Learn about the crucial role an account executive plays as we define what is an account executive, how this role compares to other sales positions, and average AE salaries.

The term account executive is thrown around quite often in the sales world, but many people still don’t understand what the role truly entails.

Perhaps you’re researching a career in an account executive position, or maybe you’re just new to the sales industry and want to ensure you have a solid handle on organizational hierarchy. Either way, find out everything you need to know in this guide about account executives, their responsibilities, and earning potential.

What is an account executive?

Account executives are salespeople who create relationships with new customers with the overarching goal of driving revenue. Account executives, or AEs, may create and nurture client relationships by attending networking events, doing research, making sales calls, and visiting potential and current clients in person.

What do account executives do?

Most account executives tackle a core set of responsibilities as part of their daily duties. That usually includes some combination of:

• Researching and identifying prospects
• Establishing “ins” at a company via networking
• Pitching and presenting onsite or conducting virtual presentations and demos
• Maintaining relationships
• Addressing customer questions and/or potential issues during the leadup to a sale
• Pushing to reach sales quotas and targets
• Staying up to date on market and industry trends

The exact “day in the life” of an account executive may differ depending on the structure and size of the AE’s employing company. For example, at some companies, AEs enter the sales process when it’s already underway to help finalize the sale and convert prospective customers.

At smaller companies, such as a SaaS startup, an account executive might own the entire sales process, tackling every step from start to finish. That includes kicking off the relationship with a cold email or call and wrapping up the final sales contract when it’s time to close.

Some AEs don’t come into the picture until immediately after the deal wraps. They step in when it’s time to onboard the client and identify upsell opportunities.

Those significant differences in roles and duties mean more opportunities for AEs who want to lean into a specific part of the sales process. For instance, say you’re not great at breaking the ice but you’re known for your ability to close. You could look for an AE role at a company that primarily relies on account executives for the latter part of the sales cycle.

Key skills for an account executive include:

• Exceptional presentation and communication skills
• Well organized
• Analytical
• Ambitious
• Empathetic
• Goal-oriented
• Proactive
• Strong problem-solving abilities

What’s the difference between account executives and account managers?

Depending on the company, a sizable overlap between account executives and account managers may exist. Both positions involve working directly with customers. In some organizations, the AE actually acts as an AM, playing a dual role.

In most instances, AMs only come into play after a prospect signs the contract and moves from prospect to customer. At this time, the account manager serves as the liaison between the company and the client through the duration of their contract.

Account executive vs. sales development rep

Sales development representatives (SDRs) are primarily focused on outbound prospecting. They govern the part of the sales process that deals with researching and contacting potential clients. Unlike account executives who might dabble in multiple portions of the sales cycle, SDRs only source and qualify leads.

An account executive might also do the work of a sales development representative, participating in lead sourcing and qualification. This is more common at smaller organizations, where AEs run prospecting efforts until the company builds an SDR function. But very rarely, if ever, would an SDR cover the same job responsibilities as an AE.

Are account executive roles entry-level?

Yes and no. Account executive roles may be entry-level if the company is younger or smaller. Larger companies with more complex sales department structures may require AEs to have more extensive experience. Or, they may have several types of AEs with different salary packages dependent on experience.

Smaller companies and startups often ask AEs to have more experience. That’s because their responsibilities extend beyond what most AEs typically do. Account executives who also act as SDRs or account managers will need a more expansive skill set. Therefore, it’s helpful if they’ve held those other roles earlier in their career.

We see Senior AEs typically defined as account executives with at least two or three years of previous experience. These AEs usually have higher sales targets (and on-target earnings) than entry-level AEs and larger customers.

Average salary for an account executive

According to Indeed.com, the national average base salary for account executives in the United States is $68,055. In addition to base salary, account executives may be eligible for common benefits and variable compensation. These might include a cash bonus (averaging $15,000 per year) and commission (averaging $24,000 per year). Some organizations track and calculate this manually, while others lean on platforms like QuotaPath, to provide automated commission tracking and compensation insights.

There are also job perks like a 401(K), gym memberships, health/dental/vision insurance, disability insurance, wellness programs, and flexible scheduling. The exact compensation package depends on the company and the market.

For comparison, account managers in the U.S. averaged $58,357 per year, and SDRs average annual salaries of $68,837. Betts 2022 Compensation Guide also offers additional sales salary info and year-over-year earning trends.

So, is being an account executive a good job? For hard-working, organized, solid communicators, yes! But this role requires balance and attention to detail that won’t fit everyone’s needs. We recommend connecting with a peer currently in an AE role to learn first-hand what the job is like.

Are you an existing or aspiring account executive interested in finding a better way to track commissions? QuotaPath’s commission tracking software takes the mystery out of payday and scales with your team as you grow. For more information about how you can get more accurate, straightforward compensation results, try QuotaPath for free today.

QuotaPath users recognized our solution as a sales compensation management leader in the space once again via G2 rankings.

Recently, the peer-to-peer user review platform awarded QuotaPath a series of badges in the Sales Compensation category. These included Users Love Us, which we earned after collecting 20 4.0-star reviews, and Easiest to Do Business With. 

Our approach to sales compensation management allows go-to-market teams to run a more efficient and accurate sales process. With real-time data syncs and personalized dashboards, QuotaPath forges a deeper understanding of earnings, forecasted commissions, and quota attainment. As a result, our approach and technology have led to more motivated teams and higher team attainment.

Before sharing our new badge list, we want to thank our users who rely on us for accurate commission tracking. Without your feedback and your ability to recognize QuotaPath’s capabilities, we wouldn’t be where we are today. So, thank you!

Our goal

Since 2018, it has been our goal to ensure reps understand their earnings and the impact the next deal has. As we grow, we will continue to support commission necessities and expand to support the entire compensation process.

In the past year alone, we grew our feature set by more than 100 percent. Much of these additions came at the request of our customers. These new features fostered in-app collaboration while building out technical intricacies to support more complex plans. We will continue to listen carefully and grow alongside the scaling teams we support. 

