New data finds 91% of leaders have low confidence in account executive quota attainment, impacting growth in turbulent market conditions
Xactly, a provider of intelligent revenue solutions, today announced the results of its 2024 Sales Compensation Report, which revealed quota challenges are top of mind for leaders, and reliance on legacy technology has impacted confidence and accuracy with compensation management. The report highlights a significant gap between quota and actual attainment for sales account executives (AEs), with 91% of companies responding they do not expect their AEs to meet or exceed quota.
“Account executives are the backbone of sales organizations. They are in the field, signing deals and retaining and growing existing customers,” said Arnab Mishra, CEO of Xactly. “To best equip them to improve sales performance and drive revenue growth, leaders must invest in better quota setting and benchmarking technology. This will transform not only the sales rep’s day-to-day but also influence compensation plans that better motivate and maximize team performance, ultimately driving stronger go-to-market strategies.”
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Conducted in partnership with Benchmarkit, the report targeted 230 RevOps, sales, and finance leaders at B2B technology and services organizations, with a focus on incentive compensation plan design and communication. The report uncovers the latest sales compensation trends, insights, and benchmarks across topics such as on-target-earnings (OTE), variable compensation, quota achievement, quota assignment, and incentive compensation management. Detailed findings revealed the continued reliance on manual compensation planning and the growing gap between quota and achievement.
Key insights from the report include:
- Quota Setting Remains a Challenge: Leaders are experiencing a gap between quota and attainment, with 44% of respondents planning for less than 70% of their AEs to achieve quota.
- Ramp Time Plays a Big Role: Onboarding AEs doesn’t just take time, with 77% of respondents citing a new hire ramp period of six months or less, but it can be costly to organizations as well: 47% of companies report that less than 90% of new hire AEs will last through the quota productivity ramp period.
- Balance is Crucial for Quota Setting: Organizations are moving towards a more balanced revenue model, and this is reflected in today’s quota plans, with both new and existing customer revenue elements each accounting for half of the total AE quota.
- Compensation Management is Stuck in the Past: When creating compensation plans, 70% of respondents still use spreadsheets during the plan design process, highlighting a continuing reliance on manual methods. Only 47% are using automation to keep their sales reps informed of plan changes, impacting confidence and time spent on auditing commission calculations.
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