When companies want to predict how much money they’ll bring in over the coming year, they look to a key business metric called annual recurring revenue (ARR). This metric, lauded by many industry experts as the “SaaS standard,” measures the current health of a company and acts as a predictor of what will happen over the coming year. For SaaS companies that rely heavily on subscriptions, upgrades, and related services, ARR can be a powerful tool.

What is annual recurring revenue?

In many ways, annual recurring revenue is the linchpin of SaaS business metrics. That’s because it indicates how much recurring revenue an organization can expect to bring in. Recurring revenue measures things like money generated via annual software subscriptions or service contracts.

For SaaS companies that offer subscription-based products and service-based upsells, ARR should reflect the combined total of those offerings. Consider a software company offering anti-virus software. In addition to its subscription rate for the software, contracts also include installation, training, and expansion packs for an additional fee. That company’s ARR would include the total cost of those services sold as a bundle.

ARR can also incorporate an organization’s month-to-month subscriptions, but that’s riskier. Since customers can choose to end monthly subscriptions at any time, accounting for those agreements as part of the ARR model could result in a less accurate metric. (That’s why monthly recurring revenue models, or MRR, exist. More about that below.)

How do you calculate annual recurring revenue?

To calculate ARR, first determine the total contract value (TCV) of your software revenue. This number should exclude one-time fees associated with the initial onboarding of that product, such as hardware costs. Then divide the TCV by the number of months of the contract. (This is important because contract terms aren’t always annually but instead might last 18 or 36 months.) Finally, multiply that number (the MRR) by 12 to get the annual recurring revenue for that product or service.

Why use ARR?

Annual recurring revenue measures the amount of money companies are bringing each year thanks to their subscription model. This standardizes contracts to the amount your company earns per year. Total contract value (TCV) is also important, but it can be misleading. A four-year customer contract for $60,000 looks better than a 1-year deal at $20,000 until you really break those numbers down.

Knowing ARR is helpful for:

• Forecasting revenue: First and foremost, ARR tells you how much revenue you can expect given current subscriptions and planned renewals. Comparing ARR year over year can also indicate churn. Knowing whether you have downward momentum can help plan promotions and slow or stop customer loss before it becomes critical.
  
• Increasing revenue: Using ARR as an informative metric delivers insight into customer behavioral patterns. If ARR is lower than desired, you can concentrate on attracting and converting more customers by booking more demos or reframing your value props. (Not to be confused with our Co-Founder and CEO’s podcast Value Props.) Or, you may want to reconsider how you’re pricing subscriptions or what features are included to make the package more attractive.
  
• Decreasing churn: If ARR is plummeting year after year, you’re not bringing in enough subscriptions to counteract customer falloff. Knowledge is power. Use your ARR calculations to fuel new plans to incentivize renewals.
  
• Guiding sales teams: You calculate ARR for the entire company or according to smaller segments such as specific territories, sales teams or individual salespeople. A salesperson who has low ARR may need to be coached on how to close more subscription deals. Or, sales teams may need to focus on capturing a higher percentage of renewals.
  
• Rewarding top performers: Experts have linked employee morale to productivity. Recognizing talent using ARR tells you when it’s time to adjust SaaS commission rates and/or add other perks to keep valuable salespeople happy.
  
• Understanding and shaping overall company health: Is your business performing well? Metrics are one of the few ways to answer this question objectively. ARR can guide everything from creating motivational plans for your sales teams to increasing sales effectiveness.

How does ARR compare to annual contract value (ACV)?

ARR and ACV are often used interchangeably. That’s understandable, as the two metrics are quite similar, especially if a contract is equal to or greater than 12 months. But the information generated has different purposes.

Annual recurring revenue looks at how much revenue all yearly subscriptions will bring in over a 12-month period. Annual contract value, or ACV, measures the value of a customer’s contract. ARR is ARR regardless of the length of the contract. Meaning, a year is always going to be 12 months’ worth of revenue. Even if a customer signs a six-month contract for $6,000, the ARR is $12,000.

However, ACV is calculated by taking the TCV and first dividing it by the number of contracted months. Then multiply that number either by 12 or by the number of months in the agreement (whichever is lower). Using the same example from above, a six-month contract for $6,000 in ACV terms would be $6,000.

Both metrics are vital to SaaS and SaaS organizations should track both to get a full picture of incoming revenue and contract value. ARR is a standalone metric that’s always useful. ACV is most effective paired with other metrics to measure performance, coach sales teams, and inform future sales and marketing strategies.

What are the alternatives to ARR?

ARR has undeniable value as a key SaaS metric, but there are other options too. For some companies focused on monthly recurring revenue or customer acquisition, other metrics may be just as important.

• Monthly recurring revenue (MRR): MRR is similar to ARR but measures recurring revenue on a monthly basis rather than annually. This metric may be more useful to companies focused on monthly subscriptions.
  
• Total contract value (TCV): Total contract value represents the combined value of all customer purchases included in a contract. This metric encompasses recurring revenue and fees as well as any and all one-time charges set to occur throughout the lifetime of the contract.
  
