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.
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Start TrialWhat 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.
Compensation analyst job description:
• Work as a key member of the field leadership team, providing timely sales analytics including weekly pipeline analysis, forecasting, and sales results
• Drive business change by developing a keen understanding of the business, identifying core focus areas through data driven insights, and building trust with business partners
• Partner with the field to craft and establish GTM strategy, own the modeling and implementation of sales territories and quota setting
• Actively identify operational issues and design solutions to make business flow better for the sales teams
• Work closely to share knowledge, methodologies and facilitate standardization across the field organization
Source: Adobe
Meet Rimi
Upon earning her degree in Business Administration and Finance, Rimi started her career as a
Financial Analyst and Accountant at San Joaquin Valley Pulmonary Medical Group. In 2014, she took a compensation analyst opportunity with Carrington Holding Company, where she stayed for four years. Since then, Rimi has worked at Medtronic and Core Logic as a comp analyst, before joining Route in April 2021 as a senior sales compensation analyst.
When she’s not working, you can find Rimi enjoying quality time with her husband and two boys.
Q&A
When did you realize you wanted to get into Finance?
I have been in Finance since the beginning of my career. I love numbers and got my degree in Finance, as well.
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.
What are some of the biggest challenges you solve for?
In this role, there is not one straight answer. That’s what I love about it. You have to think about different scenarios to come up with a solution. Plus, you have to keep improving with time and experience due to not having a straight answer.
What trends have you noticed in the sales compensation space that you’re paying close attention to?
We aim to be competitive in the market when it comes to our comp plans. We try to ensure our sales team feels motivated to bring in more revenue and that when we do, we reward them accordingly.
With the signs of a recession, what’s your advice on how to approach sales compensation?
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 commission 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.
