SaaStr

MAY 23, 2023

So leading growth stage VC Iconiq has published its latest and very detailed Definitive Guide to Sales Compensation here. Corners were cut in the boom times of 2021, but we are back to sane sales models. Renewals, if they are done by sales, are paid out at about 40% of an initial commission. CSMs Are Pushing Up to 20%.

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Compensation Scale Sales SMB 301

SaaStr

MARCH 29, 2025

Dear SaaStr: What Are The Best Ways to Transition From The Founder-Led Sales Stage? Transitioning from founder-led sales to a commissioned sales team is one of the most criticaland trickysteps in scaling a SaaS business. You Never Get to Leave Sales. This is non-negotiableeven if you hate sales. Be specific.

Scale 180

Scale Sales Hiring Sales Compensation 180

Tom Tunguz

FEBRUARY 26, 2025

Many mid-market software companies price with the goal of revenue maximization, negotiating for the highest possible price in each sale. Penetration pricing leads to land-and-expand sales tactics. Salesforce sells CRM seats based on an aggregate ROI of increased sales productivity for example.

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SaaS Payments Pricing Strategy Scale 283

SaaStr

OCTOBER 16, 2024

Driving Stock-Based Compensation Much Lower. A reminder to not stay too reliant on direct sales as you scale. Quality Management is Their Biggest AI Play at the Moment This makes sense. Using AI to understand the efficacy of contact center agents is a big use case. #4. New Share Grants Are Down -60%. of revenue in 2021 to 15.7%

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Scale Compensation SMB Cloud 284

SaaStr

JUNE 9, 2025

Dear SaaStr: What is The Best Way to Set Sales Rep Quotas at Each Stage of a B2B Business? Setting sales rep quotas in a SaaS business depends heavily on your stage of growth and ARR. It’s not scalable, but it keeps them engaged while you figure out your sales motion. More here: A Framework For Your First SaaS Sales Comp Plan 2.

Scale 163

Scale B2B Benchmarks Sales 163

SaaStr

JUNE 4, 2025

The 40% Problem: How AI Will Finally Fix Sales Coverage and Customer Face Time A wake-up call from HubSpot’s CEO Yamini Rangan on why your sales team is failing 60% of their accountsand how AI will change everything There’s a brutal truth about B2B sales that most founders refuse to acknowledge. Forty percent.

Scale 227

Scale AI Underperforming Technical Team Sales 227

Tom Tunguz

JANUARY 17, 2022

Has the Great Resignation been caused by a silent stagnation in compensation? Let’s compare data from 2010 and 2021 to understand the longitudinal trends in cash and equity compensation. The cash compensation of three executive roles at early-stage companies has increased faster than inflation. 2021 Cash. A nice bump.

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Compensation Startup Engineering Trends 270

SaaStr

JUNE 8, 2023

Dear SaaStr: How Should I Design a Sales Reps Compensation Plan at Just $10k MRR ? Figuring out your very first sales comp plan when you don’t have a repeatable process or much revenue is confusing. but You don’t have the capital to invest here … the rep has to be accretive. Until … you enter a brand new space, a new initiative.

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Compensation Scale Sales Business Model 246

SaaStr

MARCH 15, 2025

It’s live on SaaStr.com itself and you can also access it here and talk to AI Jason about any of 1000s and 1000s of B2B, sales, SaaS, VC, etc. Here are some of the top ones: “How My VP, Sales Doubled Our Sales in 90 Days. Here are some of the top ones: “How My VP, Sales Doubled Our Sales in 90 Days.

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Sales Hiring AI Scale Compensation 256

SaaStr

MARCH 23, 2025

5 Key Learnings from Scaling from 3 to 75 Go-To-Market Team Members in Less Than 12 Months The latest SaaStr CRO Confidential is out and Sam Blond did a great deep dive with Graham Mareno, VP of Worldwide Sales at Codeium. Create Compelling Economic Incentives For sales talent, compensation is critical.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale AI 216

SaaStr

MAY 31, 2025

Pre-Seed / Seed Stage (Pre-Revenue or <$1M ARR) At this stage, you’re compensating for high risk with high equity. Equity becomes less of a motivator, and cash compensation takes precedence. For example, a VP of Sales driving ARR growth might get closer to 1%, while a VP of HR might be closer to 0.3%.

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Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Compensation 182

The SaaS CFO

JANUARY 7, 2025

Sales compensation plans play a critical role in the success and scaling of SaaS companies. The transition from founder-led sales to scalable, team-driven sales models can be challenging. The transition can stop companies from hitting the next level of ARR. Higher ARR, higher valuation.

