I ran across a question on the Inside Sales Experts LinkedIn group last week. As luck would have it, I’ve been working our 2017 SaaS AE Metrics & Compensation (due out next month) and have just the perfect dataset. The question read:

Manager Earnings vs. Rep Earnings
 
I think we would all agree that top reps will and can always make more than their sales managers. But where should that line be? Has anyone seen any data that identifies where manager compensation should be relative to their reps?
 
This is one of those questions that causes a gut reaction. I’m sure you’d agree that a “top rep” should outearn their direct manager. But how many top reps? Is true for every #1 rep in every group?

Beyond making for fantastic cocktail party conversation, this is an important question.

As anyone with a pulse and open AE headcount can tell you, we’re in a highly-competitive market for top talent. If your compensation plan limits, caps, or otherwise blocks AEs from the potential to outearn their boss, something is wrong. I hope you’ll evaluate your own plans as you read through these findings.

Account Execs, Inside Sales Reps - whatever you call them, the metrics that drive the AE role are always in demand. Today, I'm excited to launch our latest research focused on Account Executive teams (ISRs, AEs, AMs, etc.).

This is our sixth round of research, since 2007. The key themes we'll explore include:

• Rep profiles: experience, tenure, ramp time, career path
• Compensation: base, OTE, accelerators
• Quotas: average quotas, % attainment
• Technology stack: categories, adoption, impact
   

We worked hard to make this year’s survey easier and it will take roughly 6 minutes to complete. If you lead an Account Executive group, please participate.

This morning, I ran a LinkedIn search for open SDR, AE, and Customer Success jobs in greater Boston. I found 1,506 active job posts—with 600+ posted within the last week alone. With every social post, in every recruiter InMail, and on every career page, companies are screaming for sales talent.

There are two problems though. One, the unemployment rate (for the typical candidate profile) is nearing a natural floor.

Two, the era of sloppy growth is coming to an end (see here, here, and here). When times are fat, companies can ignore slack in their hiring process. Heads for headsets, paying signing bonuses, and “hire-fast + fire-fast” mentalities will put butts in seats when growth trumps profitability.

As the pendulum swings toward efficient growth, hiring momentum becomes what matters. And for high-growth companies, it becomes a strategic competitive advantage.

What is hiring momentum?

According to my good friend Google, momentum is the quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity. In sales, you can increase hiring momentum in three ways:

Three weeks ago, the Department of Labor published its final rule updating the overtime regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Whether to classify inside sales reps as exempt or non-exempt remains a very messy issue. For those unfamiliar, non-exempt employees are:

Subject to overtime pay
Entitled to rest and meal breaks
Required to keep time records

By a stroke of luck brilliant strategic planning, I happened to be running research on how companies classify their SDRs and AEs for the purposes of overtime pay.

One hundred fifty-nine companies were kind enough to participate. Let’s first turn to what the new rule means.

What’s in the final rule

What has changed: The salary and compensation levels needed for the Executive, Administrative and Professional exemption will be raised to $47,476 on December 1^st, 2016.  The total annual compensation requirement for highly compensated employees (HCE) will be raised to $134,004.