In this recorded interview, Rachel Parrinello, Principal of Alexander Group, talks about the Best Practices of Sales Compensation in SaaS usage-based / consumption models.
Rachel Parrinello is a leading expert in Sales Compensation – she delivers sales compensation expertise to many clients and directs Alexander Group’s sales compensation IP and benchmarking methodology. Rachel has authored several articles and whitepapers including How Revenue Planning Drives Sales Compensation Success.
Prior to joining the Alexander Group, Rachel started her career in sales and sales management for two Fortune 500 hardware companies and an Internet-based software reseller start up. In addition to managing her sales territory growth, she developed and implemented customer segmentation strategies, marketing programs, sales training programs, sales tools development, job design and performance metrics. She transitioned to sales management consulting when she joined the Alexander Group in 1999. Rachel is also a Certified Sales Compensation Professional.
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In this discussion, hear from Chris Cabrera, Founder and CEO of Xactly as he talks about the ways to motivate and incentivize a sales team, which is more important than ever in today’s evolving, virtual world.
In this session, we will dive into:
- The Rule of X and how to incentivize it
- Examples of data to make the CRO job’s 10x better
- Leveraging insights from real compensation data & benchmarks
- How many measures you should have on the comp plan
- Biggest mistakes you must avoid in the comp plan
Chris Cabrera was recognized as a Top-50 SaaS CEO by The Software Report. Chris is an expert in Sales Performance Management and Sales Compensation. He is a seasoned executive with senior management experience who has led sales, operations, marketing, and business development.
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In this VIP event, learn from one of the top Sales Compensation and Quotas experts about what’s happening with quotas in 2021 and how you can solve your quota challenge now.
Mark is the founder and managing partner of SalesGlobe, a leading sales advisory firm focused on solving your biggest sales challenges. For more than 25 years, Mark has worked with Global 1000 organizations on strategies to grow revenue.
SalesGlobe helps sales, marketing, and service organizations grow profitably by developing and implementing strategies that improve their effectiveness. The firm’s expertise includes sales strategy, customer segmentation, channel strategy, sales organization design and deployment, performance management, and incentive compensation.
Mark is the author of four books and numerous articles. His latest book is Quotas! Design Thinking to Solve Your Biggest Sales Challenge. His previous books include What Your CEO Needs to Know About Sales Compensation, The Innovative Sale, and Essential Account Planning.
As you rethink sales for 2021, Mark will take a deep dive into the art and science of quotas. Topics include:
- Why setting quotas is your biggest sales challenge.
- How to use Sales Design ThinkingSM to solve any sales problem, including quotas.
- Understanding the story behind a problem you need to solve.
- The three key components of quota success.
- The limitations of using a historical approach to quota setting.
- How quotas are changing in COVID and beyond.
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In this session: Maybe your revenue team is on a winning streak, maybe not. Consider these questions: How do you keep growth going when things are great? Or, on the other hand, get a stalled revenue machine succeeding again? Unfortunately, your current practices (whether successful or not) will not serve you in the future. Yes, break/fix sales management investments are ongoing and necessary. However, the role of a CRO is to “see the future” to charter and provision the revenue team accordingly. Fortunately, the right answers are easily identified; they are embedded in your growth rate. Learn how the growth rate of your company provides the gateway to select and deploy the right sales management tools and solutions at the right time, including segmentation, organization, jobs, sales process, talent, and pay programs. Manage your future: Keep the revenue team aligned; avoid obsolescence.
Our speaker: David Cichelli is a book author and a leading expert on Sales Compensation who works at the Alexander Group, a revenue growth consulting firm.
David helps companies achieve their sales objectives through a variety of solutions, including improved segmentation, channel design, sales ROI, sales metrics, quota allocation, selling models, and sales compensation.
David is widely recognized for his work in linking sales compensation to management’s objectives, He is the author of McGraw Hill’s Compensating the Sales Force and The Sales Growth Imperative. He is an instructor/author for WorldatWork’s classes on sales compensation. Mr. Cichelli holds an undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University and a graduate degree from Michigan State University.
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In this session: We know sales compensation helps drive sales success. But what makes a great sales compensation plan?
Almost 90% of all companies revise their sales compensation plans on an annual basis. Why? Management is changing the objectives of the sales department. And, most companies admit that certain elements of their sales compensation do not drive the right results, create unexpected outcomes, or induce unwanted behaviors.