• Annual contract value (ACV): ACV measures the value of a customer contract over one year, regardless of the actual length of the contract.
  
• Non-recurring revenue (NRR): Non-recurring revenue refers to money generated by one-time purchases of products or services. This might be a customer purchasing hardware necessary for initial installation or one-off onboarding services.

ARR is just one of many key sales metrics that are important to track if you’re interested in maximizing the growth of your business. Sound like a lot to manage? Take one thing off your plate by automating your commission tracking.

For more information, see QuotaPath in action.

Some would say things are getting pretty serious between QuotaPath and HubSpot.

After our first integration with HubSpot’s CRM in January 2021 and a HubSpot Ventures investment three months later, we’re ready to take it to the next level.

Today, we are excited to announce that HubSpot and QuotaPath users will now see QuotaPath updates live in HubSpot.

It’s a two-way street, baby!

We created our own custom card in your HubSpot CRM that automatically pulls over your earnings data. And we named the card — wait for it — QuotaPath Earnings.

Through our latest HubSpot enhancement, QuotaPath will provide visibility into every commission opportunity on every deal directly within HubSpot. QuotaPath Workspace admins will see live updates of the earnings on their team’s deals. And, our beloved sales reps, too, have the ability to track their commissions in real time without having to toggle between QuotaPath and HubSpot.

Basically, we made it even easier for your teams to ensure their commissions are up to date across their deals.

Can we get a “heck yeah!”

The best part? HubSpot Sales CRM users who leverage QuotaPath will not have to do anything to set this up.

Seriously. As long as you’re using both platforms, the Earnings card will show up upon clicking into a deal. Does HubSpot know how to make things easy, or what?

At QuotaPath, we recognize that CRMs are the tech stack MVPs of sales organizations. With this new functionality, we hope to empower your teams even more by streamlining workflows, saving time and providing meaningful insights around commissions and compensation.

To learn more about how HubSpot and QuotaPath can elevate your sales organization, set up a quick chat with one of our friendly experts.

Does the perfect compensation plan exist? 

We’ve certainly found some great ones. However, we’ve also seen pretty painful ones. 

For example, comp plans that cap commissions never end well. 

“A cardinal sin for sales reps is sandbagging, which occurs when a rep holds deals this month to earn more money next month. Capped commissions are a major contributor to this behavior,” our Chief of Staff Graham Collins said. 

On the other hand, a simple and consistent comp plan that includes uncapped commissions and allows for reps to make up on lost ground if they miss a month promotes positive sales rep behaviors. Take comp plans that feature monthly quota bonuses. These keep incentives up each month while mitigating sandbagging. 

“The right kind of sales compensation plan will reward desired behaviors and foster more consistent performance on a monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis,” said our CEO and Founder AJ Bruno.

But the impact of a “perfect” comp plan extends well beyond rep behaviors.

“Appropriate sales compensation plans aren’t just the sign of a healthy organization; they’re tools to motivate sales reps and power company-wide growth,” AJ said.

Solid comps have also been linked to higher sales rep retention rates and larger percentages of teams hitting quotas consistently. Plus, a pretty compensation plan attracts new hires, which continues to remain top of mind for any growing sales org. 

Comp plan best practices

AJ’s got a soft spot for the classic 50/50 ratio when the plan assumes bookings versus annual and monthly recurring revenue. 

That means 50 percent of a rep’s on-target earnings (OTE) consist of base salary and 50 percent being variable. A flat percent on anything the rep closes, paired with bonuses for hitting monthly and quarterly bonuses, leads to comp plan bliss. 

This plan is a beaut for its simplicity, consistency, and incentivization of overperformance. 

For more tips to reach that perfect plan, we’ve outlined seven compensation planning best practices. 

1. Align your comp plans to business goals.

First and foremost, “Sales comp is the caboose, not the engine.” That’s our friend Pablo Dominguez’s motto as it pertains to comp plans. The operating partner of sales and customer success for Insight Partners (one of our investors) suggests designing a plan that supports the business strategy. So, start with your company goals, then let that act as a blueprint for your comp plan.

2. Keep it simple.

Another tip, avoid novella-length comp plans. Better yet, fit it on a napkin. If it’s multiple pages, you’ll lose your reps. As a leader, you’ll also find it more difficult to explain. Shorter comp plans connect all parties involved, like RevOps, finance, sales, leadership, and accounting, through a common understanding.

 “Plans should be so simple, that someone could explain it to you in about 15 seconds.”

AJ Bruno, QuotaPath CEO and Co-Founder

3. Set fair and realistic quotas.

Every company wants to shoot for the moon, but when the moon isn’t remotely possible, companies won’t even reach the clouds. 

To set a fair quota, look at your sales teams’ history. What percentage of your team hits quota every time? Anything less than 60 percent indicates too high of a quota. On the flip side, 100 percent attainment suggests your quota is too easy. Try to identify the intersection where ambitious meets achievable. Fair and realistic quotas will drive business goals and keep reps motivated. Whereas the opposite fosters defeat and negativity, which feeds employee attrition. 