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Compensation Scale Sales SaaS 64

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2025

In our most recent episode of CRO Confidential , hosted by Sam Blond , Graham Moreno , VP of Worldwide Sales at Codium, shared invaluable insights on what drove this growth, the challenges they faced, and how other SaaS companies can replicate this success. Key Growth Drivers 1.

Sales Hiring 174

Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Scale AI 174

Tom Tunguz

JULY 10, 2022

Let me tell you a tale of two software sales processes. Take 1: An ambitious account executive engages a sales prospect and hustles to sell the customer a mega contract that consumes nearly the entirety of a budget. Smaller commission check, but a faster sales cycle. In both cases, the vendor is out.

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Strategy Sales Compensation Retention 356

Clouded Judgement

NOVEMBER 18, 2024

We land with our Core product, which offers a base-level functionality across all key workflows, including call tracking, scheduling, dispatching, end-customer communications, marketing automation, estimating, job costing, sales, inventory and payroll integration.

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Benchmarks Payments Payment Services SaaS Payments 299

Tom Tunguz

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

You might have a few account executives and a sales leader in place; maybe some revenue and a handful of customers. The sales team costs real money, and the question before the company is: how do you know what quota plan to assign to the account executives? Your startup is just getting off the ground. Stage 1: Management by Objectives.

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Compensation Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 195

SaaStr

JULY 25, 2020

Q: What is a typical organizational structure for a SaaS startup with sales reps? A rough structure from 1–25 sales reps: Early days: CEO acts as VP of Sales. CEO hires 2 reps, in the beginning, each barely pays for themselves, but by months 4–6 they are able to close 3x-5x their total compensation.

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Sales Hiring Scale Compensation Sales 302

SaaStr

OCTOBER 28, 2024

f you are starting from the ground floor, first, bear in mind your compensation will be just OK, you won’t really get any “carry” (i.e., Third, you are going to have to find some way to get really good at sales. Dear SaaStr: How Do I Become a VC? VC looks a lot more glamorous than it is.I And you’ll pull out your hair. Fourth, Why You?

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Sales Hiring Compensation Branding Investment 300

SaaStr

MARCH 16, 2023

A rough structure from 1–25 sales reps: Early days: CEO acts as VP of Sales. CEO hires 2 reps, in the beginning, each barely pays for themselves, but by months 4–6 they are able to close 3x or more of their total compensation. CEO starts looking for true VP of Sales by $1m ARR, ideally hires one by $1m-$2m in ARR.

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Sales Hiring Scale Startup Compensation 326

SaaStr

MARCH 6, 2025

One of the classic original SaaStr posts was on the Top 10+ Questions to Ask a VP of Sales Candidate. It’s a different world today, AI-fueled, often distributed and hybrid, and with inflation both in titles (CRO or VP Sales) and compensation expectations. Use this updated script for hiring that first VP of Sales.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Interviewing 184

Tom Tunguz

AUGUST 14, 2022

Last week, Office Hours welcomed Bill Binch, former CRO at Pendo, EVP Worldwide Sales at Marketo & operating partner at Battery to share his views on building world-class sales organizations. Bill & I exchanged emails about Deliberately Underselling as Sales Strategy. Logo-based quotas focus the team on speed to close.

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Startup Construction Sales Compensation 342

SaaStr

JULY 22, 2020

I’m not ashamed to admit that when I set up our first SaaS sales comp plan, I had no idea what I was doing. But I did all the sales myself, and stupidly, had no sales comp plan at all ??. Then, as we first scaled up a sales team, we ended up literally copying Salesforce’s comp plan. the Moment After Sale.

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Scale Sales Hiring Sales SaaS 363

SaaStr

JANUARY 24, 2021

2021 will be the year SaaS sales evolves the most since the Appexchange ecosystem started to take off ~15 years ago, which spawned the entire notion of a true sales app stack. The permanent move to distributed sales teams. Almost every SaaS VP of Sales and CRO I’ve talked to in the past few months isn’t going back.

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Sales Recruiting Scale Technical Review Sales 354

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

Scaling a sales organization isn’t easy. Knowing which metrics matter and how to analyze them to increase your revenue and hit organizational sales goals is essential. . What makes a sales organization grow? What’s the best way to grow a sales organization? Are you compensating your teams to sell recurring revenue?

