Advice on Commission Model

Paula Haunit

Hi all, I head up the Customer Success team at my company (Fintech). I've been building up various aspects of the post sales department for 2 years now and my most recent challenge is to truly embed Upsell and account development in CS and shift these responsibilities from the Sales team. One of the things of my mind is our compensation model. This is still relatively reflective of how things used to be, when CS was more of a support function. 

I would really welcome thoughts on the types of compensation models (Sales vs CS) that work well, and particularly how to manage what might be quite a big change (always the hardest part). If you feel more comfortable discussing this topic in a call rather than in a public discussion, that would also be really welcome. Thanks a lot in advance for your thoughts! 

Sylvia Yin

Hi Paula! 

I'm in midst of research too and have chanced upon some materials online that have helped me to think through this topic

https://www.clientsuccess.com/blog/compensation-plans-for-customer-success-managers/
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sales-compensation-saas-based-organization-harald-horgen/
https://sixteenventures.com/customer-success-compensation-models
https://www.planhat.com/blog/salary-models-in-customer-success/

As for making the transition, I'm toying with the idea of giving the team a heads up a full quarter ahead so it's not a stark change. 

Would be great to share outcomes and learnings down the road! 

Hi all, I head up the Customer Success team at my company (Fintech). I've been building up various aspects of the post sales department for 2 years now and my most recent challenge is to truly embed Upsell and account development in CS and shift these responsibilities from the Sales team. One of the things of my mind is our compensation model. This is still relatively reflective of how things used to be, when CS was more of a support function. 

I would really welcome thoughts on the types of compensation models (Sales vs CS) that work well, and particularly how to manage what might be quite a big change (always the hardest part). If you feel more comfortable discussing this topic in a call rather than in a public discussion, that would also be really welcome. Thanks a lot in advance for your thoughts! 

Jordan Silverman

@Paula Haunit compensation is definitely tricky especially with how much things are changing due to Covid!

When we started off as a small team with new compensation we had two goals:

1) 50% Net Churn department

2) 50% Net Churn personal portfolio

As the team has grown we have maintained these two but shifted the %'s to be heavier on personal portfolio. I also usually add in a third KPI based on other goals. Few ideas: referrals, CRM maintenance, time to value, etc.

We review monthly and pay out quarterly. Feel free to DM if you want to chat more!