Additionally, it’s important to provide an appropriate ramp-up time for new hires. Whether that’s through lower quotas the first three months or draws, align your ramp-up period to your sales cycle. Meaning, if your sales cycle is three months, one month of ramp up won’t cut it. Another way to offer new hires chances to hit quota is by setting commissionable milestones that help them hit the floor running. In practice, this could look like completing workshops, booking meetings, or opening up new opportunities.

4. Introduce comp plans in a timely manner.

Want to get your reps frustrated over their comp plans before they even see them? Delay sharing them with your team well into the new year.

By introducing your comp plans in a timely manner, you’ll establish trust with your reps. Lead a training session with them. Discuss changes and provide the “why.”  Address their questions. Keep it 100. This will build trust and motivate them. 

Extra credit if you can get these finalized, signed, and returned before the new year. A sales kickoff scheduled within the first few weeks of the new year is also a great time for comp plan rollouts.

5. Be transparent about how commissions are calculated and when they are paid. 

Another opportunity to pump transparency into your comp plan is to show how commissions are calculated and when they are paid out. Do reps see their commissions when the customer signs the contract, or is it paid upon the customer’s first payment? Make it clear. Make it consistent, and don’t leave reps wondering when they’ll finally see their sales hit their bank accounts.

Bonus tip: QuotaPath’s platform is a great way to execute on all seven best practices, and especially this one.  

6. Research market OTEs.

Our sixth best practice focuses on OTEs. Base salaries for sales reps are steadily increasing year-over-year. According to the recruiting platform Zippia, national account executive salaries in the U.S. earn an average salary of $95,300 before commissions. That’s a 3.1 percent jump from 2020 to 2021 and marks the largest YoY spike over the past decade.  

So, a lesson to all of us scaling our sales orgs this year, make sure your OTEs rise with industry data. We’d love to say money isn’t everything, but it turns out, money continues to be the biggest reason people leave jobs. 

For tips on how to split salaries and commissions, here are the most common we’ve seen:

• Sales representative OTEs usually consist of 50 percent base and 50 percent commission.
• Lead gen roles may have a higher base and lower commission, like a 60 percent base and 40 percent commission.
• Account managers will often have an even higher percentage of OTE made up of base salary. An example could be 70 percent base and 30 percent commission.
• Enterprise sales reps OTEs with large deal sizes could split between a 40 percent base and 60 percent commission.

7. Conduct ongoing evaluations of comp plans but try to avoid too many changes. 

Lastly, a comp plan shouldn’t remain static, but it also shouldn’t be changed multiple times a year. Continue to evaluate your comp plans. Note what has worked effectively and what hasn’t, and use these updates to shape the next year’s. 

“Too many changes or complications in a short period of time can muddy the waters, obscuring progress toward goals and hurting morale,” AJ said. 

In conclusion, the perfect comp plan exists for your business, but it’ll take research, experimentation, and evaluation to get there. When you drum up the perfect plan fitted for your business, expect to see happier reps and a healthier sales org. 

Sales team members are among the “most stressed” workers in the corporate world, according to a 2021 survey. This results in a continuous strain on their mental health.

Sales Health Alliance and UNCrushed, two organizations dedicated to improving sales mental health, collected responses from 770 participants for the survey. They found that more than 40 percent of salespeople reported struggling with their mental health. The data also indicated a correlation between mental health and hitting sales targets. Meaning, the worse the sales reps felt the further they were from achieving quota.

“Sales can be pretty cutthroat,” said UNCrushed CEO and Co-founder Tim Clarke. “There’s this added pressure of hitting your number on top of looking after yourself, family, and loved ones.”

Clarke would know. 

The senior marketing director at Salesforce spent seven lucrative, stress-filled years in sales before transitioning to marketing. During this time, Clarke’s father died suddenly in 2013. Grappling with how to process his grief, Clarke went down a dangerous, drug-fueled path. 

“The expectation in the corporate workplace is that when you lose someone, you take a few days off for bereavement. Then you’re meant to come back feeling fine,” Clarke said. 

“I got sober that year.”

Tim Clarke

But upon returning to work, Clarke wasn’t fine. He turned to anything he thought would help him feel better, including drugs and alcohol. Four years and an overdose later, Clarke recognized that he needed professional help and sobriety. 

Now, he wants to share his experience, and that includes at the office.

As part of his ongoing recovery journey, Clake has committed to bringing his full, authentic self to work. He hopes to inspire others to be more honest and open about their personal lives and encourage work environments to create safe spaces for such discussions.

“Individuals want to work for an employer that allows them to speak openly about themselves and their challenges,” Clarke said. “In 2017, I thought I was the only person experiencing my problems. If someone had told me that they had also gone through something similar, I probably would’ve gotten help sooner.”

Fostering an open environment that values employee wellbeing is especially relevant today when one in five adults has reported experiencing a mental illness. Furthermore, burnout has reached an all-time high, with nearly 80 percent of US workers reporting concerns over their mental health.

