In the current climate of growth-stage, B2B tech companies, attracting and retaining top talent is key for success. One way companies do this is with competitive compensation plans for employees. We asked five top sales and business operations leaders about their tips on creating an effective and competitive AE compensation plan. Here are their answers:
Peter Turim, VP of Sales at Mandolin
The best plans are simple, fair (to both sales team and company), and promote over-performance. It is also critical that your top sales reps are aligned to the overall business needs. Pay the most for what you need the most to drive dollars.
Justin Johnson, Director of Sales at HOVER
George Eliopoulos, Head of Large Enterprise Sales at PayPal
For our industry, there are two major components. First, recognize what the market actually offers on a total OTE basis for the type of talent you need. It’s easy to forget that we are competing with massive banks and top-tier tech companies for talent. Those entities tend to have different types of plans than most of the tech world has.The second item is to keep the plans simple and to have no more than 2-3 components, steering away from products sold. So, if revenue and profit are what really matter to your firm and are talked about with your board/shareholders, then comp the AEs on those two items and don’t stop them for getting there in different ways.