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Scale Sales Hiring Compensation Sales 291

SaaStr

JANUARY 21, 2020

Justin Welsh, former SVP of Sales at PatientPop explains how he started in SaaS in 2009 as the second sales hire at Zocdoc. Justin used Sales Culture to grow a successful PatientPop team to 140 employees and 55 million in revenue. Justin Welsh | SVP Sales @ PatientPop. I was a local sales manager or regional manager.

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Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale Sales 318

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 9, 2022

Back in the day, premium comp for some software sales execs made simple and easy sense. Traditional software had 90% gross margins, and the classic enterprise sales reps, the best ones, could close a million or more dollars a year. Sales reps in low NRR and high churn environments got paid almost the same as enterprise reps.

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Scale Venture Capital Sales Hiring Sales 345

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 8, 2024

With AI creating a cohesive message across the entire customer journey, we might see the ability to consolidate marketing, sales, and customer success. The post CRO Confidential: Moving Beyond Traditional Sales, Clay CEO & Co-Founder Kareem Amin on the Future of AI-Driven Growth appeared first on SaaStr. They’re trying to grow.

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AI Search Sales Hiring AI Systems Review 273

Predictable Revenue

JANUARY 31, 2022

Learn how to incentivize sales team behaviors that drive revenue, reduce turnover, and create a positive work environment–without relying on financial compensation. The post How To Incentivize Sales Team Behaviors appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

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Sales Compensation Revenue Strategy 260

Predictable Revenue

APRIL 4, 2024

This time, we're diving into the nuanced world of startup sales compensation with Graham Collins, Head of Partnerships at QuotaPath. The post Crafting Sales Compensation Plans with Graham Collins appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

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Compensation Sales Startup Revenue 130

Predictable Revenue

OCTOBER 17, 2022

Learn how to keep your outbound sales team motivated to reach quota with this step-by-step guide to building an effective SDR compensation plan. The post Quick Guide to SDR Compensation appeared first on Predictable Revenue.

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Compensation Outbound Sales Team Revenue Sales 147

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 5, 2024

Dear SaaStr: How Should I Pay Sales Reps When Our Customers Pay Monthly? A really great deep dive on that with MongoDB’s SVP of Sales of Sales Ops here: Four Sales Compensation Tactics for Consumption-Based GTM with MongoDB’s SVP of Sales Yes, the first way is slightly more aligned with your business and cash-efficient.

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Scale Sales Compensation Payments 293

Tom Tunguz

JUNE 15, 2025

In addition, Snowflake has heavy stock-based compensation expenses that creates sawtooth patterns in their profitability. Meanwhile, Snowflake tends to operate between -30% to -40% net income margin.

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Data Compensation AI Cloud 165

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 11, 2021

In SaaS, #1 most common misfire, with a bullet, is the VP/head of sales. It goes something like “You’ve Got to Get Past the Carcass of Your First VP of Sales” or “It’s The Second VP of Sales When You Really Start Selling” or variants thereof. Because in SaaS start-ups, it seems like the majority of first VP Sales fail.

Sales Hiring 363

Sales Hiring Scale Sales Recruiting Sales 363

Tom Tunguz

JULY 28, 2022

On August 11 at 9:30 AM Pacific time, Office Hours will host legendary sales leader Bill Binch. He led Marketo sales as EVP of Worldwide Sales. Most recently, Bill led the sales team at Pendo as CRO. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been writing about Deliberately Underselling as Sales Strategy.

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Compensation Sales Strategy 272

SaaStr

AUGUST 25, 2023

Dear SaaStr: As An Employee, As an acquired employee, How Do I Negotiate My Compensation in an Acquisition? and in some sad cases, sales and marketing — the acquirer doesn’t even want. Because it’s seen as their money, as “extra” compensation on top of the deal price. Especially below the VP level.

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Compensation Acquisition Sales Hiring Finance 183

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2021

So how do you simplify and speed up your sales cycles? He started as the first sales hire at TripActions when the company was small and he helped scale the business to 5,000 customers, 1,200 employees and a $5 billion private valuation. Read on for Michael’s insightful advice for driving faster sales cycles. Sales Enablement.

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Scale Sales Hiring Enterprise Sales 293

SaaStr

DECEMBER 2, 2023

Dear SaaStr: What Is The Optimal Structure of an Initial SaaS B2B Sales Team? Where, roughly speaking, each sales rep brings in at least 4x-5x the total compensation they take out. Where you burn a ton of cash is “buying” sales. Shoving sales reps into segments where you don’t have enough leads / enough demand.

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Sales Hiring Scale B2B Sales 273