As the “War on Talent” lives on, and job seekers continue to gravitate toward sales organizations that prioritize mental health, Clarke shared what leaders can do to best support their teams.  

Q&A with Tim Clarke

What are some immediate changes sales leaders can adopt to impact mental health?

Clarke:  Everyone can work on their listening skills. Sometimes people don’t spot the warning signs that someone is struggling, such as showing up late to meetings or inconsistencies in their work. People want to be seen, and they want to be heard. I encourage leaders to ask “Are you okay?” not once — but twice. This gives that person time to go a little deeper because it’s very easy to just say everything is okay when it’s not. 

The traffic light system is also a great way to start a one-on-one or team meeting by asking where they’re at right now through the colors of a traffic light. Their responses of red, amber, or green will give you a sense of how each person is feeling. 

Lastly, leading with vulnerability creates a space for others to be vulnerable. When I share my story with someone at work and they resonate with it, it builds a personal connection between us. Then we can navigate our challenges together. 

What can sales reps do to prioritize their mental health?

Establish boundaries. With so many of us working from home, everything blurs into one, and it becomes difficult to have separation. I block out a full hour for lunch every day on my calendar. I’ll still take meetings during this time, but it’s my choice when I do. 

At the company level, what should organizations be thinking about as it pertains to mental health?

Companies think that providing mental health benefits is the answer, but it’s only part of it. So many organizations that offer employee assistance programs discover that their employees don’t feel comfortable using them out of fear of leadership finding out. 

It really comes down to understanding what your employees want and need. Is it a week when the entire company shuts down so employees can recharge? Is it no-meeting Fridays or employee resource groups? It could be a variety of things, so the first step is to listen, learn the problems, and understand what they want. 

How can sales professionals who are struggling with their mental health leverage UNCrushed for help?

In three years, we’ve curated 150 personal stories that cover the whole spectrum of mental illness, such as addiction, grief, and trauma. Each one is tagged so that our readers can easily locate topics pertaining to their own experiences. We make sure that every story includes solutions. Additionally, we have free online mental health screenings available and a detailed resources page. We want to help people move from the darkness to the light. 

Hint: All of them.

QuotaPath’s Comp Plan Builder tool supports all comp plans.

Want to build a comp plan from scratch or borrow some of our most commonly used templates? Comp Plan Builder can help.

The tool includes a free library of 13 widely adopted templates and a create-your-own option. To access the tool, create your first Workspace or log into your existing one. From there, select “Plans” on the left-side toolbar. Then in the top right, hit “Add Plan.” 

Great work!

Once you’ve completed the plan, you can share and adjust as needed. Then, layer multiple components into a single plan and create Paths for each one. These Paths can represent quota, a one-time spiff, a monthly bonus, or more. Comp Plan Builder can also incorporate bonuses, accelerators and multi-year agreements.

It gets even better with our Official Plan subscription. Upon upgrading, you can design a plan, assign it to members within your QuotaPath Workspace, lock it for admin control, set team goals and so forth.

We’re ready for you to start your 2022 comp plan in QuotaPath!

Below, we’ve highlighted some of the most commonly used templates. Still have questions on comp planning? Reach out to our Chief of Staff Graham Collins to build a plan fit for your business.

Sales Representative Comp Planning Templates

First, we offer four compensation plan templates to support sales representative roles. This includes account executives, enterprise account executives, senior account executives, sales executives, and sales reps.

• Single Rate Commission: If you get paid a single commission rate on every single deal
• Commission With Accelerators: If you get paid a different commission rate depending on quota attainment
• Commission With Bonuses: If you earn a commission on every deal you close and a bonus upon hitting quota
• Commission With Multi-year Accelerators: If you earn a commission on every deal closed that varies depending on the length of the contract

Sales Leader Comp Planning Templates

For sales managers, VP of sales, director of sales, head of sales, and chief revenue officer, we recommend the following four templates.

• Team-based Commission: If you get paid a single commission rate on every deal your team closes
• Team-based Commission With Accelerators: If you get paid a different commission rate on deals your team closes depending on your quota attainment
• Team-based Commission with Bonuses: If you earn a commission on deals your team closes and a bonus once you hit your quota

Sales Development Representative (SDR) Comp Planning Templates

We offer the following three templates to support compensation planning for sales development reps (SDRs), business development reps (BDRs), market development reps, and account development reps.

• Activity-based: If you get paid based on how much activity you do, like demos set, qualified opportunities created, or cold calls made
• Revenue-based: If you get paid a commission on the opportunities you create that close.
• Activity and revenue-based: If you get paid on both activity and revenue generated.

Account Management and Customer Success Comp Planning Templates

Lastly, if your organization compensates account managers, account supervisors, client managers, and customer success managers, QuotaPath has you covered. Here are three templates to work from.

• Retention-based Commission: If you earn a commission on accounts you renew
• Retention and Upsell Bonus: If you earn a bonus on accounts you renew and accounts you upsell
• Retention-based Bonus: If you get paid a bonus on every account you renew

If none of these fit what you’re looking for, remember you can build your own within our tool. And for additional comp plan best practices, check out this article. Happy comp planning!