Learn the key “building codes” for crafting an aligned and powerful sales compensation plan for each of your customer-facing jobs.
Walk away with:
- Best practices from a Sales Compensation expert
- Insights on setting Sales Compensation for 2021
- Mistakes to avoid that every CRO and VP of Sales can apply
Our speaker: David Cichelli is a book author and a leading expert on Sales Compensation who works at the Alexander Group, a revenue growth consulting firm.
David helps companies achieve their sales objectives through a variety of solutions, including improved segmentation, channel design, sales ROI, sales metrics, quota allocation, selling models and sales compensation.
David is widely recognized for his work in linking sales compensation to management’s objectives, He is author of McGraw Hill’sCompensating the Sales Force and The Sales Growth Imperative. He is an instructor/author for WorldatWork’s classes on sales compensation. Mr. Cichelli holds an undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University and a graduate degree from Michigan State University.
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In this session: Join Mike Moorman, Senior Partner and founder of ZS’s Sales Strategy & Transformation, and Sean Moran, Partner at ZS who leads the mid-market and private equity practice, as they share key insights for defining and executing a high impact sales strategies.
Mike is a Senior Partner at ZS associates and founded the firm’s b2b sales strategy and transformation practice, as well as the private equity practice. In addition, Mike is an adjunct lecturer on sales strategy at the Kellogg School of Business Executives Program and a Board Member for the Strategic Account Management Association. Mike has authored more than 20 white-papers on sales strategy and effectiveness and has been cited in numerous leading publications. During his career, Mike has worked with more than 50 companies spanning 10 industries and ranging from mid-market to Fortune 100.
Sean is a Partner in the ZS Chicago office, and leads the firm’s U.S. practice focused on middle-market companies and PE-sponsored growth. Outside of ZS, Sean has held prior business development and operating roles in investor sponsored companies, and currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Board for Minds Matter Chicago. During his career, Sean has worked with dozens of companies on commercial effectiveness and capability building, ranging across b2b services, technology, industrial and healthcare sub-sectors.
This session is quite relevant for Chief Revenue Officers, Chief Commercial Officers, CEOs, and other leaders focused on maximizing business impact through the sales organization
Hosted by Zorian Rotenberg.
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Podcasts:
Building a Better Sales Team
ParkerGale Operating Principal Paul Stansik is joined by Zorian Rotenberg, former head of Sales, CRO, and now a PE growth advisor. Zorian and Paul share their approach to diagnosing and addressing typical growth problems, how sales teams can use simple math to set better pipeline targets, and what sets great CROs apart.
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Episode #117: Achieving Disproportionate Results in a Noisy World
Expert in scaling companies, Zorian teaches us about stress and passion, how each salesperson feels these In their jobs. Taking care of your team members is required before you to take care of your customers. Zorian loves to quote Eisenhour, who said, “You don’t lead by hitting people over the head, that is assault!” A great leader is someone who makes everyone on the team better. He teaches us that we need to get your team SET: give them support, energy, and trust.
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#Revenue 7: Scaling SaaS Revenue & Sales Teams w/ Zorian Rotenberg
Zorian Rotenberg, CRO at Infotelligent, joins host of the #Revenue series, John Grispon, on this episode of B2B Growth. Along with the only formula you’ll ever need to scale SaaS revenue, Zorian shares 3 keys to sales repeatability.
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Chief Revenue Officers, with Zorian Rotenberg
Zorian Rotenberg is the CRO at Infotelligent. In today’s episode we dive into how and why a CRO is different than a VP of Sales. Titles are thrown around pretty easily these days. But as we dig into, there are substantive differences between the two roles and Zorian shares some details about how they should be viewed. Which includes his very interesting perspective that good CROs are like a “Hedge Fund Portfolio Manager” So we talk about the steps CROs can take to hedge their risks as they scale their operations. Plus, Zorian shares his 9 steps for scaling revenue.
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🪙 16 🎙️ The Science of Sales Leadership : Zorian Rotenberg
Zorian Rotenberg is the chair of the “CRO – Chief Revenue Officers” Group on Revenue Collective. He is a growth advisor(Sales/Revenue) who is currently helping the M33 team with portfolio companies with a focus on the sales strategy & revenue acceleration. He is a former PE & Investment Banking Analyst turned SaaS CRO focused on leading global SaaS sales teams from $20M to $100M in Revenue (incl: senior sales management, sales, CS/AM, and channel sales worldwide).
