On this Keepin’ it 100, Trinity is joined by Graham Collins, the Head of Growth at QuotaPath, a sales compensation & commission tracking software.
“When you're weighing out compensation and evaluating that as part of a new sales leadership role, understand what is important to you and how attainable and sustainable you think it is.”
Graham pulls from his vast experience to share insight on how to evaluate and draft compensation plans. Since compensation plans are at the core of what motivates your sales team, tune in to learn Graham’s valuable tips.
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Graham is currently at QuotaPath helping salespeople understand their compensation. Prior to that, he spent a number of years working in the public relations software industry as a sales rep, sales manager, and director of SDR. He's passionate about sales compensation, SDR work, sales management, craft beer, woodworking, and petting dogs.
Trinity: Welcome to the First 100 Days, a show for revenue practitioners by revenue practitioners, giving you unscripted access and exclusive resources to help you navigate any new transition or initiative. I'm your host, Trinity Nguyen from User Gems, continuing this week's theme around compensations. We're back with Graham Collins, Head of Growth at QuotaPath.
In this episode, Graham gives one important tip that most people forget when they evaluate a comp plan during an interview process.
Graham: There are a lot of things to think about when it comes to compensation specifically. Again, I would recommend getting a feel for the customer base, getting a feel for the customer.
So I think that one thing sales leaders don't ask enough during an interview process is to speak with a customer, learning about a customer and learning about how they use your tool. You often just speak with internal people. Sometimes you might speak with an investor or the CEO, but it's very rare that somebody says, can I speak with a customer – to see what makes them tick and why they buy and why they might buy?
Because it doesn't matter what your quota is if there's no such thing as a buyer out there in the marketplace. That should make you very scared and compensation is a very important part of your role, but you have to weigh out what is important to you and what isn't important to you. Some people I talk to will take a $0 salary and work entirely off of commission, because they know that's what motivates them. Some people don't have any interest in commission and just want purely a base salary. There are people who, equity is incredibly valuable to them because they are three and O with startups that get acquired, like some people. And there some people who, equity, who've been burned by it in the past.
So when you're weighing out compensation and evaluating that as part of a new sales leadership role, and really any sales role, understand what is important to you and how attainable and how sustainable you think it is. Because I always tell people like, Oh, the on-target earnings for this role is a hundred thousand dollars.
That's awesome. What is the average rep attaining? Is the quota super unattainable? As a hiring manager, I used to always say, your on-target earnings for this role is $75,000. My average rep last year made $71,000. They hit 84% of quota on average, whatever, making these numbers up. But having that information goes a long way because it shows that I know you care about this and I care about the fact that you care about this
Trinity: Do you have a note of encouragement or insights to share? Email me and we'll get you on the show at podcast@usergems.com. Thanks for listening.
