Podcasts Other Startup Selling: Talking Sales with Scott Sambucci Episode 38: Sales Compensation – Buying Persuasion Labor, The Cost of Selling & Paying Market Makers for your Startup: An Interview with David Cichelli

Episode 38: Sales Compensation – Buying Persuasion Labor, The Cost of Selling & Paying Market Makers for your Startup: An Interview with David Cichelli

Published: Dec. 5, 2017, 4 p.m.

David is the leading expert when it comes to sales compensation. His book - Compensating the Sales Force - talks about building out a sales team: how to build a sales team, compensate your sales team, decide between paying commissions vs. bonuses, and so much more. Aside from David’s book, Compensating the Sales Force, he is also the author of The Sales Growth Imperative, and he publishes the Sales Compensation Almanac annually. He is the Senior Vice President at the Alexander Group where he works on Sales Compensation.

In this episode we talk about the difference between Professional Sales ‘Producers’ and Sales Representatives, when to use stock options for sales compensation, why it’s important to adjust quotas on a regular basis, the cost of selling, and much more.

Show Notes
0:33 - Introduction to David and his book, Compensating the Sales Force

3:00 - What The Alexander Group does and how Sales Compensation fits into the broader spectrum

7:30 - The 3 Modes of Startups - Start Up, Ramp Up, Scale Up

11:00 - Sales Professional as Shakespearean Actor vs Playwright
12:20 - Market Makers - Part sales / part marketing. Situational Job b/t Founder Selling and Professional Scalable Sales Organization
15:00 - Two types of sellers :
1) Producer  - Real estate agents
2) Sales Representative - Buying Labor, Paying for Persuasion, Base + Commission; Quota-based.
20:30 - When to use stock options for sales comp, and why it shouldn’t be a significant amount of compensation
22:55 - The risks of the Producer Model

25:16 - Expiring vs Flat Guarantee
29:25 - Varied revenue types and sales models

33:30 - $100,000 and $160,000 are the standard pay levels for the tech market
34:23 - Why you need to adjust your quotas all the time
36:30 - Why you shouldn’t do a draw commission, no clawbacks
38:00 - Paying SDR-AE-CS
40:50 - The Cost of Selling & Persuasion Responsibilities
46:12 - Commit to the Money, and not the Mechanics

Resources:
www.alexandergroup.com
https://www.worldatwork.org/
https://techcrunch.com/2014/07/08/inside-boxs-updated-s-1/