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Sales & Retail vocabulary · Targets, Metrics & Commission

On-target earnings

Meaning in sales & retail, with examples

nounCommon term

In sales & retail, on-target earnings means: The total pay a salesperson can expect in a year if they reach 100 percent of their target, made up of base salary plus commission or bonus.

In Turkish: hedef bazlı toplam kazanç, hedefte toplam gelir

How it is used

Usually shortened to OTE and very common in sales job ads, especially in the UK and US: “£40,000 base, £70,000 OTE.” The split between base and commission, such as 60/40, is called the pay mix. People who beat their target can earn more than OTE.

Example sentences

  1. The role offers a base salary of 50,000 dollars and on-target earnings of 90,000.

  2. Only half of the team reached their on-target earnings last year.

Common collocations

  • OTE
  • base and OTE
  • realistic OTE
  • uncapped commission
  • commissionMoney paid to a salesperson based on the sales they make, usually a percentage of the value of each sale or of total revenue.
  • quotaA fixed sales target given to a salesperson or team for a period, often used to calculate commission and judge performance.
  • sales targetThe amount of sales, in money or units, that a person, team or store is expected to reach in a given period.
  • hit a targetTo reach the sales amount or result that you were expected to achieve in a given period.

More terms: Targets, Metrics & Commission

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