asked to structure my own comp for in-house role

A growing company approached me recently and asked me to come in house for real estate strategy, management, leasing, and acquisitions. They are a relatively safe business with 100 offices right now, and expecting to double thru organic market entry and M&A activity. 

I've worked with them in the past on the tenant rep side. But this is interesting to me from a strategy level and a change from fee chasing, which is getting exhausting in this environment. 

They asked me to propose my own comp structure, within reason, that would allow for growth and incentivize me to work hard and strategically in order to help the bottom line and mitigate risk. I think there I'd be wearing a lot of hats and could really make this whatever i wanted it to be - for that reason, i am having trouble putting together some ideas. Anyone seen familiar roles or been through something such as this? I want to make sure i am capitalizing on any opportunities that could be created from this new role.

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Thanks, i think it is too. Just trying to figure out how to structure comp coming from a position of entirely commissions. I wonder if it is akin to a position similar to what JP Morgan does with their Global Real Estate team.

 
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I recently went through a similar process. I can't give you direct advice without knowing much about your situation or the company your speaking with, but here's how I approached it:

I created two structure options and presented them as a menu to set high anchors and understand the limits for each compensation component. 

The first option was heavy base salary, mid range discretionary annual bonus, and deferred compensation through carry. The second was mid base salary, heavy bonus based on performance, and company equity as deferred comp.  

By presenting it this way I anchored to a high number on the base and bonus buckets while setting the range for possible outcomes (just make sure the "mid" or "market" items are above your reservation price). Also, in the deferred comp bucket I got an indication of the employer's preference on carry vs company equity.  

During the negotiation I used this as a discovery exercise to understand which bucket was most important to the employer.  

In my scenario, we got into the weeds on a total non-issue for me but it showed their priorities. I pretended to care but the employer got the win and exhausted himself on something I could care less about. The items I really cared about were essentially granted in reciprocation, which is common unless you're dealing with a true sociopath.   

Go get that bag!

 

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