Furthermore, fresh off the heels of a $41 million Series B, we remain committed to our mission and users. Sales compensation leaves a lot of room for error in comp plan design and throughout calculations and payouts. We aim to fix it. Looking ahead, we’ll drop new resources that minimize errors at the beginning, middle, and end stages of the compensation process. Stay tuned!

Additionally, we’ll double down on the six key areas where QuotaPath stands out in the sales compensation management space. 

Why QuotaPath is a sales compensation management leader

1. Reps can easily learn and pickup the platform.

First, our Dashboards, Earnings, and Attainment views give sellers the ability to see their earned and forecasted commissions in real-time. This ease of use lends itself to high adoption rates amongst sales teams. In fact, we see reps pull up QuotaPath immediately after closing a deal to check their commissions and attainment. 

“Reps can jump in and figure it out on their own. It’s so easy to use!” said RoverPass’s Director of Sales Kristen O’Hara. 

2. Reps can forecast future commissions.

Secondly, money often acts as the leading motivator for sales reps. We created QuotaPath with exactly that in mind. Using our sales commission software, reps can see how deals in their pipeline translate to future dollars earned. 

“Our reps realized they could run scenarios and see how much they could earn from our monthly kickers,” said Blackthorn VP of Sales Joe St. Germain.

As such, Joe’s reps pushed harder to bring in deals now, versus letting deals linger into the next month. A record year of sales for the Blackthorn team followed.

3. Fast implementation and integration syncs.

In addition to QuotaPath’s ease of use in the platform, we designed our integration syncs to be set up quickly.

Our set-up wizard enables first-time users to integrate their CRM in 4-steps and build out comp plans and rules. 

For example, Tribe Dynamics set up QuotaPath and their HubSpot integration within one week of their demo. 

4. Actual native integrations with CRMs vs. manual refreshes.

Speaking on integrations. QuotaPath’s robust platform has a unique offering with multiple native integrations and an open API. Native integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot, and Close CRMs ensure the accuracy of the data without the need to double-check. Users don’t have to refresh the page. This may not seem like a big deal today, but at the end of the quarter, it is. 

If your sellers and Finance currently track and calculate commissions manually, these native integrations act as an incredible time saver.

Just ask Katie Cooper at Muck Rack, who used to spend one week calculating commissions for a team of 10. Today, she runs commissions in less than six hours for a team of 70. 

5. Pricing transparency and no implementation fees. 

Our new G2 badge, “Easiest to do Business With,” reflects our transparency around pricing. Our pricing model includes never charging implementation fees. 

We offer three pricing packages — including a free version — that can scale with teams. 

6. Assistance with compensation planning strategy.

As mentioned above, our focus this year centers on supporting teams through compensation design. We will continue to share resources and modeling tools to help. However, in the meantime, book a one-on-one call with our Resident Sales Nerd Graham Collins.  

These six differentiators have contributed to our recent badge work on G2. Take a look at our Spring recognitions below. 

G2 Spring Recognitions

• Most Implementable: Fast onboarding. Easy to learn. That’s us!

• Best Results: Implement QuotaPath, see immediate time-to-value.
  
• Best Relationship: Our team won’t let you fall through the cracks. We’ll be by your side the entire time.
  
• Leader (Small-Business): High ratings in sales compensation? That’s us.
  
• Fastest Implementation (Mid-Market): We have the shortest go-live time in our category and average onboarding times of less than two weeks.
  
• Easiest Admin (Small-Business & Mid-Market): A callout to our intuitive design and set-up wizard.
  
• Momentum Leader: Not us ranking in the top 25% of our category? Why yes, yes it is.
  
• Easiest To Do Business With (Mid-Market): If you haven’t met our team yet, you should. 

• Easiest To Use (Small Business): The most common feedback we hear from our customers is “It just works.”
  
• High Performer: Our customers reported high customer satisfaction scores. Probably because a lot of the teams we’ve worked with have seen immediate increases in sales productivity. 

In closing, users have consistently expressed love for QuotaPath and our ability to both save time and motivate their teams.

If you want to see what the hype is all about, we’d love to chat with you! Book a time with our awesome team. And, see how QuotaPath can help with your sales commission tracking and compensation management today. 

When sales technologies are optimized, teams note quantifiable improvements in metrics like pipeline, close-rates, and forecast accuracy. So, it makes sense that high-growth companies deploy more sales tools than laggards and achieve a 5 percent improvement in quota attainment as a result.

But implementing the right tools can be tricky.

RevOps leaders tasked with identifying impactful sales and marketing ops solutions must sift through a lot of noise. For instance, 1,200 available solutions across 43 different categories crowd the sales technology market. 

The vast array of options makes it harder for leaders to figure out which technologies to go with. 

To help, we’ve sourced a few of our favorite tools! Then we checked out customer review sites and case studies to learn what users love best about each of them.

1. CRM

Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms help salespeople enhance their daily schedules and prioritize tasks. With a CRM in place, reps are less likely to lose track of customer and prospect follow-ups. CRMs also ensure that information accrued by your sales team is accessible across your entire company in one centralized system. CRMs store customer data and communications. They facilitate tracking and nurturing customer and lead relationships and act as a single source of truth.  Pro tip: Before using a CRM, it is best to make sure that the device is optimized (clear the RAM, remove applications that launch at login, etc.). Then your work with CRM will be fast and smooth.

 HubSpot

Hubspot is an easy-to-use CRM platform with all the tools and integrations you need for marketing, sales, content management, and customer service. Plus, it supports hundreds of app integrations (including QuotaPath).

Their customers love how simple it is to use. SalesOps professionals specifically appreciate how easy it is to generate dashboards, reports, and filters, and how smoothly it integrates into the marketing module.

Hubspot’s Sales CRM helps sales teams close more deals, manage client relationships, and track team activities.

Salesforce

Salesforce CRM can be used by businesses of all sizes.

