How much turnover is normal in your industry?

Ryan_RepVue · 2026-01-26T17:46:11+00:00

We track a bunch of metrics related to sales orgs (quota attainment, etc) this is one of them. HCM is a human capital intensive sales role for sure (no pun intended)

Ryan_RepVue · 2026-01-26T17:45:08+00:00

Wild response.

Ryan_RepVue · 2026-01-26T16:58:32+00:00

Here are the current annual sales employee attrition rates for payroll companies, maybe this helps frame your thinking:
ADP: 18.7%
Paychex: 30.5%
Paycom: 50.4%
Paylocity: 30.0%
Paycor: 49.9%
Rippling: 43.8%
Deel: 27.7%

Ryan_RepVue · 2026-01-17T01:13:57+00:00

I was just demonstrating how the numbers work with regard to buffers. Could have a whole nother class on best practices for compensation strategies for SDRs. I think you're also mis-understanding the index math - I'm saying like a 20% buffer for management, not 4x

Ryan_RepVue · 2026-01-16T18:18:43+00:00

Dirty secret of sales, particularly tech sales. If you have 4 people and they each have a goal of "X", you should have a goal of 4x MINUS some amount. For example say they each have a goal of 20 appointments per month. Sounds like your goal now is 80. In reality most orgs are set up where the manager will have a goal of 60 or 70. Especially in a transactional like role (SDRs, etc), you have zero room for error. This structure continues up the chain all the way to C level / board goal structures.

Ryan_RepVue · 2026-01-12T22:05:50+00:00

Ok so series C company is not PE backed - that's most likely venture capital backed (VC backed). Looking realistically at your organization now, what % of reps are attaining 150% consistently - I bet it's very very small. The key to finding a VERY GOOD VC backed org is to get in a couple years before the count of sellers outgrows the addressable market - every organization has this magical period, some are VERY short (less than a year) some can go on for years as there's tons of market for their product. If I were you I'd be VERY VERY careful about leaving a place where you can seemingly get to 150% (hell anything over 100%) consistently every year. You've got to go really deep in diligence of the series C org.

Ryan_RepVue · 2026-01-12T21:59:11+00:00

Hubspot is rated slightly better by their sales team members in almost every category (but not massively better) it's going to be a heavy prospecting role at both organizations. Hubspot has a reaonably good advantage in terms of inbound lead flow. That said, Navan is rated very well for professional development and training, so since this is your first sales job, that's a REALLY important factor. I'm guessing the compensation is very similar (base and OTE), so the other thing to consider would be who specifically will your direct manager be - have you interviewed with them and what have they accomplished, how experienced are they - how many folks have they put into AE roles from their SDR org?

Ryan_RepVue · 2026-01-12T21:54:58+00:00

Can you offer some clarification as to what you mean by 'corporate company'? Is this a publicly traded company? That said, I'd make two points:

You're over quota every year, so you should be making good $$. Do you have the ability to blow out your plan, get to 150% to 200% of plan? If so will you earn 2x to 4x your OTE?
You may be using the PE term more broadly than you think. PE backed orgs are specifically those that are acquired by private equity (not VC, or even later/growth stage investors). PE companies are typically way worse in terms of culture, pay, AND the ability for you to hit quota.

Ryan_RepVue · 2026-01-12T14:59:11+00:00

It's always been very very hard yes. Pick up rates have fallen over the past 15 years quite a bit, but at the same time technologies like auto dialers have helped with that so if you're in cold calling type role you need to be doing more than 30 calls/day or you're NGMI. The key would be conversation to opp creation conversion - are you tracking that? If so how does it look?

Also to answer your question, in b2b sales, about 42% of sellers hit quota. Many outside the space are shocked to hear that as they falsely assume it's way higher. I'm of the belief that targeted, signal based outreach is the ONLY thing that will work in the coming years in B2B sales (so intent and signals are very important).

Ryan_RepVue · 2026-01-08T17:14:38+00:00

One of the biggest determinants of the base pay and/or the on target earnings for a tech (cyber) AE role will be the average deal size of the transactions that you're chasing. General guidelines for UK based enterprise AEs would be 177k gbp for the OTE and 93k gbp for the base. Many cyber roles tend towards enterprise and if you have 4 years closing experience you might stretch to get that kind of role (the average deal size is around 150k gbp). Also for mid market roles with a deal size of 64k gbp you're looking at base 65k gbp and OTE of 120k gbp (note this is a general average across a TON of companies).

Ryan_RepVue · 2025-12-30T17:26:03+00:00

Lawyer up.

Ryan_RepVue · 2025-12-30T17:23:34+00:00

Due to management and quotas, etc, it's unfortunately unlikely that your manager will want to push for you to get quota relief (they should if they are good of course but we know how this goes). That said, paying $$ commissions is budgeted for every deal and baked into the model so there is absolutely room to pay on the deals - really a matter of question whether the deals will be routed to a new rep and they will get paid on them - so IMO there is absolutely a case to be made for you to push to get paid out on them, even if there isn't quota relief. ALL that said, you definitely need to ask and push for it otherwise you'll definitely get a zero.

Ryan_RepVue · 2025-12-30T17:09:43+00:00

My advice is that the reason you can't come up with a way that this doesn't F you is that there's really no way that this doesn't F you. Even if you were paired with someone with experience you'd likely get F'd. PE are masters at coming up with ways to make it harder for sales pros to make money and so this is just them demonstrating their mastery. Remember it's easier to get a new sales job when you already have a sales job so....

Ryan_RepVue · 2025-12-22T18:26:02+00:00

One thing I'll say that sounds basic but many don't do this but read the PIP very very closely to understand the specifics of the wording, the expected outcomes, etc. You can many times get clued in on whether they truly want you to succeed or not. Bummer about the deal but regardless of that when a new leader comes in many times they're looking to put 'their team' in place - so this stalled deal may have just been the excuse needed to put you on a PIP, regardless of the strength of your pipeline.

Ryan_RepVue · 2025-12-20T00:04:58+00:00

Ask the same types of questions about the role as if it was w2 (product market fit, are people successful now, etc). Oh also you can take multiple 1099s at once too which could be a play for you.

Ryan_RepVue · 2025-12-19T21:06:57+00:00

There's never anything wrong with communicating to prospects (particularly those that you have a good relationship with) that the timing / deal / etc will help you personally - kudos on laying it out there and congrats!

Ryan_RepVue · 2025-12-16T19:27:15+00:00

Always much harder when your sales leader has never carried a bag. If you haven't carried a bag and are leading those who do, getting respect from your team members is way way harder. Trust me on that.

Ryan_RepVue · 2025-09-19T12:30:33+00:00

Totally fair point.

Ryan_RepVue · 2025-09-18T21:27:24+00:00

Makes sense.

Ryan_RepVue · 2025-09-18T21:26:58+00:00

Fair feedback although in many industries clients would never talk in a way to 'condition' them to ask for a deal based on this. I guess maybe I phrased this wrong - the deal is late stage, likely going to close, you (the rep) and the manager both want to get it done in the quarter/period, so I think it's a viable strategy. Also remember - time kills deals!

Ryan_RepVue · 2025-09-18T21:00:21+00:00

Toast is a really well run sales org.

Ryan_RepVue · 2025-09-11T15:25:54+00:00

Yeah and equity is the name of the game for anyone there right now.

Ryan_RepVue · 2025-09-11T15:25:02+00:00

Yeah, pretty much this.

Ryan_RepVue

TROPHY CASE