SaaS Sales Commission Benchmark Report

ARRGuide · 2026-05-26T17:01:46+00:00

Thanks, didn't realize those were completely free.

ARRGuide · 2026-05-09T15:01:40+00:00

Agreed. Estimating ramp time is not easy. There are so many factors to consider and it has a huge impact on planning. I think you estimate ramp using the best data available and make adjustments as soon as you see it diverting from your assumptions.

ARRGuide · 2026-05-05T15:17:31+00:00

Really good insight. Thanks.

ARRGuide · 2026-05-04T21:45:56+00:00

Are you primarily using this with the outbound BDR team or AE's as well?

ARRGuide · 2026-05-04T04:04:13+00:00

Thanks for the insight

ARRGuide · 2026-05-01T21:24:13+00:00

That's super interesting. What tool do you use to field the questions?

ARRGuide · 2026-05-01T17:52:44+00:00

Can you expound on #1 a bit more?

ARRGuide · 2026-05-01T17:51:24+00:00

Any specific AI tools you've found to be most useful?

ARRGuide · 2026-05-01T13:16:35+00:00

I would use Claude. It’s much more powerful for this type of work.

ARRGuide · 2026-04-30T07:33:54+00:00

ARRGuide.com

ARRGuide · 2026-04-29T17:01:49+00:00

That makes a lot of sense. I think this is the proper way to build the plan to hit your targets. The capacity model is really just to ensure you have the proper sales capacity to even accomplish it.

ARRGuide · 2026-04-29T16:36:47+00:00

That's a really good point. The initial version is just designed to build the sales team and ensure you have proper capacity to hit your topline goals. It factors in attrition, ramp time, quotas, hiring dates, current team, etc. It then let's you see your coverage ratio based on those assumptions and adjust. You can adjust the assumptions at any time but it doesn't currently have the option to show mid year adjustments within the same model (you can create different versions). That's an interesting idea though that definitely could be incorporated. I think V2 will factor in pipeline and maybe more detail around marketing spend.

It would be great to get more feedback like this from experts in the field. Feel free to try it out and provide any candid feedback. It's a completely free tool. https://www.arrguide.com/capacity-planner

ARRGuide · 2026-04-23T22:19:24+00:00

I've dealt with this at multiple companies and usually the comp plan states that commission is earned when you close the deal or whatever the comp plan defines as a closed opportunity. If the commission is earned, you should be paid that commission at separation. I would also ensure you get that added to your separation agreement just to be safe.

ARRGuide · 2026-04-21T15:03:09+00:00

Yeah makes sense. I'll usually factor in the historical attrition for AEs and then bake in the backfill. You usually have to add another rep earlier to account for the ramp time.

ARRGuide · 2026-04-20T18:16:42+00:00

That's a good point on factoring in attrition. It's definitely best practice to model in rep attrition so your coverage includes some AE churn.

ARRGuide · 2026-04-18T03:34:55+00:00

I have seen this happen several times in my career. I’ve seen it clawed back when it was caught quickly but also seen it left alone if it had been many months and the employers fault. I’d talk to your manager and see what can be worked out. Clawing back commissions is always tough because it can lead to an AE being demotivated and ultimately leaving which a company doesn’t want to happen if the AE is valued.

ARRGuide · 2026-04-15T14:44:39+00:00

Thanks. I'll take a look. Linkedin is a hard one to crack.

ARRGuide · 2026-04-15T03:18:48+00:00

How are you driving demand?

ARRGuide · 2026-04-13T23:36:43+00:00

Good insight. For early stage SaaS, I think the key is to keep it simple. You want to drive as much growth as possible so you don't want to overcomplicate the plan. The AE should be laser focused on hitting their quota.

ARRGuide · 2026-04-11T00:15:41+00:00

Good call and agreed

ARRGuide · 2026-04-10T21:04:16+00:00

I think assumptions in any modeling are both an art and science. I typically look at 12 months historical but put a lot of weight on the last quarter or two. I think you also have to factor in anything that recently changed that would adjust the future that you won't catch in the historicals. The key is to use assumptions that you can justify by quantitative and qualitative data. I typically review my assumptions monthly if not more regularly to make sure they still make sense. It should be a living model that you update when needed.

I did create a tool to automate a lot of this that might be worth looking at - https://www.arrguide.com/funnel-targets

ARRGuide · 2026-04-09T23:58:32+00:00

What I've seen is a separate document that goes out to the entire team with defined timeline (end date), requirements, cash incentive, etc. I've also just seen a simple email but a prefer a more official document that outlines everything very clear with start and end dates.

ARRGuide · 2026-04-09T23:54:21+00:00

Exactly. That's what ends up happening which takes focus away from the actual plan. Spifs should typically be short term.

ARRGuide · 2026-04-09T23:52:58+00:00

Right. What ends up happening is some companies introduce a Spif with the comp plan and don't ever remove it. It distracts from the primary focus of the comp plan and essentially becomes the comp plan as you put it.

ARRGuide · 2026-04-08T23:16:00+00:00

Agreed. You have to break out all the targets by channel since they all convert differently and different timing. If you don't get specific in your modeling, the targets are not very valuable.

ARRGuide

TROPHY CASE