Their customers love how customizable and versatile the platform is, so it can be used by many industries. Salesforce’s resources, third-party integrations, including QuotaPath, and their reporting structures are excellent.

Salesforce helps companies manage prospect relationships, communication, lead tracking, opportunity conversion, and gauge success through reporting.

Close

Close CRM focuses solely on the needs of SMBs and scaling teams. It is a sales engagement CRM designed to help SMBs turn more leads into revenue.

Close CRM’s customers love the interface because it’s easy to navigate and very intuitive. They also love the robust filters and sorting functions as well as the automated email tracking function in Close CRM.

Close lets you email, call, and text your leads, all without add-ons. The platform includes productivity tools like task reminders and a Power Dialer to reach more leads, follow up more often, and close more deals. And, Close CRM integrates with QuotaPath.

2. Chili Piper

Chili Piper is an advanced scheduling and routing software for B2B revenue teams.

Customers love the platform for its ease of use and ability to simplify the process of scheduling calls and meetings. Not only does the platform streamline scheduling, it facilitates rescheduling, reassigning, or updating meetings and invites. Chili Piper also gives you the ability to set up round-robin functionality for call and demo distribution with smart routing capabilities to assign accounts. Their customers also love the assortment of integrations offered by Chili Piper.

Chili Piper helps revenue teams double their inbound conversion rates, increase customer satisfaction, and increase productivity in terms of scheduling.

3. Jiminny

Jiminny is a conversation intelligence platform that records, transcribes, and analyzes customer conversations.

Customers have shared they find the platform easy to use. They love that Jiminny simplifies coaching by highlighting key coaching moments and encourages more coaching through self and peer-to-peer coaching. It also provides performance and deal analytics, and simplifies internal communication. Jiminny customers also praised the company for offering up excellent customer support!

Jiminny helps companies shorten new hire onboarding times, simplify and improve sales coaching for continuous rep performance improvement, update sales processes, and increase forecasting accuracy.

4. Contractbook

Contractbook is an end-to-end contract management platform that enables you to manage your contracts in a single, streamlined flow. The platform allows you to automate every step with data-driven document automation to save time and avoid errors.

Contractbook’s customers say their technology makes life easier by ensuring consistency across teams and finalizing contracts more quickly. The solution allows customers to see when a client has viewed a contract or requested a re-send. It also flags changes to the contract and notifies when a client has sent a contract back. You can also autogenerate contracts and create new documents from templates.

Customers have also applauded Contractbook’s intuitiveness and its large list of integrations.

5. QuotaPath

QuotaPath is a sales compensation management tool with real-time data syncs and personalized dashboards for greater rep and leader transparency and understanding of earnings and quota attainment.

Customers love the platform because it saves time by replacing error-prone manual tracking processes with sales incentive automation. It’s set up for RevOps, Finance, and Sales to use, and it’s not uncommon for reps to pull up QuotaPath immediately after closing a deal. This leads to high adoption rates and rep motivation because reps can actually forecast commissions, too. 

QuotaPath helps measure sales performance, deliver results, and drive consistent revenue. The platform helps businesses save time by automating commissions, increasing transparency around even the most complex comp plan, eliminating compensation errors, and driving success. 

Plus, the team offers a wealth of knowledge in compensation planning and partners with companies to design plans that drive positive sales behaviors. 

6. Blissfully (acquired by Vendr)

Blissfully is a platform for managing every aspect of your technology stack.

Customers have shared that the solution has helped them pump transparency into their SaaS spend by automating the process. The onboarding and offboarding processes in Blissfully give customers the ability to create standard checklists per department to follow when a new employee starts or leaves. Blissfully manages the process and sends reminders so no details slip through, which matters for SOC 2 audits.

The Blissfully platform provides organization, automation, and security to every aspect of your technology stack. It simplifies business operations, streamlines on- and offboarding, optimizes SaaS and IT spend, and improves security and compliance.

Still need help building a sales tech stack that your team will actually use? Check out the recap and recording of our webinar, “How to Build a Sales Tech Stack Your Team Will Actually Use.”

And, when you are ready, you can find out how QuotaPath can add immediate value to your sales tech stack today. 

In this blog, we connect with QuotaPath Systems Engineering Lead James Truty to get an inside peek into the QuotaPath HubSpot CRM integration. To automate commission tracking via HubSpot and QuotaPath, learn more here. 

QuotaPath’s Engineering Lead James Truty has a lot of experience setting up system integrations throughout his career. 

A lot, as in 20 system integrations since 2008. 

At QuotaPath specifically, James led the sales compensation management platform through its first integration in 2019 with Salesforce. This allowed users to automatically feed real-time deal earnings data from Salesforce into QuotaPath.

Even more, the Salesforce integration set the stage for QuotaPath’s second CRM integration with HubSpot a year later. By applying the lessons learned from the Salesforce sync, James and team cut the delivery time down from 20 weeks to six with HubSpot.

At the beginning of 2021, HubSpot CRM users could fully automate and track sales commissions using QuotaPath. 

Users of both platforms shouted with glee and saw immediate successes. (Check out Muck Rack’s story here and Tribe Dynamic’s here)

QuotaPath’s ongoing relationship with HubSpot

And so began QuotaPath’s blossoming relationship with the makers behind the orange-adorned marketing, sales, customer service, and CRM software. Just months after announcing the QuotaPath HubSpot CRM integration, for instance, HubSpot invested in QuotaPath via HubSpot Ventures.

“For sales teams, the CRM is the center of every customer interaction. QuotaPath helps by bringing a part of the CRM that doesn’t exist today — there’s no real way to calculate earnings and commissions off of CRM data,” wrote Brandon Greer in HubSpot’s announcement.

The following fall, QuotaPath added the ability for HubSpot users to view their QuotaPath-tracked commission data directly in HubSpot. Called QuotaPath Earnings, this allowed users to see everything without having to toggle between the two systems. 

Then, this past Spring, QuotaPath became a HubSpot certified application by passing additional HubSpot tests and security protocols. 

