trigger, and all these in the 10 million things, and they all come with the same checklist they got on a certain online group. We won't name it. You.
