Summary: Sales Rep who pulled off several shady deals are flagged to the sales management, but ignored and covered up. The said sales rep was not penalised with HubSpot’s use-good-judgement plan, but instead promoted.
Background: An AE sent out several emails to existing customers, telling them that they can procure a new SKU without additional cost.
Essentially, the AE gave a major and perpetual discount off the existing products, and added the new SKU in the new contract at full price. With that, the AE gets recognised for the full revenue associated with the new SKU (yes, that is how the HubSpot sales commission plan used to work. It was recently changed in Feb 2020).
This does not positively grow the business in the long run, and on the contrary, harms the business which operates on a subscription basis.
When the services team has consolidated the deals closed due to this bad practice, the management turned their cheeks and ask for the team to not “finger-point”. It makes sense, as such big discounts require the approval of the higher sales management and they were part of the team that made such shady deals possible.
Due to the “new revenue” brought in by the said AE, he was promoted in the following month. It's a slap in the face for the others.
Conclusion: Hard work is overrated at HubSpot. Learn how to game the system.