So, what’s behind the relationship between QuotaPath and HubSpot, and what can users of both systems expect next? 

To learn more, we turned to none other than James Truty!

Hi, James!

James started at QuotaPath in 2019, which made him one of the first employees at the company. The engineer has over 14 years of experience, five of which he dedicated to TrendKite where he met QuotaPath Co-Founders AJ Bruno and Cole Evetts. When James isn’t at the office, he can be seen at local breweries with his wife and kids, checking out new parks, or riding his bicycle. 

First, what constitutes a “solid” integration from a technical perspective?

James: A good integration starts with documentation and good tooling for our developers. The integrations that we can complete in the fastest amount of time with the fewest resources on our side are the ones that are documented really well. For example, CRM integrations require a lot of test data and test accounts, which can be a burden and drive costs. So, when you have that information and data upfront, it makes a CRM integration much easier. 

How come the HubSpot integration took significantly less time than the first one?

James: Integrations get easier over time as you develop the product. We hammered out a lot of things, such as UI and data integration with our first one with Salesforce. This made it easier to verify that the integration worked in HubSpot and that changes in HubSpot immediately reflected in QuotaPath.  

Additionally, we were able to work really closely with HubSpot from the beginning to build a native integration through our platform. This was a big differentiator over the previous system integration. We knew from our learnings with Salesforce that we could make a very smooth integration with very few clicks and have that be useful for importing a customer’s data over and keeping it synced.

Tell us how QuotaPath’s native integration with HubSpot has evolved. What’s next? 

James: Initially we only supported HubSpot “Deals” in QuotaPath. Since then, we’ve added more objects as customers have needed them, such as “Tickets.” This allows teams to base commissions off more than the deal value. For example, a sales rep might earn commissions when a deal closes based on the deal amount. But a different rep on a different team might earn commissions from tickets closed. By supporting multiple objects and fields within those objects, users have the flexibility to track and automate commissions to align with how they actually earn money.

Up next, we’ll continue to build support for more objects and fields that will help us better support other sales roles, like SDRs, through commission events. 

Lastly, congrats on leading QuotaPath’s HubSpot certification on the app marketplace! What exactly does this mean?

James: Our app passed an additional technical review conducted by an internal HubSpot team of developers. These tests evaluated the security of our data, the speed of application, and a few other items. We had already met most of HubSpot’s requirements, so when we applied for certification, it took just over a week to finalize. 

HubSpot’s Certification Metrics for QuotaPath:

• Success rate above 98% for all activities (HubSpot requires 95%)
• 100+ Customers using integration (HubSpot requires six)
• Authenticated via OAuth and assessed for HubSpot’s security best practices
• Numerous other metrics tied to privacy, reliability, performance, and usability

Final Thoughts 

“We’ve had good support and feedback from our HubSpot customers overall,” said James. “They like that it’s quick to use and quick to set up. We want to continue that as we build more features and integrations.”

If you’re already utilizing HubSpot and thinking about using QuotaPath to help track commissions and earnings, you’re already halfway there! Take your research journey to the next level and see how the QuotaPath HubSpot CRM integration works in a custom demo.

A message from CEO and Co-Founder AJ Bruno regarding the QuotaPath Series B announcement.

Today, we’re excited to announce our $41 million Series B, led by Tribe Capital! 

Before we dive into the specifics of the announcement, I wanted to share a few thoughts on what this funding means to us and what we’re building at QuotaPath.

First, Tribe Capital has a reputation for investing in companies that embrace and execute successful product-led growth models. This means the product steers an organization’s go-to-market strategy, and it’s been our approach since our 2018 inception. 

Tribe also packs a ton of sales experience, especially Sri Pangulur, who has served in executive sales roles at companies like Cloudflare, Datacoral, and Trace Data, and who will join our board. Additionally, Tribe has a machine learning-focused fund that aligns with where we aim to take sales compensation management next.

It’s incredibly validating and exciting to have Tribe’s backing. 

We have their confidence as the winners in the market. They trust the makeup and experience of our team and leaders. They believe in our point of view that sales reps should be excited about their comp plans and commissions (and that if they aren’t your team is doing it wrong). 

I don’t know how else to say it other than it feels like we’re an unstoppable machine. 

With this Series B, we will:

• Continue to work with talented individuals and build a culture that embodies mission, vision, learning, and growth, and in an environment where people enjoy working with one another. 

• Develop a platform that thousands of go-to-market experts rely on for commission tracking and when they need help understanding how new roles and teams impact compensation and revenue growth.
  
• Double down on our differentiators that have captured the hearts of teams that previously used spreadsheets or other commission software.

Additional details of the funding are below, but I leave you with one of my favorite quotes:

“It’s about the Journey. Not the Destination.” We’re excited and thrilled to take this next step in our journey. 

 — AJ Bruno

Inside today’s announcement:

Tribe Capital joins our existing investor group of Insight Partners, ATX Venture Partners, Stage 2 Capital, and Integr8d Capital. 

“Backing QuotaPath was an easy decision,” said Sri Pangulur, Partner at Tribe Capital, who will join our board. “As the only major player in the space with a product-led-growth sales motion, we believe QuotaPath can become the dominant commission tracking software for companies of all sizes while growing alongside its customer base.”

The funding comes 9 months following our Series A, in which we’ve since tripled our revenue and doubled our team.

Our goal remains to help reps and revenue leaders be more successful in their roles. When reps trust their comp plans and can visualize the impact of the next deal, we’ve seen that they sell more. (See: OSG, Blackthorn, Sapling.)

We will continue to automate commissions while branching out with new functionalities that support the entire compensation process.

For example, QuotaPath customers can expect to see new CRM, ERP, and payroll integrations. We’ll also drop additional compensation resources that ensure your team has the most impactful variable pay models in place. (Resources like our OTE:Ratio calculator that are free and open for anybody to use). 

