Although Nova has the market share in blood glucose at the point-of-care, they have missed the market in ABG analyzers. A market that Nova was once considered a market leader. The current product, Prime, was late to the market and doesn't have the complete menu that IDN's and hospital's demand. The result, as a sales rep that relies on variable income (commissions), the reality of maximizing the comp plan in the blood gas analyzer bucket isn't achievable. Furthermore, being the market share leader in POC blood glucose sounds attractive as an experience rep looking in from the outside. But the unvarnished truth is that the real opportunity to maximize commissions is with new business, and when a territory has the market share and the business is contractual, the real opportunities in a given fiscal year are not consistent enough to hit the $1.9M quota. Again, the result is the inability for sales reps to maximize the compensation plan. Many territories have market share greater than Nova's overall share of the market. Those reps are pressed to renew or extend the contracts, which seems like a win for both Nova and the rep, but the commission rate of .0067 only benefits Nova (.0067 equals $670/$100K of renewal business). Nova's base salary will attract the experienced medical sales rep, but the variable income is unrealistic (less than 10% of 24 reps make plan). Nova's leadership wants experience, but talented reps with experience should steer clear. Successful sales reps that come from other organizations will find themselves extremely frustrated in their ability to maximize the compensation plan. The median income for AE's is less than $120K.
Furthermore. Nova sales management, a group that manages but are not leaders, requires a weekly quota of activity with specific criteria that isn't productive for every territory. The activity requirement is scrutinized and used to measure field reps performance. The pressure from the metric forces reps to satisfy the Nova expectation, but causes cursory, inefficient and ineffective activity. The expectation is communicated weekly to pressure reps and is another criteria that creates the overall culture of discontent. Most reps at Nova have their paper on the street looking for a place to take their talents.