Are sales ...

Question

Are sales targets achievable and consistent at Dell Technologies? Have they been on the rise or decline in the past few quarters?

Former Employee · Accepted Answer

They have been consistently on the rise.

Current Employee · Answer

simply put, no. your quota constantly rises and your quality/quantity of leads declines. sales have been on the decline due to high employee turnover and burnout because of the return to office mandates. you may find success in your first couple of quarters, but soon after you’ll be PIP’d.

Former Employee · Answer

My experience (albeit a couple years ago) is they are very attainable, they use historical data and I would say 75% of the Salesforce falls somewhere between 80-120% attainment.

There are times where people do 300%+, and Dell DOES cap commission and they will regoal way higher

Current Employee · Answer

Sales targets are always going up.  They are daunting but in a good year they are achievable.  A good year is every 3 year cycle or so.

Current Employee · Answer

This is question that requires greater nuance/conversation than could be provided in a post/response...to that end would encourage anyone asking these sorts of questions to check with their friends/network at the target company for anecdotes.  As a sales leader I would share that Dell uses an intelligent quota management system that is a sort of aggregation of many data points that feed into the tool for sales planning/ops and leadership.  Common data could include historical trailing Yr, 2Yr, 3Yr spend, trailing 1/2 yr spend, as Dell operates and assigns Annual Operating Plan each half of the FY.  These metrics can also include some art to go with the science, to balance out wallet share and other elements for server, storage, client, etc, and based on what Dell overall sets for its annual operating plan.  Account segmentation for medium business, corporate/commercial, and enterprise can play a role.  Overall, we saw fantastic growth and attainment before and during the pandemic.  You can view our public #s for FY-end.  Companies often (and Dell was no different) put big/large growth numbers on top of some of the big attainment #s many segments achieved; so the perception/reality of that can be "high numbers...."      Example, if a segment/BU (divisional or north american level) crushes it YoY, do that a few times, and you get a pretty substantial growth # on top of that the following year....eventually when the market turns and gets frothy (2nd half of 2022 for most tech orgs...) suddenly that can really impact attainment at a field level.  I think that's a fair assessment in broad strokes for many orgs in tech, not just Dell.

Former Employee · Answer

The targets will almost always be going up as they are a growth oriented company.  Dell typically sets quotas based on growth over the revenues in your account set from the same quarter last year.    They do a much better job than most of the industry in keeping targets in a realistic growth range most of the time, but they are definitely capable of down years too.   I doubt most sellers will hit every quarter,   but usually the mix of offerings will allow a seller to shift their sales mix from year to year to still hit their quarterly targets 2 times each year in a normal year, maybe 3.

Current Employee · Answer

Depends on the segment. In SB the current targets for this quarter are higher than previous quarters. It's tenure based so you start with small quotas and then continue to increase each quarter until 24 months. If you grind, you're fine. It's easier than other sales jobs.

Current Employee · Answer

You will generally have a great path to overachieve in your first 1-2 years in role. After that, you can expect quota to increase significantly.  The objective should be to overachieve as much as possible within the first 1-2 years, make your money (Dell will cap / windfall commissions even if you rightfully deserve it), and then change territories, jobs, or weather the storm (significant quota increase).

Current Employee · Answer

Sales targets typically start in an achievable range. After 3-6 months, you may see them double or quadruple. When you ask your leadership team to provide clarity around why it would go up so much, data is not provided. I've been with Dell for over 8 years, and I have hit my quota most of the time, but I will say it is not easy. I will also be fully transparent that I have not hit my quota over the past year. However, the year before, I averaged 197%. Most recently, I get my half quota without having any account alignments assigned (meaning quotas are not based on historicals or actual data, seems to be drawn out of a hat at this point) and then had to wait 5-6 weeks to have access to any of my accounts and pipeline. Every segment is different and every quarter/half is different. Dell does not provide consistency across many aspects of the business, quota being one of them.

Current Employee · Answer

Dell is notorious, at least internally, for aggressive quota raises. If you do well, expect a quota 25+% higher than your bookings. If you don’t do well and miss your quota, expect a quota 25+% higher than last years quota. Anytime you hit accelerators, expect to struggle hitting 100%+ going forward

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Anonymous Q&A

Are sales targets achievable and consistent at Dell Technologies? Have they been on the rise or decline in the past few quarters?