Our team of “Navigators” is growing, too. Our engineering and sales teams will see the most growth, yet every department will add roles. If you’re curious, empathetic, and interested in making a big splash in the sales compensation space, we want to hear from you! (To explore our open positions and learn more about our values, check out our careers page.)

Before we return to our usual programming, we’ll leave you with a few points of pride:

Where we stand out:

QuotaPath is the only sales compensation management platform that:

• Gives reps the ability to forecast future attainment
• Runs native CRM integrations for real-time visibility
• Offers free sales comp plan strategy consultations
• Does not require any type of coding or formula building
• Shares transparent pricing
• Charges zero implementation fees
• Onboards teams in days after signing (not months, like our competitors)
• Invites users to get started for free 

Thank you to everyone who has joined us on this journey! To learn how QuotaPath can help your team get sales compensation right, book a time to chat with us. 

Every month, QuotaPath collects nominations from our customers to name a Quokka of the Month. We’re thrilled to announce our QuokkaPath April winner below. To nominate a teammate, see past winners, and learn more about this initiative, check out our dedicated QuokkaPath page. 

It takes new employees about 12 months to reach peak performance, per data from Gallup Analytics.

For Tyler Winterstein, a senior accountant, it took less than six months.

That’s according to his teammate, Derek Peterson, who serves as Senior Vice President of Operations at Opendorse.

Derek nominated Tyler, our QuokkaPath April winner, for the huge impact he has made in his short amount of time since joining Opendorse.

“Tyler joined Opendorse roughly six months ago and has been crushing it for our team,” Derek wrote in his QuokkaPath nomination. 

In addition to his finance responsibilities, Tyler led the implementation of QuotaPath for the athlete endorsement and marketing platform. 

“We were not maximizing this tool before Tyler grabbed the baton and started running with it,” Derek said. “It’s like that a lot when it comes to Tyler, and I’m very appreciative of him.”

Thanks to Tyler, Opendorse’s revenue and finance teams get to fully enjoy an automated sales compensation process a la QuotaPath.

“It is amazing to be receiving this recognition. But, I couldn’t have done it without the help of the QuotaPath team,” said Tyler.

More specifically, Tyler recognized our Director of Account Management James Millard. “Whenever I had a question or issue, he would help me right away. This is definitely the biggest reason why I was able to reach my goal of implementation.”

Please join us in congratulating April’s Quokka of the Month!

Tyler, here’s to you for taking ownership of an initiative that had an immediate effect on the organization. 

Get to know QuokkaPath’s April Winner:

• Tyler, a student-athlete, attended Nebraska Wesleyan University, where he played baseball as an infielder
  
• He recently became a new homeowner — congrats!
  
• He collects golf balls from the courses he’s played across the country

Sounds like going above and beyond is par for the course for Tyler.

Nominations are now open for May’s Quokka of the Month. To recognize your teammate, answer six short questions and learn more about our QuokkaPath in the video below.

As part of our series highlighting leaders who replaced manual commission tracking with QuotaPath’s automated commission tracking, we turn to RoverPass’s Director of Sales Kristen O’Hara. Her story differs from the other two, as she joined RoverPass after they bought QuotaPath. To fully optimize the platform, she reshaped her team’s compensation plans to drive sales performance and better align with QuotaPath.

A good sales compensation plan encourages the right sales behaviors and gets your ideal customers through the door.

When one — or neither — of those things happen, a new comp plan may be in order.

That’s why Kristen O’Hara’s first priority upon her arrival at RoverPass in July 2021 involved redesigning their compensation plan. 

Prior to her joining, RoverPass reps earned commissions based on earned revenue. This approach required heavy manual manipulation and significant work in spreadsheets. It also failed to incentivize positive sales behaviors, Kristen said. 

“We weren’t getting the right fit customers in our door, and it was impacting our ability to onboard,” said Kristen.

Additionally, the company had purchased QuotaPath a month before Kristen signed on. Due to the comp plan design, however, the revenue team hardly made use of it.

Then came Kristen’s comp plan makeover. 

Today, RoverPass, a campground reservation system and online booking marketplace, has five compensation plans. Kristen modeled these plans for four sales development reps (SDR), a market manager that oversees them, two account executives (AE), and a sales manager.

Kristen’s move to change up the comp plans also solidified QuotaPath in RoverPass’s sales tech stack.

“Re-modeling the plans to fit in QuotaPath is the best thing I’ve done,” said Kristen. “I used to spend a day running commissions, now I’m done in an hour through QuotaPath.”

Plus, her reps now have full visibility into their existing and potential earnings and in real-time, thanks to QuotaPath’s integration with their HubSpot CRM.

Life’s been good since automating commissions through QuotaPath. 

To learn more about her QuotaPath experience, we asked Kristen a few more questions. 

Meet Kristen

Kristen O’Hara fell into sales when a friend invited her to run their business development team. At the time, she had been working in operations, branding, and marketing. Yet she made the shift and has continued in sales for five years now. Today she leads a growing sales team at RoverPass as Director of Sales.

As a sales leader, Kristen focuses on hiring the right people and then providing them with the right tools, support, and opportunities for advancement. 

What other changes did you make to your comp plan?

Kristen: We also changed from having territories and just AEs to having AEs, SDRs, a lead-based model, and no territories. The new plan consists of monthly, quarterly, and annual commissions. Using QuotaPath’s integration with HubSpot, the monthly data feeds over from HubSpot and directly into QuotaPath. This allows reps to track where they’re at, know how much they’re going to make at any given time, and forecast what they should shoot for to hit target.

Sounds like your team is scaling. What type of growth are you experiencing?

Kristen: RoverPass is well over 40 employees now, and on the sales side, we continue to grow. We’re hiring fantastic people that exemplify our company values. We’re also moving people up quickly. The SDR role specifically receives training to be an AE within six to 12 months of onboarding through a 4-step process.

How has QuotaPath been the right tool for automated commission tracking?

