Here at The Bridge Group, we’ve been doing rep and manager comp research since 2007. (You can get the latest SDR report here and AE report here.) Although we’ve been asked about CRO/SVP of Sales compensation a lot, it’s one area we’ve never delved into.

Until now.

Before we launched the project, we reached out to a half dozen senior sales leaders in our network to ask them what they’d like to learn from anonymous peer research. Their responses centered around:

• Responsibilities (by size of company)
• OTE & equity package
• The relationship between revenue contribution and earnings

In short, what’s within the CRO span of control, what quota are they signed up for,
and how much are they paid to deliver it.

We’ve just entered a very special time of year. Namely the three weeks (from Nov 1st to Thanksgiving) where it's acceptable to talk quotas for the upcoming year. 

Broach the topic any earlier, and it’s like touring colleges with a newborn. Any later, and it's a distraction from finishing the year strong. But right now, is just right.

Chorus.ai CEO Roy Raanani posted a whiteboard video on the topic recently. He compared two groups with equal average quota attainment and equal group performance. I've dubbed them:

• Team Summit with a single peak distributed around 80% of quota
• Team Camel with two humps at 60% and 100%

Roy argues Team Summit is preferable. For one, "whenever there is variability [like in Team Camel] it usually means we don't fully understand the process." He continues that reps in the left hump are likely stressed out—as they see how they're underperforming their peers—and ultimately, may face PIP or involuntary termination. I recommend you take a look at the video and comments. It's a great discussion.

Fall is upon us.

The days after getting shorter. Football (both proper and American) is back on the TV. And we at The Bridge Group are kicking off a new research project.

This time we're targeting the most senior Sales Leaders.

We focusing on CRO/(S)VP compensation, accelerators, and equity grants as well quota, makeup, and span of control. So if you're a CRO, SVP, or VP of Sales, we'd love your participation. We worked hard to make this survey easy and short (roughly 4 minutes ).

In the Sales Development world, metrics can be finicky beasts.

What works at Google, LogMeIn, or Okta might not be transferable from one to the other, let alone work for you. Questions around how can I benchmark my team make leading an SDR group all the more challenging. In our 2018 SDR Metrics & Compensation Report, we analyze the biggest shifts in recent years and provide core metrics to measure these groups. We also break out findings by company revenues, ASP, and other factors.

About the Participants

This is our seventh round of this research project and I can tell you it's our best dataset yet. This year, 434 Executives from a broad range of B2B companies participated. (89% with HQs in North America, median respondent revenues of $24M, and median ASP at $28K).