What is a sales compensation analyst: An interview with Rimi Dhillon

Financial Analyst Rimi Dhillon didn’t know the role of a sales compensation analyst existed. That is, until she had the opportunity to become one in 2014.

Eight years have passed since Rimi found her finance specialty. And now,  she won’t do anything outside of sales compensation.

“Sales compensation analysts have a very large impact on the business,” said Rimi, a senior sales compensation analyst at Route. “If the sales compensation plans are not set correctly, your sales team will lose motivation.”

As such, the responsibility to design competitive sales compensation models that align to business goals and motivate reps falls to this niche arm of finance.

What does a sales compensation analyst do? 

Typical job duties include staying on top of industry trends, predicting salary increases, adjusting quotas to mirror go-to-market strategies, developing the sales commission structure, sales compensation planning, and more. Analysts must also factor regional differences, experience levels, and job titles to evaluate and implement effective sales compensation strategies. Although they usually work within finance functions, depending on the organization, you might see a comp analyst report under SalesOps or RevOps. 

The role is in high demand, especially at mid- to large-sized companies. More than 2,000 sales compensation analyst jobs appear on Indeed right now, including roles at Zoom, Cloudflare, and Adobe.

As a senior sales compensation analyst, what’s your day-to-day look like? 

My days are different based on what time of the month, quarter, or year it is. Normally, I am strategically thinking on what makes sense to motivate the sales team through our compensation plan. To do this, I run a lot of different analyses. For example, I’ll look at the percentage of sales hitting quota and making on-target-earings (OTE). I’ll also calculate return on investment analyses, and evaluate the comp plans to ensure they align with company objectives. 

In my opinion, a recession doesn’t affect sales compensation. Regardless of what’s happening with the market, you always have to reward your sales team for doing a great job. If a company pauses hiring more sales reps, you still have to continue to reward the ones you have. 

Thanks so much for offering a peek into life as a compensation analyst, Rimi!

About QuotaPath

QuotaPath provides automated commissions management solutions and sales compensation software to provide Reps, Leadership, and Finance teams with real-time tracking and forecasting. We’re the only commission payment software built with a UX design as awesome as our backend technology to take on commissions.  

Curious to see how your Salesforce commissions translate into QuotaPath? Book a time to chat with our team here, then send over a comp plan ahead of the call. We’ll build it out and show it to you over the demo.