Kristen: The best value about QuotaPath is it just does its job seamlessly. It’s taken so much weight off of me. It gives the reps the ability to see where they’re tracking very easily when they log in. We don’t even have to train them on it. Reps can jump in and figure it out on their own. It’s so easy to use!

Could you ever go back to running commissions in a spreadsheet?

Kristen: No. As a software company, there’s software to make your life easier. Take advantage of that when you can. I love QuotaPath. My entire experience has been really great, and the account management team is amazing!

Final Thoughts

We know separating from your trusted spreadsheets can be difficult. Re-designing a comp plan can pose an even bigger challenge. Good thing we can help with both. 

To learn more about QuotaPath’s sales incentive automation platform can track and help build sales comp plan strategy sessions, chat with us today. 

To our sales leadership out there, do we have a tool for you! This week, QuotaPath released our latest upgrade to our real-time leaderboards, Team Attainment Leaderboards.

Take that in. Team. Attainment. Leaderboards. 

These new, interactive leaderboards provide leaders with a way to easily visualize and forecast team attainment using conditional color formatting. Now, managers can quickly identify areas of opportunity and be more strategic with their coaching and time as a result. 

With Team Attainment Leaderboards, create up to five leaderboards and goals for a given team.

Got an SDR team that’s measured based on meetings booked? Great, set their leaderboard to populate based on the number of demos scheduled. 

Then, for your teams tracked on contract value or annual recurring revenue, base their leaderboards on currency. 

We also made it possible to create leaderboards from different data sources within QuotaPath, like Plan, Path Shared Quota, or Field.  This means more flexibility to build out visualizations fit for your team. For example, if your SDR team is compensated on demos booked and on closed/won bookings, you can create two leaderboards. One that runs based on meetings set and the other from closed/won bookings.

Visualize attainment

 “Scaling sales organizations want the ability to visualize attainment in a way that allows them to understand success or failure ‘at a glance,’” said Co-Founder and Head of Product Cole Evetts.

Our latest changes deliver that — and more.

When reps can easily see where they stand and where their forecasted deals could take them, these gamified views help motivate reps to push forward. Our latest updates provide the clearest, most intuitive reporting UI for reps to date and are much more than a real-time statement report. 

Plus, the new dashboards support leaders with robust reporting to drive the right behavior and results. It’s data they can actually use and turn insights into immediate action. 

“Sales teams are so excited about the new Team Leaderboard functionality,” said QuotaPath Director Sales Sam Manley. “Our prospects have told us how much value it would add for them to be able to see percentage attainment views across their sales reps in a leaderboard style view.”

This update marks QuotaPath’s latest effort to give reps and sales leadership more ownership and insight into their performance and pipeline. 

“Traditionally, ‘commission tracking tools’ aren’t built for sales but for finance,” Cole said. “By investing in a great experience for reps, we have the ability to actually bring ‘commission tracking’ into the sales enablement category, bridge the gap between company and personal financial goals, and provide sales leadership with another tool to drive behavior and results.”

The details

Now, in Team Leaderboards:

• Create Attainment Leaderboards based on currency (annual recurring revenue) or based on numbers (demos booked)
  
• Set leaderboards from different data sources within QuotaPath
  
• Gauge quota and percentage of quota attainment using Attainment Index View with conditional color formatting
  
• Set multiple leaderboards within a team, each with its own goal
  
• Forecast your team’s pipeline 

Existing customers, sit back and relax. Upon your next login, you’ll notice the new leaderboards. Go in and adjust them according to your team!

“I’m confident that this functionality will be a game-changer for sales leaders, sales reps, RevOps, and executives across the board!” Sam said. 

We’re excited to share our latest effort in arming sales leaders with enablement tools that drive behavior and results. To start motivating your team using our real-time, interactive attainment leaderboard, schedule a time to chat with us. 

A VP of Sales is a vital part of your management team and is integral to the success of your company. They are responsible for hiring, training, and developing members of your talent pool and making sure they have the skills and team to help your organization achieve its key performance indicators (KPIs). 

With this in mind, it’s essential to hire the right person for the position, and for that, you need to offer the right sales compensation package. 

In this article, we explore some options to offer a prospective VP of Sales that will fit their expectations as well as the needs of your business.

How should a VP of Sales be compensated?

As with any position of such importance, there is no “one size fits all” package for compensating your VP of Sales.

Rather, consider the following factors when building your package:

• Track record — Have they a proven record of achieving targets and retaining the best sales team?
• Years of experience — Will this be the person’s first time as a VP, or will it be their 8th?
• Size of employer — Larger employers have larger sales teams, and typically compensate to reflect that.
• Years of tenure at an employer — A new employee often has lower compensation expectations.
• Employer’s industry  — Niche industries often need to pay more for experienced VPs.
• Industry knowledge and connections — Those who bring a larger network and industry knowledge to your organization may deserve a higher package than someone who does not.
• Method of compensation — Salary, bonuses or stock options? Different combinations suit different companies and candidates, as we shall explore later.
• Location — If this person lives in an area with high living costs, they’ll expect their compensation to match.

VP of Sales compensation structure

As we indicated earlier, there is no one-size-fits-all structure for compensating a VP of Sales, but some basic guidelines apply. 

Usually, a package includes a base salary and some sort of bonus or commission-based element, depending on the stage of the VP’s career and the industry they work in. 

For SaaS (Software as a Service) organizations, the salary and bonus figures depend on the organization’s size, how many sales managers and reps they employ and the geographical area they work in.

3 examples of a VP of Sales compensation package

Choosing the best compensation package for your VP is closely related to the size of your company, its needs, and your growth goals. This may change over time and should also relate to the expectations of the type of candidate you wish to attract.

To help, we sourced three VP of Sales compensation package examples based on commonly adopted compensation structures. 