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Episode 10: Zorian Rotenberg, CRO @ Infotelligent on what Wall Street taught him about scaling SaaS businesses, using data to drive better analysis across sales & operations and why he feels there is high churn rate in a startup VP role
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Zorian Rotenberg, Chief Revenue Officer of sales growth platform powerhouse, Infotelligent. Zorian is a former Investment banker & growth equity VC turned SaaS sales leader, leading global sales teams from $20M to $100M in revenue. Zorian will be sharing his experiences from:
- What Wall Street taught him about scaling SaaS businesses
- Using data to drive better analysis across sales & operations
- Insights on why there is such a high churn rate in the startup VP sales role
- The episode is available across all podcast mediums.
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The B2B Sales Show
The B2B Sales Show is a podcast dedicated to helping B2B sales professionals engage their target accounts, successfully navigate the sales process, and ultimately become more effective sellers.
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S1E136 – Where do you go to learn about being a CRO with Zorian Rotenberg, CRO Infotelligent
A self-proclaimed math geek, Zorian answers the pivotal question, is sales an art or a science. And he discusses the following sales topics too:
How to quantify an effective phone call
Is sales a science or an art
What to do your first 90 days as a new VP of Sales
How can CEOs have a better relationship with heads of sales, CROs, etc.
The reason for a chief revenue officer role
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Top Insights From the Best: Kyle Porter
In this episode:
– Why every great CEO prioritizes “Organizational Health” and culture over everything
– Why great leaders set Vision, Mission and Values
– On using Core Values to gauge who you let into your company and how they guide the behaviors you celebrate vs those you tolerate
– The story that inspired Kyle from Patrick Lencioni’s “The Advantage” and Southwest Airlines & how “it’s below me” is the reason most CEOs don’t pay attention to Organizational Health
– Why the Sunday Night “Weekend Update” email is so important
– Cultural rhythms like the “All Hands” meeting every friday
– About team members who get an applause 3 times
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Top Insights From the Best: Scott Leese
In this episode:
– Why Scott thinks any problems encountered in day to day sales are no biggie and how to learn from Scott’s experience to look at life and sales differently
– How Scott founded Thursday Night Sales which is the biggest such podcast and community in the sales world
– How Scott created large presence and brand awareness
– About how every professional wants to play on a Championship Team
– Why messaging focus is so important
– What are the biggest problems Scott sees in companies when he helps them grow
– Why these are so important: getting your ICP right, building a great Sales Playbook and having a Sales Process
– A big lesson of what most companies do not have enough of and where every company under-invests but really should not
– What happens when you are 1 degree off course in sailing navigation and how that’s relevant to leading sales teams
– Where to find great sales talent – the one great place where you’ll find it today
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Top Insights From the Best: Paul Melchiorre & Mark Petruzzi
In this episode:
– Insights from the new book “Selling the Cloud: A Playbook For Success In Cloud Software And Enterprise Sales” {@Lisa: please hyperlink it to Amazon}
– How enterprise software selling has changed over time and the acceleration of those changes with the current environment around the work from home efforts
– What is the future profile of the top enterprise sellers and how to identify them and compete for the scarce talent
– Why Empathy and Authenticity are key when recruiting your most successful sales professionals
– How has the role of Customer Success evolved and where do you see its role in the future of the high growth SaaS companies
– Why growing revenue from existing customers is 3x-5x easier than finding new customers
– How the acceleration of sales transformation is happening in 3 months that otherwise would take 3 years
– What is the CRO role (Chief Revenue Officer), why it is more than just a VP of Sales and how will it evolve in the future
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Top Insights From the Best: Mike Volpe
In this episode:
– As one of the original founding team members of Hubspot and someone who co-invented Inbound Marketing, Mike shares top insights on how Inbound changed over time and the future of Inbound going forward
– On why so many companies still erroneously don’t believe in or don’t do Inbound Marketing despite the fact that it works better than any other type of marketing
– How Content Marketing is not the same as Inbound Marketing
– Discussion about PLG (Product Led Growth) as Mike was one of the originals in the PLG game with WebsiteGrader.com which generated millions of leads
