White paper : Improve business performance through sales compensation

1. Introduction

Qobra and Business Operations Network joined forces for an in person event on March 15, 2023 to discuss sales reps performance and commissions.

All the information (methods, calculations, examples, best practices, advice, mistakes to avoid, etc.) shared and exchanged during this event have been transcribed in this white paper.

The Qobra and the Business Operations Network teams wish you a pleasant reading!

“Through its SaaS software, Qobra allows companies to calculate and manage their employees' commissions with ease! Qobra helps each of its customers to make commissions their primary lever of motivation and sales reps performance, but also to make them an essential element of attractiveness and loyalty. ‍Qobra has already helped many companies throughout Europe, such as Doctolib, Sodexo, Natixis, Payfit and Celonis."

‍Antoine Fort, CEO at Qobra

“The Business Operations Network is the reference network for Business Ops teams in France (+1600 members). They have a Slack group dedicated to these teams around which they build a community of mutual aid with the aim of sharing the best practices and content of the industry.”

Charles Tenot, Ex-CRO at Skello and Ex-VP-Ops at Botify

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2. Context

The advantage of the sales functions is that their performance is very quantifiable. In fact, it is very easy to know what they bring to the company, and we will show you how to do it.

Through concrete examples, we will also show you the methods and good practices to:

• Define the ideal budget to allocate to commissions
• Determine the breakdown between fixed salary and commissions
• Select the indicators to be taken into account for the commissions
• Set the weight of each performance indicator

And this, for each of the following roles: 

• Sales - Account Executive
• SDR - BDR
• Customer Success Manager
• Account Manager

As a bonus, for each of the above positions, we will present you with a concrete example of a variable compensation plan!

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3. Summary

1. Commissions for SDRs - BDRs

1. The breakdown between fixed salary and commissions
2. The performance indicators
3. The weight of performance indicators
4. Example of a commission plan

2. Commissions for Sales Reps (Sales - Account Executives)

1. ‍The budget to be allocated to sales reps' compensation
2. ‍The breakdown between fixed salary and commissions
3. The performance indicators
4. Commissions rates
5. Thresholds and accelerators
6. Tips and best practices

3. Commissions for Customer Success Managers and Account Managers

1. The breakdown between fixed salary and commissions
2. ‍The performance indicators
3. Example of a commission plan

4. Commission calculation and management tool

To find out more about the study (french version), click here!

To find out more about the study (english version), click here!

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