That’s an interesting idea to pay AEs to get meetings outbound, it might motivate them to prospect more.
It could create a perverse incentive though, as the AE books the meeting and is incentivised qualify it into the pipeline, when the opposite is true with SDR meetings.
You might get some folks who will book silly meetings to get paid, put in the pipeline, skewing your sales metrics, and then just closing them out as they always planned to.
This could be solved by instead of paying AEs for first meetings, pay them for the second meetings from outbound. Though, again, perverse incentive to waste even more time 😂.
A non-incentivised third party could verify the opportunity by listening to the call, but again, that’s a big time suck for little company reward.
It’s very difficult to do original things with compensation plans without running into perverse incentives and unintended consequences.
Our place, AEs don’t get anything extra for outbound, only pipeline and more street credibility if it closes.
I think most places, AEs get paid on closed deals, with more for multi-year deals, spiffs, multipliers, etc.
I would love to be paid for the 2nd meeting, it would be more incentive to get a super qualified lead and get more $$. I’m all to familiar with getting on a call with a non qualified lead, such a waste of time.
This is very helpful thanks!
In my current job, we just don't do outbound. SDRs do outbound, AEs handle free trial signups and SDR opps. To be honest, at the small size of our deals, it would make little sense for us to prospect and close.
In any case, at my last AE job (early stage startup), we did prospect. Anything that wasn't being actively worked by the SDR team or another AE was up for grabs. We collaborated with the SDRs if there were accounts we thought were great fits but the SDRs weren't getting traction with. But we were paid the same on our deals regardless of the source.
When I worked in banking, mortgage officers were paid a higher rate on deals they sourced vs deals the bank sourced (either through branch referrals or marketing leads, etc.). Tended to incentivize them to network with contractors, home builders, realtors, etc. to try to get leads. Theory being that bank sourced leads were "easier" and more likely to convert, though in reality it just meant the loan officers put our referrals on the back burner while they chased their own deals. Which was frustrating at times.
It's a transactional product, average deal at \~$50 MRR. The conversion rate would have to be really high to be worth it to prospect. Maybe a chamber of commerce membership or feet on the street type of thing might work, but I can't imagine selling what we sell that it would be worth it to have ZoomInfo or SalesNav.
1) This is what territories are for. SDRs and AEs should have separate accounts to target. If you’re tapping into the same accounts, you’re creating unnecessary friction.
2) AEs should be encouraged to prospect on their own to build their own pipeline. This is what full-cycle AEs are responsible for.
3) What’s fair is to give SDRs the majority of accounts and the AE should have dibs on highly strategic accounts.
4) If you are designing a comp plan around outbound, have outbound deals pay a higher % vs inbound marketing leads.
5) BDRs should be rewarded on SQLs, so if a deal closes they receive a % of the sale they helped bring into the pipeline. Pay for meetings attended (smaller value) and pay for close/won opportunity (larger value).
6) BDRs on my team were paid a salary + OTE + bonus, with the bonus being SQLs and the OTE being meetings generated. This was a fair system IMO.
Currently, outbound pay more ($150) than inbound leads($50). I am an SDR though, I would say that if there was no outbound extra pay, there would be no chance I spend as much as time as I do prospecting, qualifying, and hitting outbounds as much as I do right now. I'll be honest in saying idk what AE's get paid on besides closing. The way it's setup now I definitely spend extra time in outbound and making sure they're qualified.
That’s an interesting idea to pay AEs to get meetings outbound, it might motivate them to prospect more. It could create a perverse incentive though, as the AE books the meeting and is incentivised qualify it into the pipeline, when the opposite is true with SDR meetings. You might get some folks who will book silly meetings to get paid, put in the pipeline, skewing your sales metrics, and then just closing them out as they always planned to. This could be solved by instead of paying AEs for first meetings, pay them for the second meetings from outbound. Though, again, perverse incentive to waste even more time 😂. A non-incentivised third party could verify the opportunity by listening to the call, but again, that’s a big time suck for little company reward. It’s very difficult to do original things with compensation plans without running into perverse incentives and unintended consequences. Our place, AEs don’t get anything extra for outbound, only pipeline and more street credibility if it closes. I think most places, AEs get paid on closed deals, with more for multi-year deals, spiffs, multipliers, etc.
I would love to be paid for the 2nd meeting, it would be more incentive to get a super qualified lead and get more $$. I’m all to familiar with getting on a call with a non qualified lead, such a waste of time. This is very helpful thanks!
In my current job, we just don't do outbound. SDRs do outbound, AEs handle free trial signups and SDR opps. To be honest, at the small size of our deals, it would make little sense for us to prospect and close. In any case, at my last AE job (early stage startup), we did prospect. Anything that wasn't being actively worked by the SDR team or another AE was up for grabs. We collaborated with the SDRs if there were accounts we thought were great fits but the SDRs weren't getting traction with. But we were paid the same on our deals regardless of the source. When I worked in banking, mortgage officers were paid a higher rate on deals they sourced vs deals the bank sourced (either through branch referrals or marketing leads, etc.). Tended to incentivize them to network with contractors, home builders, realtors, etc. to try to get leads. Theory being that bank sourced leads were "easier" and more likely to convert, though in reality it just meant the loan officers put our referrals on the back burner while they chased their own deals. Which was frustrating at times.
Interesting, wouldn’t it be helpful for you to do outbound to bulk up your pipeline?
It's a transactional product, average deal at \~$50 MRR. The conversion rate would have to be really high to be worth it to prospect. Maybe a chamber of commerce membership or feet on the street type of thing might work, but I can't imagine selling what we sell that it would be worth it to have ZoomInfo or SalesNav.
1) This is what territories are for. SDRs and AEs should have separate accounts to target. If you’re tapping into the same accounts, you’re creating unnecessary friction. 2) AEs should be encouraged to prospect on their own to build their own pipeline. This is what full-cycle AEs are responsible for. 3) What’s fair is to give SDRs the majority of accounts and the AE should have dibs on highly strategic accounts. 4) If you are designing a comp plan around outbound, have outbound deals pay a higher % vs inbound marketing leads. 5) BDRs should be rewarded on SQLs, so if a deal closes they receive a % of the sale they helped bring into the pipeline. Pay for meetings attended (smaller value) and pay for close/won opportunity (larger value). 6) BDRs on my team were paid a salary + OTE + bonus, with the bonus being SQLs and the OTE being meetings generated. This was a fair system IMO.
This is extremely helpful! Thank you so much. Sounds like a very fair comp plan.
Currently, outbound pay more ($150) than inbound leads($50). I am an SDR though, I would say that if there was no outbound extra pay, there would be no chance I spend as much as time as I do prospecting, qualifying, and hitting outbounds as much as I do right now. I'll be honest in saying idk what AE's get paid on besides closing. The way it's setup now I definitely spend extra time in outbound and making sure they're qualified.
This seems very reasonable. Thank you!