1. A stretch plan for startups: 50/50:25+

If you’re running a start-up, growth is vital, so you need a package that incentivizes growth. However, you don’t want to offer too much and jeopardize your organization’s profitability. So a good package to offer at this stage can be made up as follows:

• 50% base
• 50% commission
• 25% of all revenue above the total revenue target goes to the leader (accelerator)

To make this work, you need to set your goals early on and ensure they’re realistic. If you pitch your targets too low, you may needlessly lose a chunk of revenue — although your VP will be happy! Too high, and a good VP of Sales will recognize this and become demotivated.

2. Equity package: 70/30: equity

A package with a solid salary base can attract experienced VPs who want a predictable income. And, of course, a commission element keeps them motivated. A good split for that will go like this:

• 70% base
• 30% commission
• Stock or cash bonuses for milestones above target

The stock or cash bonuses also motivate your VP to bring on team members who can contribute strongly to your revenue. This gives them a good connection to your organization and keeps them invested.

3. Year-over-year comparison

This highly-motivating package compares revenue, net profit results, and gross profit. You then calculate bonus payouts to align with the gross profit for each category over the previous year. If your business doesn’t grow, there’s no bonus for your VP of Sales. You can scale this model to suit the needs of your organization and also inspire your VP to build a team well-suited to helping the company grow.

Best practices for building a VP of sales compensation package

When building your compensation package for a VP of Sales, start with a pre-determined and clearly laid-out quota and annual plan. This may involve:

• Setting an annual budget for sales hiring and expenses.
• Modeling the numbers to ensure the gross profit your VP brings in will outweigh the cost of their role.

You should also be aware that the strongest VP of Sales candidates will require a large OTE salary. It’s also a good idea to offer a guaranteed draw (full bonus), as you would with a new sales rep.

Of course, once you have the right VP of Sales compensation package in the first year, the journey isn’t over.

As your company grows, your VP of Sale’s role will grow with it, so it’s best to revisit that package annually to ensure it still meets the needs of both your organization and your valued VP of Sales.

Need help with comp plan design for AEs and SDRs? Our free and ungated resource, Compensation Hub, includes a library of 20 adjustable templates to find the right plan fit for your business. To learn more about QuotaPath’s automated commission tracking and incentive compensation management software, book time with our team today or sign up for a free 30-day trial.

QuotaPath recently published a comprehensive sales comp plans guide. Get a preview below. 

Organizations have to get sales compensation right in 2022. 

A whopping 47 million people voluntarily left their jobs last year in search of better wages, benefits, and working conditions. That’s the highest quit rate to date, as reported by the Labor Department. 

Sales teams definitely felt the hit.

Last year, sales rep tenures, which, let’s be honest, have always been short, dropped even more to just 18 months. For reference, that number was closer to 2.5 years 10 years ago.

Meanwhile, average on-target earnings (OTE) for account executives and sales development reps jumped between 5 and 15 percent year-over-year based on region and experience. We anticipate those numbers to continue to climb in 2022. 

Are the shortened tenures and larger OTEs correlated? We think so. 

Dooly, a platform that helps sales reps maintain pipeline data hygiene, found that, of reps surveyed, 51 percent said they would ditch their team for higher pay.  

To address increasing sales rep attrition rates and OTEs in a hyper-competitive job market, leaders must adjust.

That means designing sales comp plans that: pay well, reward over performance, motivate reps, and are easily understood.

To help with all four, we compiled this extensive sales comp plans guide. 

Learn how to set quotas with competitive OTEs that align with your business goals and attract high performers. Take our recommendations for compensation plan best practices, variable plans, ramp-up methods, and quota frequencies. 

Calculate and track sales commissions more accurately — and in less time. Or, skip everything and head to the resources index for free tools to help your approach to sales compensation management.

Key Takeaways

Before you jump in, we listed some highlights from “Your Guide to Setting, Calculating, and Tracking Sales Compensation” below.

1. OTEs are up.

Account executives with zero to three years of experience see OTEs on average of $100K while SDRs are seeing OTEs between $80K and $90K. (Betts 2022 Compensation Guide)

2. Reps trust compensation plans created by RevOps the most.

However, not every organization has a RevOps function just yet. For companies that generate less than $30MM in ARR, sales leaders design the comp plans 73 percent of the time. (Benchmark Report: How to build compensation plans for your sales team)

3. Multiple-rate commission plans are the best

And even better when you add milestone bonuses. Although these types of plans are more complex to track and calculate, they drive performance and reward overperformance. In our survey, we found that nearly 80 percent of comp plans featured accelerators. (Benchmark Report: How to build compensation plans for your sales team)

4. Design comp plans that you can easily speak to.

Simplicity, consistency, and uncapped commissions are your friend. Make sure you communicate any changes or new plans to your team, explain how the company will support them through these changes, and allow them a space to ask questions.

5. It’s time to automate your sales compensation process when:

you have plans to scale your team, your current process slows you down and is silo’ed, and you and your reps lack visibility into real-time attainment and earnings. Get ahead of the problems by implementing a solution now. 

Enjoy the read!

QuotaPath, which supports scaling sales teams with sales compensation software, also offers free comp planning strategy consultations. 

Chat with one of our teammates to learn more. We look forward to meeting you!

Performance-based pay is one of the strongest ways to motivate your team. But if your salespeople aren’t totally clear on what variable pay means, this tool could lose its power.

To help get the most out of your employees, you need to create a compensation package that inspires action. Step one: Use variable pay to energize your team. Step two: Make sure they know what variable pay actually means and why they should be enthusiastic about it.

What is variable pay?

The term variable pay refers to compensation tied to, and dependent upon, your performance. The more you sell, the more you make. But that can be confusing for people not used to paychecks that fluctuate from week to week.

Variable may include:

• Commission
• Project bonuses (individual and/or group)
• Time-period bonuses (based on time-related goals, like sales per quarter)
• Holiday bonuses
• Profit-sharing initiatives

With all those factors in play, the water can become muddied quickly.

Here’s why it’s important to educate yourself and your employees about variable pay and all it entails.

