BDRs, LDRs, SDRs - whatever you call them, the metrics that drive the SDR role are always in demand.

Today, I'm excited to launch our latest research focused on Sales Development organizations. This is our seventh round of research since 2007. The key themes we'll explore include:

• Rep profiles: experience, tenure, ramp time, career path
• Structure: in/out/blended, headcount, territories
• Compensation: base, OTE, regional variations
• Quotas: average quotas, components, % attainment
• Technology stack: categories, adoption, impact
   

We worked hard to make this year’s survey easier and it will take roughly 4-5 minutes to complete. If you lead a sales development group, please participate

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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.

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It’s safe to say that the sales development function is here to stay. Companies, conferences, and careers are being built around the SDR movement. If your average sales price is $100K+, sales development is a no brainer. At $50K, it’s most definitely a yes. But what about $16K? Or $8K? $4K?

There are dozens of threads on Quora about sales development, but none directly answer the question:

What is the minimum ASP where “doing sales development” makes sense?

Even in our Inside Sales AE research and SDR research, we’ve never tackled this specific question. But by combining the two data sets, I think I’ve come up with a pretty good answer. You can follow my math below or skip to the end number here. (Note: I’m not commenting on growth versus profitability. See Mark Suster, David Skok, and Danielle Morrill for that.) I’m trying to answer a more straightforward question. If I spend $250K on sales development, by how much should revenues increase?

To get there, we need to step through four questions.

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Josh Allen is a sales leadership veteran. From inside sales rep to manager to EMEA sales director to current VP of Sales at LogMeIn, Josh has a track record of leading successful teams. We recently sat down to discuss how he thinks about and measures KPIs for his sales reps.

(Note: LogMeIn is a remote access software/SaaS company with a higher-volume, lower-ASP model.)

Josh and LogMeIn have departed from traditional (one-size-fits-all) sales KPIs in favor of customized metrics for each and every sales rep.

"We've tried cookie cutter KPIs – for example, everybody has to make 60 dials a day, create 5 new opportunities a week, etc.  But when you apply KPIs broadly across different sales teams, and try to graph it, you're going to have people who are on the high end and the low end. And very few people who are actually meeting the target."

Rather than apply uniform metrics, they decided to build a formula that would be as customized as possible to the individual sales rep. Using historical sales performance, they isolate that specific individual’s metrics.

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