– How Mike went from a world-class SaaS CMO to a CEO
– What are some of Mike’s favorite Marketing Campaigns that you can learn from
– Why “Made to Stick” is one Mike’s favorite books for marketers
– And some of Mike’s favorite Marketing executives
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Top Insights From the Best: Josh Braun
In this episode:
– Learn about Josh Braun and how he went from an English teacher to a renown Sales Expert with a massive and active LinkedIn following all while being a Triathlon pro
– The power of “heard and understood”
– Why you shouldn’t overcome an objection but align with it
– How Josh implemented the FBI negotiating and communication techniques in sales
– How to use mirroring, labeling and the accusation audit in sales prospecting just like Chris Voss
– What is a late night DJ FM voice and why it matters for sales
– Using “illuminating questions” vs leading questions and creating an information gap
– What is Play #41 in the Bad-Ass Sales Guide
– How to “detach from the outcome” to win in sales
– What is a “commission breath” and how to rinse it out
– Avoiding the “Yes Trap” and going with a No
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Top Insights From the Best: Max Altschuler
In this episode:
– How Max built Sales Hacker to 175,000 members
– The #1 thing that is responsible for making the biggest difference in building a successful company like Outreach.io and the Sales Hacker community
– Secret 1 from Outreach.io sales floor – the “Boom Email”
– Secret 2 from Outreach.io sales floor – the “LinkedIn Takeover”
– Secret 3 from Outreach.io sales floor – the full-time Sequence Content Expert who runs A/B split tests and experiments to generate the best conversions from outbound emails
– What Bill Gates’ “Tech is a magnifying glass” and how it relates to everyone using sales engagement platforms like Outreach
– What SaaS companies’ SDRs can do when everyone around you is also using sales engagement platforms and everyone can send 100’s of emails per day – how do you stand out and deliver results
– Why benchmarks for Outbound SDRs like Meetings Scheduled are not as prevalent / available
– Why most Outobund SDRs generate 8-15 meetings per month with only top 1% generating 20 and above
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Top Insights From the Best: Joe Caprio
In this episode:
– How Joe scaled Chorus.ai 100% – 200%+ per year to Series B round
– Buyer vs. Seller conflict and friction and how to fix it
– One big new trend in SaaS selling
– On your AEs not demo’ing effectively
– About 3 questions every new VP of Sales
– How to be intentional in managing a sale cycle
– What to do instead of asking Discovery questions
– On what is the goal of a Demo
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Top Insights From the Best: Jason Jordan
In this episode:
– What Jason learned from research for “Cracking the Sales Management Code” and running companies between $20 Million in sales to $450 Million in sales
– What makes a good sales team or Sales Leader
– Why a sales team or Sales Leader that missed their team quota target is not necessarily a bad team
– Inversely, why a Sales Leader or salesforce that hit their target is not necessarily good
– It’s not about metrics but about which behaviors and outcomes you want
– Figuring out what drives Business Outcomes / Results
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Top Insights From the Best: Richard Harris
In this episode:
– Richard’s “best sales question ever”
– The RESPECT Contract in sales
– Trust / Circle of Trust
– Earning “the right to ask”
– Nuggets on sales questions to ask
– Getting “Access to Authority” and Richard’s key question to ask
– The difference between Discovery & Qualification in sales
– How PE and VC investors can better prospect to source deals
– A tactical advice to improve your mental health in sales and reduce stress going into Q4
– Wanting to talk to @Manny Medina, CEO of Outreach & @Henry Schuck, CEO of ZoomInfo
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Top Insights From the Best: David Cichelli
In this episode:
– Are variable incentives in the Sales Compensation even necessary if there are claims out there that sales people are driven by meaning and autonomy?
– Discussion on how humans respond to a measurement system & alignment
– Shouldn’t all salespeople have unlimited pay, like real estate agents?
– Distinction between market makers ir income producers (100% variable & uncapped) & sales representatives
– On the definition difference between a Commission (at risk) and a Bonus (add-on), and all other fun talk on things ranging from Target Incentives, to Quotas, to ICRs (Individual Commission Rates)
– What is 3x Uncapped all about
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Top Insights From the Best: Kevin Dorsey
In this Episode:
– How do you use Analytics and tie it to humans (re data & Human element)?
– How do you drive behavior change?
– How KD scales sales faster – if the board asked to figure out a way to grow much faster in 2021, how he would approach it.