Our QuotaPath team has safely returned from California and is eager to share their wins. Here, we recap SaaStr 2021.

“I didn’t have any expectations going in, but it was clear as soon as we arrived that the energy was ramped up ten times, ”said AJ Bruno, QuotaPath CEO and Co-founder. 

For many of the 5,000 attendees, and for our nine team members, SaaStr 2021 marked everyone’s first conference since the pandemic had begun.

“SaaStr’s event team did a great job with COVID-19 protocols,” AJ said. “Lines and signage were clear, and the messaging of the event was very relatable to current times.”

The overall vibe undulated between upbeat and optimistic. For instance, signage throughout the outdoor venue turned away attendees if they had symptoms of COVID-19, racism, and homophobia. Additionally, an event DJ complemented keynote addresses and booth visitors with an ongoing set of catchy jams. 

So, QuotaPath met SaaStr with open arms, and we’re happy to report that SaaStr attendees returned the love.

“We had a weird, low-key buzz about us,” AJ said. “People would visit our booth and mention how they heard our name four times that day.”

A myriad of conversations followed regarding the challenges of paying sales commissions properly. 

“Every time I introduced someone to QuotaPath, they said they’ve had this exact problem,” AJ said, who addressed a large crowd on the second day about how to grow a sales team.

By the end, our team had conducted more than 30 formal demos on sight while setting up more than 150 follow-ups since the event. We also treated attendees to printable custom avatar stickers, thanks to the work from our talented marketing engineering team. 

As COO and Co-founder Cole Evetts put it: The QuotaPath hype is real.

“We have a ton of opportunities ahead of us, and we couldn’t be more excited!” Cole said. 

To close out the event, we asked AJ to share his key observations from SaaStr 2021.

Meeting people in person reigns supreme

The pandemic forced a handful of introductions to be conducted virtually. Many of us adapted and made it work out of lack of other options. 

For instance, AJ met Gradient Ventures investor Asif Moosani for the first time over a conference call during quarantine. They have continued bi-weekly meetings in a virtual setting ever since. 

At SaaStr, they finally got to shake hands.

“It’s so good to meet people in person again,” AJ said. “The conversations from the past year become a lot more real and you’re able to make a better connection.”

Product-led growth is not a new concept

Product-led growth (PLG) conversations dominated the conference. But for the right reasons? 

AJ said he noticed a wild amount of PLG talk, with speakers leveraging it as a buzzword as if it’s a new concept. Quite the contrary. 

“It’s not a new trend,” said Shawn Herring, PandaDoc’s VP of marketing, in a recent Forbes article. “For some years now, people have been doing their own research long before they engage with sales.”

AJ, who has studied PLG for three years, also got the impression that the SaaStr speakers highlighting it didn’t actually come from PLG companies and seemed to not fully understand it.

“When I talk about QuotaPath, I won’t even say it’s product-led, because we started as a customer-led company, first and foremost,” AJ said. “That allows us to focus on the end user, the time to value, and how quickly we can onboard.”

Practice makes perfect

Lastly, the vast amount of virtual events set public speakers back a bit. With the return of in-person conferences, it’s time for people to re-up their public speaking skills. 

AJ said he observed several panelists responding directly and only to moderators.

“It felt like they were still on Zoom calls,” AJ said, adding that speaker mannerisms, in general, felt “off.”

This resulted in a lack of connection between the speakers and the audience, a key characteristic of effective public speaking. 

The next SaaStr event is slated for this summer. In preparation, let’s all take a public speaking refresh and deliver engaging content that keeps a crowd hungry for more.

We plan to return. Are you? 

In 2018, QuotaPath attended our first SaaStr event, a marquee SaaS affair in the Bay Area featuring thousands of founders, VCs and executives.

And by QuotaPath, we mean our co-founders, AJ Bruno and Cole Evetts, who at the time had just launched our commission tracking platform. 

Well, we’re back. And this time we’re bringing a whole crew to SaaStr 2021!

That’s right, seven Navigators will join AJ and Cole at this year’s event, including our VP of Marketing Carrie Fisher, Chief of Staff Graham Collins, and Director of Product Andy Keil. We’re even welcoming our first VP of Sales and Customer Success Caroline Tarpey to the team at SaaStr!

It’ll mark our first in-person event in 2021 and it’s shaping up to be the Bay Area’s largest in-person tech event since early 2020. Also, did you hear it’s entirely outdoors? 

Quite frankly, we are psyched! 

We’ve grown so much since our last SaaStr event and look forward to returning with gusto. For instance, in three years, our team has scaled to 40 people. We’ve opened offices in Austin and Philadelphia, both of which we’re quickly outgrowing. We’ve raised $21.3M in funding. We’ve onboarded thousands of users and added compensation management and finance and accounting team payouts to our product.

So, to commemorate this occasion, we’ve set up some special experiences for SaaStr attendees.

First, members of our team will be schmoozing all three days at our booth, No. 304. Find us near the registration office. Those who visit will get an intro to our easily implementable compensation solution. Plus you’ll get the chance to create something truly unique to take home. Pics and videos on our LinkedIn and Twitter profiles to come, so give us a follow!

