Sales
What opportunity stages to use in Salesforce®
If you’re using Salesforce® as your CRM, you know that they provide have some standard ‘opportunity stages’ out of the box. However, most sales organizations customize these stages based on...
Leadership
From sales hire to sales fire: 5 tips for firing a salesperson
This is a touchy subject and one that no one likes to talk about. Ideally, if you follow my advice on interviewing salespeople you won’t be in this predicament very...
Leadership
Top qualities to look for in sales candidates
It calls to question a core tenet of business, but there is a lot of research around whether interviews matter in predicting on-the-job performance. It sounds so bizarre, but companies...
Leadership
5 New Year’s resolutions for sales leaders
Even though it’s possible to change or improve your habits at any time, having a new year seems like a perfect time to do so. It’s a brand new calendar,...
Leadership
When (and how) to roll out a new sales compensation plan
Changing a sales compensation plan can be a stressful and traumatic event for a sales team. With a new incentive plan comes the risk that you’ll be making less money...
Leadership
Should I cap my team’s commission?
Short answer: Almost always, no. Long answer: Capped commission is a very sensitive and complex subject within sales incentives. Let me first define what I mean by ‘capped commission’. Capped...
Sales
How to prevent your deals from stalling over the holidays
According to several sources, Q4 is when more SaaS deals are closed than any other quarter. However, it’s also one of the toughest times to close deals due to Thanksgiving,...
Leadership
How to set bonus and commission rates for SaaS SDRs
Now that we’ve set the quota for SDRs, it’s time to talk about how to set their bonus and commission rates. Before we dive in, let’s define some terms: Commission:...
Leadership, Product and Tools, Sales
How to set commission rates for SaaS salespeople
Now that we’ve set the quota for a salesperson, it’s time to talk about how to set commission rates. In the past, our CEO AJ Bruno wrote about his favorite...
Leadership
The worst sales compensation plan possible
We’re constantly thinking, talking, and writing about compensation plans (how to build one and which is our favorite for example)… In the ghastly spirit of Halloween, I wanted to write...
Leadership
How to set a SaaS sales quota
In a previous post, I wrote about my experience setting Sales Development Rep (SDR) quotas while I was running an SDR organization. But not all sales quotas are created equal....
Leadership
How to set a sales quota for SaaS Sales Development Reps
As Director of Sales Development, I ran a team of 40 Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) for about three years at a Software as a Service (SaaS) company in Austin, Texas....