– Thoughts on Behaviors vs Processes vs Skills vs Metrics
– About managing Process vs developing People and skills
– Leadership style of Demanding vs. Commanding
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Top Insights From the Best: Jeff Hyman
In this episode:
– How to recruit A-Players for your Sales team
– What is the ideal # of interviews
– Secret of the Pros: what is the most “predictive” in interviewing and finding top performers
– Surprising insight – why the interview itself is not predictive
– Why to stop over-indexing on industry experience and why it does not matter much
– How to hire (like Bill Belichick) – under-valued high-performance and high-achieving candidates that nobody hired yet who are the next Tom Brady, Julian Edelman and other top performers
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Top Insights From the Best: Ernest Owusu
In this episode:
– How having stars doesn’t guarantee winning and what you really need
– How sales is easy compared to the cut-throat job of NFL – NFL players get fired for making 1 mistake or for being late to a meeting
– His thoughts on why Latane Conant is the best CMO in SaaS
– What is “Leadership” (beyond coaching) for you?
– Using 3Cs to lead the team(Career, Culture, Compensation) vs. the 3Ds in the NFL
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Top Insights From the Best: Chris Lytle
In this episode:
– About the “Forgotten Rookie” & Sales Management Trap
– Why there is so much risk when promoting an AE to a Sales Manager
– How a new Sales Manager mitigates the “Unknown Unknowns” in the role
– Why companies do sales training yet they don’t do manager training
– Where to focus as a priority – why a Sales Manager is more important as a driver of results than sales reps
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Top Insights From the Best: Jamal Reimer
In this episode:
Difference between Enterprise Sales & Mid-Market SalesMapping out the buyer’s OrganizationUsing data in pricing negotiations on Enterprise DealsEstablishing & defending pricingDelivering “the Story of Value”The “Investment Portfolio” enterprise sales methodHow to build a “Relationship” in the Enterprise Sales motionWhat to do when you miss your annual quotaWhy Jamal wants to meet Thomas Kurian of Google Cloud
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Top Insights from the Best: Jen Spencer
Jen Spencer is the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for SmartBug Media, an Intelligent Inbound® marketing agency of experts in digital strategy, revenue operations, public relations, content marketing, and marketing automation. She’s also a founding coach at SDR Nation and a past board member of the Phoenix chapter of Girls in Tech. Jen subscribes to the notion that “we’re all in this together,” and great communication leads to great partnership. She loves animals, technology, the arts, and really good Scotch.
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Top Insights From the Best: Brent Gleeson
In this episode:
– “The Only Easy Day Was Yesterday” – how this Navy SEALS motto relates to business and sales management in SaaS
– How Navy SEALS become mentally tough and survive Hell Week – what SaaS CROs and sales leaders can do including engaging in health and wellness activities, taking short breaks, journaling and better sleep
– Hear a real life and death Navy SEALS “capture & kill” combat story from Baghdad
– On grit, resilience, “emotional maturity”, stress management and compartmentalization and learning what is in your control
– The Navy SEAL way of “leaning into adversity”
– About changing people on the team before changing the team
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Top Insights From the Best: Mark Donnolo
In this episode:
– How Sales Compensation is all about solving problems
– Why Sales Compensation is “human” (and it’s not just a formula)
– What is a Revenue Roadmap and why it relates to Sales Compensation
– Hear about how many measurements & accelerators you should have
– How setting quota too high is a major problem in sales organizations (if not the #1 according to Mark)
– How much should each measure represent in a sales comp formula
– On average why only 42% of reps are benchmarked to be above quota
– When setting Sales Comp strategy, how much % of your reps should actually hit their quota target
– The 3 factors for setting correct quota – 1. Predictability, 2. Cost of Sales and 3. Motivation
– What does “Winning Ugly” mean
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Top Insights From the Best: John Davagian
In this episode:
– How John went from being a Finance major into Sales (and why this helps him be one of the best CROs)
– Why being very analytical & data-driven (as a Finance major) is crucial to be a successful Sales Leader today
– How John grew sales from $1 Million to $65 Million at Salsify
– Why confidence (and how to bounce back) is so critical in sales
– On metrics like PPR, Productivity Yield, Pipeline Growth, Pipeline Aging
– Esprit de corps on the sales floor, on making win and how that is so important
– On building a Winning Sales Culture and how the concept of Winning changes
– How productivity is affected as you get bigger
– Why a Win Rate of 60% is a bad thing and why there is really no such thing as Win Rate of 30% or 50% or more