Then, on Tuesday, Sept. 28, AJ will speak to his experiences growing high growth sales teams. He’ll cover topics on every startup founder’s mind, such as making the first sales hire, the founder’s role in sales hiring, and how to build successful comp plans. If you can’t wait for our recap and need immediate help shaping your 2022 comp plans, did you know you can book a consultation with Graham? 

Lastly, we’ll be squeezing in some face-to-face with our incredible customers and partners, and potential new ones, too. 

Will you be there? Let us know on social, stop by our booth, and say “hi” to our dream team of Navigators. 

Plus “Most Implementable,” “Momentum Leader” and 12 others.

Our friends at G2 recently shared their Fall 2021 Market Report, and we are proud to share that QuotaPath has once again scored high with our users. 

This time, our sales commission platform received a new PR of 15 badges. Some include repeats like “Easiest to Use” and “Best Relationship” — a nod to our friendly UX and lovable team. However, we’ve also earned plenty of new ones.

And we couldn’t have done it without our growing user base. Thank you to our wonderful users for supporting us as we transform how commissions are tracked and compensated. With your trusted feedback and glowing reviews on platforms like G2, QuotaPath continues to stand out from competitors. 

Below, we’ve listed a few of our new favorites.

Momentum Leader 

First up is the “Momentum Leader” badge. This recognizes companies that have achieved the most positive customer movement in 2021. G2 takes into account user reviews and data aggregated across social media to identify leaders in the space. We didn’t just earn this recognition in one product category or even two. No, QuotaPath earned the top honor for sales compensation, sales analytics and sales performance management. Our integrations with Salesforce, HubSpot and Close have certainly played a role as have our quick implementation times. 

“Incredible Time Saver! Incredible Service!”

“We love the easy visibility of our sales team’s commissions, plus we love the ease of sending payouts to payroll for processing!

“Bravo, QuotaPath. Our commission process used to take almost three workdays to audit and ensure accuracy; we are down to 15 minutes to check and approve commissions.”

— Leah W, People Operations

Best Results

Another new addition includes “Best Results.” QuotaPath earned the highest overall results rating for sales compensation products based on reviews that indicated high ROI estimates, short implementation times, and overall satisfaction with the platform. Turns out, RevOps professionals have enjoyed the 17 hours a month we’ve returned to them through automated comp plans. Sales leaders and reps have also applauded our real-time quota tracking and CRM updates. 

“Amazing product and wonderful onboarding experience.”

“We have absolutely loved working with the team over at QuotaPath. Huge shoutout to Michael and Cole! They’ve spent a ton of time working to understand our commissions structure and helping us integrate our process as intelligently as possible.

“We are thrilled to be offloading from Excel and clumsy billing platforms to QuotaPath!”

— Cody G, Finance Director

Most Implementable

Lastly, from our humble beginnings in 2018, we’ve set out to introduce a solution that companies can easily and quickly implement. That’s why QuotaPath only takes a day to set up versus the industry standard of weeks or months. Our users have taken note and have showered us with positive testimonials around the set-up process. This data point, plus high user adoption percentages, led to QuotaPath receiving the highest implementation rating for sales compensation products for the second consecutive year. We couldn’t be prouder to update our Fall 2020 badge to 2021.

“QuotaPath simplifies commission tracking/setup and promotes motivation!”

“This platform is easy to set up, removes hours of Excel tinkering to create commission plans and continuous manual tracking of commissions. And it provides the team a super simple way to track how much they are making, can make, and will make!”

— Garrett O, Co-Founder

Here is the complete list of our Fall 2021 honors:

If you’re ready to automate your commission tracking, or if you’d like to discuss 2022 compensation planning, then schedule a time to chat with us. We’re excited to meet you!

Ready to become ASC 606 Audit Compliant? We’ve got you.

By this point, you’ve probably heard of ASC 606, but perhaps you’re at a loss for how it impacts your business.

Here’s the skinny.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board issued the new revenue recognition standard in 2014. Public companies adopted the ‘606’ in 2018, and now, private companies have to follow suit. 

Under the standard, finance and accounting teams must account and recognize revenue from contracts with customers and incremental costs, which includes commissions and bonuses. The goal is to drive more consistent and comparative financial reporting. Translation: Any company with recurring costs needs to pay attention.

Any company with recurring costs needs to pay attention.

Psst — that’s you, SaaS.

Those who don’t adhere face the risk of hefty fines and a surprise auditor visit. No thanks!

ASC 606 is the head standard, but we’d like to draw your attention to 606’s subtopic, ASC 340-40: Other Assets and Deferred Costs: Contract with Customers. This subtopic calls for ongoing record keeping and reporting of costs incurred while obtaining or fulfilling a contract with a customer. (Think: travel, advertising, and our pride and joy, sales commissions.) 

Additionally, it mandates that the related incremental costs to every contract are capitalized as an asset and amortized over time to match the timing of the revenue recognition.

