Question

Topic: Career/Training

Restructuring Compensation To Include Bonuses

Posted by Anonymous on 3/21/2017 at 3:10 PM ET 125 Points
I work as the "Marketing Director" at a commercial real estate company and I have been in this role for 5 years now. The title is somewhat misleading - I am the only one in the marketing department and handle all branding, public relations, graphic design, advertising, email and social media marketing, I fly our drone, I do virtual tours etc. for our company and all of our commercial real estate agents.

My compensation has always been a flat salary with an end-of-year bonus that is the same as every other staff member, so not really based on the performance of the company.

I believe that my job is directly tied to the success of our company, thus I should receive quarterly (or at the least an annual bonus) that is a percentage of our GCI growth for the year.

I know that this is going to be a hard sell with my bosses because all along I've only received a salary, so what is the motivation for them to pay me more based on the performance of our company?

Any tips for broaching this subject with them?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 3/22/2017 at 10:10 AM Member
    If you don't get the bonus, will you look elsewhere for another position?
    Could you develop a new revenue source for your company that would justify a new bonus?
    How are comparable positions in other companies rewarded?
  • Posted by joy.levin on 3/22/2017 at 10:38 AM Accepted
    One way to approach this is to show them exactly HOW you contribute. Have you developed KPIs (key performance indicators) for your company, and are they tied to the marketing assets you are generating? For example, can you demonstrate that your social media efforts are generating qualified leads? Do you know if you are increasing brand awareness? If you can show how your efforts are contributing to sales, then you can not only demonstrate the value you are adding, but also the competitive risks you are mitigating, and ultimately what the ROI on marketing investment is. Then you can tie your bonus into meeting certain benchmarks via the KPIs.
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 3/22/2017 at 1:24 PM Accepted
    I am assuming you think your overall compensation should be more than what you are getting now, and that is part of why you want the change? Not that you want the average year compensation to what you get now, but that it is better in good years and lower on bad years? Just changing from base and annual bonus to more pay based on commission doesn't necessarily get you more money.

    One approach would be to convince them of the business benefit to them - they pay less on leaner years and more on the better years (when it is easier to pay). And that you would be more motivated to work harder due to having more skin in the game. These are good things for them.

    But your likely underlying goal of wanting more money is not something they will necessarily look at as good. One possibility would be to carefully negotiate so that there is more upside to you on this, where they may be looking to limit the upside to them. Could be a hard negotiation.

    Or you can go into this as a negotiation for a raise, not one for a change from fixed to variable pay, and use the change to the less riskier to them variable pay as a negotiating point to help get the raise. Promote those benefits to them I mentioned above.
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