It’s a major part of how to compensate salespeople

On average, commissions — aka variable pay — make up about 50 percent of each salesperson’s pay. Some jobs may offer a base salary as well as incentive pay. Those two numbers together form the pay mix. In some cases, that base pay may be fairly hefty. This is especially true of experienced salespeople and those in high-demand markets like SaaS. But entry-level salespeople may only get a few hundred dollars a week. To make a livable wage, those employees still need to achieve their goals and make commissions.

Standard commission rate rules emphasize a 50/50 split between base salary commission. That means your sales team could potentially double their income by meeting their quotas. By understanding the relationship between base salary and commission, and when a sliding scale may be appropriate, you empower yourself and your team.

It can increase performance

Variable pay can help you get better results from your team. But it’s a tool. Like any tool, it’s only as effective as the person using it. There is a right way and a wrong way to incentivize salespeople. Experts like to use the example of the carrot versus the stick. If you incentivize using the carrot, you’re encouraging positive performance based on the possibility of a reward. Think of a rabbit running toward a carrot. Win the race, get a snack.

Sales managers who use the stick try to motivate their team using threats. “You’ll be fired.” “You’ll lose your bonus.” That may work in the short term, but the long-term lacks effectiveness. Studies show that negative feedback rarely leads to improvement.

Let variable pay be your carrot. If you choose to use commission-based compensation, it’s important to give employees the opportunity and information they need to succeed. Finally, periodically review employee performance and provide consistent feedback. This is where writing down an employee performance review comes in handy.

• Clearly state expectations and the specific targets each team member needs to hit. This should be an objective, quantifiable goal.
• Let those team members know exactly what they’ll get if they meet those goals. Again, this should be quantifiable. Think “$100 per sign up” instead of “a monthly bonus.”
• Give employees opportunities to sell. For an incentive to work, both the goal and the reward need to be realistic and achievable.

Variable pay isn’t just for salespeople

We’ve talked a lot about how variable pay pertains to salespeople. That’s because incentive-based compensation is so prevalent in sales. But it can also incentivize your executive team, marketing department, and partners. You can create goals based on almost anything, including:

• The entire company’s performance
• Number of sales-qualified leads (SQL)
• Number of partner deals

This type of “gamification” can fuel growth throughout your organization. The same excitement that drives sales can help other departments achieve their goals and raise your company as a whole.

Variable pay is complicated

You’ve probably caught onto this already, but variable pay is rarely cut and dry. Even the simplest plans can be difficult to understand. Say you decide to give your salespeople 10 percent commission on every deal they close. Seems easy enough, right? But here come the hurdles:

• Which deals count?
• When are commissions paid out?
• If multiple salespeople work on a deal, how is the commission split up?
• What happens when a deal goes south, or a customer quits/requests a refund? You need a set way to handle these “clawbacks.”

These scenarios should all be addressed during the compensation plan design period and evaluated over time.

Call it incentive compensation, bonuses, or variable pay — it’s all a way to motivate employees to meet individual and organizational goals. Master how to use variable pay, and you may see an increase in conversions, improved employee morale, and happier clients, too.

Need help tracking your commissions? QuotaPath takes the guesswork out of commission tracking with software that calculates incentive pay quickly and accurately. To see the platform in action, chat with a teammate today.

Meet our first-ever QuokkaPath winner, March’s Quokka of the Month, Robert Candelaria!

Nominated for his recent promotion and following the obliteration of his monthly quota, please join us in celebrating Robert.

Robert works as a sales development representative for our customer Pathwire, a Sinch Company, that offers cloud-based email products such as Mailgun, Mailjet, and Email on Acid.

Within 9 months of joining Pathwire, Robert earned the promotion from market development representative to SDR. Then, in his 10th month, and first as an SDR, Robert steamrolled his monthly target by more than 200 percent. All of which he got to track in real-time using QuotaPath. 😉 

Go off, Robert!

When he’s not handing off smoking hot leads to sales, the SDR comes up with new outreach strategies for the team. 

For instance, to add a level of personalization to their cold email efforts, Robert inputted a variable that pulls the prospect’s company’s name into the subject line. 

He also refined his messaging to create urgency. 

“People do not like to waste money. I crafted my messaging to speak to companies hitting email overages,” said Robert. “Then I followed it with a call-to-action to find a day to discuss their account.”

Additionally, Robert put together tailored email campaigns segmented to hit prospects with pain points specific to their market needs. 

“By utilizing tools that I have access to, I could distinguish the messaging based on what companies were in the market for, which would decide what message was to be sent to who,” Robert said. 

And that, my friends, is how you sprint past quota. 

Congrats again, Robert, and thank you for sharing your story!

Want to nominate a teammate for April’s? Submit your nominations.

What’s QuokkaPath?

QuotaPath launched QuokkaPath in 2022 to celebrate our users!

The name nods to the Australian animal the quokka, which earned internet fame for its adorable smile.

Like a pack of smiling quokkas, we’re happiest when our customers succeed! 

That’s why every month, we ask our customers to nominate someone from their team who has gone above and beyond to support a customer, coworker, or prospect. Then, a Quokka Committee within QuotaPath selects a winner.

Our “Quokkas of the Months” earn permanent spots in our Quokka Hall of Fame. Plus, the winners and those who nominated them receive a quokka-filled swag pack.

How it works

• Customers can nominate someone as many times as they want
• At the end of the month, we pick a winner, then reach out to our main QuotaPath contact at the company to verify the winner.
• At the end of the month, we reach out to both the nominator and the winner and ask for an address and a couple more details.
• Then, we yell it from the rooftops! AKA our social media channels, and highlight our monthly winners in a blog just like this!

So, go ahead and nominate that mentor, that teammate you can always count on, or that leader who just gets you. We want to celebrate them!

Remember, this is just for QuotaPath customers. But guess what? You too can become a customer of our intuitive, easy-to-use, and accurate sales compensation management platform. To learn how QuotaPath tracks commissions and motivates reps to excel, like Robert here, schedule a chat with our team today. 

We promise you’ll be met with a quokka-esque smile!