So, what can you do to be ASC 606 compliant as it pertains to ASC 340-40? 

For starters —please stop with the manual spreadsheets. ASC requires every deal and earning to be tracked annually. This information should also be readily available and accessible to auditors. Your spreadsheet won’t scale.

We introduced Ledger to help. 

Our new feature provides accounting teams with the flexibility to recognize commission expenses immediately or batch earnings and amortize them to match their revenue recognition schedule.

With Ledger, streamline your month-end close process, eliminate errors and stay on top of every line item that pops up. Plus, save time by quickly producing digestible, audit-ready reports.

Why our customers love Ledger:

• ASC 606 compliant (!)
• Fresh and clean record keeping
• Marie Kondo-levels of data point organization
• One location for all things commissions
• Storage unit for historical data
• Reports that can be easily exported and imported into local accounting systems

Let’s talk more about this together! Schedule a brief demo with a member of our team today. And stay tuned for more enhancements to Ledger. We’ve got a lot lined up to make your jobs easier. 

In today’s world, we rely on software to help make our lives more efficient so that we can operate and grow our business. Automation plays a key role in how tools can help increase productivity and make work-life simpler and more streamlined. 

For sales teams, CRMs are the holy grail of hosting deal data and tracking daily sales activity. However, on their own, they may not give reps deeper insight into their earnings, quota attainment, and paychecks.

With QuotaPath, revenue teams can centralize team earnings and commission data in one shared source of truth. All of the information stored in your CRM is crucial to tracking and reporting on sales compensation, which is why we’ve partnered with our friends at Close to bring you our newest CRM integration.

Automate commissions with Close

You know Close for their sleek industry-leading CRM platform used by over 5,000 organizations and their huge library of sales content and resources (100% check it out if you haven’t, there’s something in there for everyone).

With QuotaPath’s native Close integration, you can push your company’s CRM data directly into QuotaPath. Then teams can layer on insights like individual earnings, team quota attainment, pipeline forecasting, and payouts for a powerful understanding of performance.

The QuotaPath and Close integration allows you to:

• Streamline workflows: There are a lot of stakeholders involved in commissions. This integration breaks down silos and simplifies the handoff process. With data being in one place, there are fewer errors and less manual entry.
• Robust reporting: When it comes time to managing compensation, everything is right at your fingertips – performance analytics, deal auditing, automated commissions statements, payouts, and ASC 606 reporting.
• Data syncing: Unlike other commission solutions, data syncs in real-time, so you always have an accurate, up-to-date view of your opportunities.

Integrating QuotaPath + Close

With this integration, you can import all of your Close opportunities in just a couple of clicks. Connect and sync plans using your organization’s Close API Key.

Choose Close “Opportunities” records

Pull in Opportunity records from Close to count towards your earnings in QuotaPath.

Map Fields

Map all the components of your comp plan to relevant fields in Close like Lead, Value, Date won, User.

Define stages or “status”

Define deal stages to see commissions on closed deals and forecast potential earnings on opportunities.

Sync opportunities

Once you’re ready, start syncing. QuotaPath will populate Close opportunities for all comp plan assignees.

Try the Close integration with QuotaPath

We’re excited to partner with Close and offer a way to automate incentives and make work-life easier. This also means we now offer native integrations with the three industry-leading CRM software companies in the nation – Salesforce, HubSpot, and Close!

This integration works whether you’re an individual contributor looking to track your monthly earnings or a sales leader managing compensation.

If you need more flexibility, Admins can align QuotaPath members to Close users, map comp plans with Close CRM data, and calculate earnings & attainment from Close deals.

If you want to learn more, head to the Close integration page – we’re listed as a Featured integration!

The rep-configured HubSpot CRM integration is available for free. The Admin-configured HubSpot CRM integration is offered in our Plus tier.

Today during closing week, our closing bell rings as we continue to bring in new customers. But we’re also celebrating a huge company milestone – the announcement of our $21.3 million Series A!

The round is led by Insight Partners, which has made over 400 investments with notable portfolio companies like SalesLoft, Pipedrive, monday.com, SetSail, and Showpad. Stage 2 Capital, HubSpot Ventures, Integr8ted Capital, and ATX Venture Partners – both new and existing investors – have also participated in the round. Additionally, we have 50 of the very best revenue leaders already involved in QuotaPath as investors and advisors.

We have so much support behind us to help transform the way organizations think about and engage with commissions.

The journey: where we’re headed

Just like closing a deal, there are a lot of moving parts when building a great company. And for the last 3.5 years, our co-founders AJ, Cole, and Eric have led the team as we help companies build and scale high-performing growth teams. 

We’ve accomplished a lot. We’ve built native integrations with three of the industry’s leading CRMs: Salesforce, HubSpot, and Close.com. We’ve landed a >75 NPS with our customers. G2 named us a top 50 sales product this year. We’ve pivoted to a remote workforce due to COVID without missing a beat. And we’ve grown our revenue 600% in 2021. With the recent raise, we’ve reflected on where we are and where we’re headed.

