Front-line Sales Manager
Sales manager commission plan template
A 60/40 manager plan on a $4M team quota with one accelerator, plus notes on what changes when the number belongs to five people.
60/40 split at $220k OTE — 2.2% effective rate on a $4M team quota
- Annual quota
- $4,000,000
- OTE / base
- $220,000 / $132,000
- Effective rate
- 2.200%
| Attainment | Payout rate | Kicker |
|---|---|---|
| 0% – 100% | 1× | — |
| 100%+ | 1.5× | — |
Drag the attainment slider, edit the tiers, and see the payout and cost curves respond.
Why the plan is shaped this way
A team number is naturally smoother
Five reps' good and bad months partly cancel out, so a manager plan needs less structure than a rep plan: one accelerator, no kicker, no cap. The averaging across the team already moderates the swings that tiers and caps exist to handle on an individual plan.
Set the team quota below the sum of rep quotas
If five reps carry $1M each, set the manager's number at $4M rather than $5M. Someone is always ramping, on leave, or covering an open territory, and a manager quota equal to the sum of rep quotas assumes none of that ever happens. The gap is the realistic allowance for a normal year.
What the calculator approximates
This page models the manager as a single person with a $4M quota. In the product, a manager plan is a rollup: team attainment aggregates from the reps' actual deals, ramp schedules included, and the manager's statement shows which reports contributed what. The math here matches; the aggregation is handled for you.
What breaks this plan
- Paying managers on personal deals as well as the team number. Managers who carry their own deals tend to prioritize them over coaching; if you want a selling manager, decide that deliberately rather than by accident.
- Giving the manager a faster accelerator than the reps. When overage pays the manager more than the person who sold it, it creates pressure to move deal credit around.
These numbers are a conventional starting point, not a benchmark. Adjust them to your team; the reasoning is what carries over. Related templates: Enterprise AE commission plan template · SaaS AE commission plan template. Or read how comp plans are built in Earnest.
Set it up for a real team
The same tiers, kickers, and caps configured here run actual payouts in Earnest — free for up to 5 users, no credit card required.
Start for free