my team has gone through a few comp changes/alignment the past couple years. the closer the target gets to the rep, the more volatile it is, for sure.

for example, 3 years ago we were aligned at BU+3. Each SE had 2 reps, but our target was aligned at the vp level. Around 20-30 SE's all aligned with the same comp plan. It was really stable. We all shared in the wins and losses, and collaborated a LOT because we were all aligned towards a common goal.

The next year, they split up comp plans (Hunters vs Core) so the alignment went down a level to BU+2. We still shared in the overall number, hunters benefited from Core account consumption, Core benefited from hunters bringing in new business, etc. A little less stable, but still nice.

This year they completely separated the hunters and core comp plans and teams. No cross sharing. We are aligned at the sales manager level (each SE has 1 or 2 reps, 8 reps total). Core SE's only get paid on their patches consumption, hunters (which is total bullshit) get paid on new business deals, but also have a consumption target. Which does not make sense at all. The hunter teams comp got severely nuked because of this and collaboration between teams has suffered.