People-first

To quote AJ, “The difference between a good company and an outstanding company starts with its people.” We’ve hired over 25 extremely talented folks in every department, from engineering to customer success. We’ve tripled our sales team this year alone and have made executive hires in marketing and finance. We live out our core values of Empathy, Trust, and Inclusion and push ourselves and each other to solve the pain point of commissions in innovative ways. We recently made Philadelphia’s Best Places to Work list. With our new funding, we have plans to double our team by the end of the year. 

Product-first 

As a product-led company, we are total nerds when it comes to building a product that creates more simplicity, efficiency, and accuracy in the commission process. This means helping companies move out of spreadsheets and into an automated solution. And supporting every stakeholder involved in commissions – commission and attainment tracking for sales reps and managers, deal auditing for sales and revenue operations, and payouts for finance and HR. With more funding, you can expect to see new integrations (think accounting and payroll software), and continued investment in the customer journey and delight for the end user.

Customer-first

We’re all about creating raving fans through quick onboarding times, instant access to performance metrics, more rep motivation, and a tool that’s easy and enjoyable to use. Today we have over 6,000 users – from sales reps to finance teams – tracking and running commissions using QuotaPath. Organizations can get up and running in just a few days and don’t have to pay extra for dedicated support. That’s one of the reasons our customers love using us so much. That and the ability to build custom comp plans without having to use formulas. 

In a recent customer survey, we found that we save companies on average 60 minutes per rep in running commissions each month! We’ll keep pushing the needle when it comes to streamlining workflows, aligning teams, and surfacing reliable data.

We’re full steam ahead. For those who have been on the journey with us, we appreciate you and thank you for your support. If you’d like to get involved, please contact us or try QuotaPath for free.

And you can read more about our story in TechCrunch.

Sales coaching is a crucial element in driving revenue growth. By working with your sales staff, you give them the skills they need to close deals. Many think coaching expertise comes naturally — but just as team members don’t become top performers overnight, most managers aren’t born great coaches. It’s a skill you can learn and hone through practice. Here are five ways to do just that. 

Be consistent

A sales team brings ongoing value to the company, so coaching is an ongoing process. Think of sales coaching as a long-term proposition that develops the unique talents of each individual. This takes time and commitment.

Make coaching a priority by putting it on the calendar. Aim for weekly or biweekly meetings and stick to the appointments. If it’s on the schedule, coaching will happen. If it’s on the end of your to-do list, it might never get done. 

Learn from others

As you work to improve your coaching skills, it helps to take cues from others who have found success. Look to experts and renowned business leaders for tips on sales coaching. Ask people you know and respect for guidance. 

Reaching out to people across industries can help you gain a new perspective. Sales coaching doesn’t have to keep you in the box of your existing network. Learn all you can from people in peripheral industries or even those operating in a different part of the economy — they may all have something to teach.

Learn from your reps

Every member of your sales staff brings something to the table — that’s why you hired them. Tailor your lessons to each person. Ask them what they want to get from coaching. Invite them to share any positive and negative experiences they’ve had in the past with coaching, so you can start with what works for them.

Develop an approach that’s relevant to your team members’ present experience. To prepare for the first session, ask them to jot down notes about their current pain points and what they want to learn. 

Experiment with different forms of sales coaching

As you hone your coaching skills, you’ll find techniques that work well for you and your team members. Finding out what works and what doesn’t is part of the process. Take a gamble once in a while by trying new coaching styles. Role-playing and analyzing client calls are excellent methods — but always be on the lookout for new ways to close deals. 

Again, you can take cues from your sales reps and experts in other industries. Welcoming new ideas can help your company to develop new sales methods. That’s critical in competitive industries, so always look to add more tools to your toolbox. 

Read books (not just about sales coaching!)

There’s no shortage of literature on sales. Books on business and economics sell at a pace of approximately 20 million copies, collectively, in the United States in a given year. That market is huge, and you have a rich resource of information you can use to improve your sales coaching. 

Don’t let the sheer number of volumes get you overwhelmed. Take an hour and select a few good books. Read what you can and incorporate a little from each into your lessons. 

Bonus tip

Don’t give up! If you’re new to coaching, the prospect may be daunting. Your first few sessions may have some hiccups, and that’s OK. Give it some time to work before you scratch that coaching appointment time off the schedule. It will likely take a bit of adjustment before you find the right style that produces results. 

Be patient with yourself and your team as you go through this learning process. Encourage your team members to voice their concerns and share ideas. They’re usually on the front lines on cold calls or trying to convert a prospect — their insight can help you to become a better coach.

Track the results of your coaching with ease

Coaching has real benefits. It helps your sales team to do its best and improves the company’s bottom line. Like managing, coaching is a skill that most people learn and develop. It requires you to think outside the box, do research, gain insight from others, and work with your team members on an individual basis. 

Feel free to experiment along the way — and remember to savor the victories as you see the results start to take shape. 

Sales coaching can increase quota attainment and commissions, which is the ultimate goal. Use QuotaPath to track your commissions. Contact us today for a demo so you can see how that top-notch coaching has translated into success for you and your team.