The 2024 Benchmark Report is our latest dive into metrics and compensation for the AE role within SaaS companies. It summarizes the findings from leaders at more than 170 B2B SaaS companies regarding the current state of the Account Executive role.  You can download the 2024 SaaS AE Report here. If you'd rather watch the report than read it, Kyle Smith and I recorded a video walkthrough and breakdown. Here's a peek at what you'll find inside: SaaS Account Executive Quotas Median annual ACV quota for a SaaS AE rose to $800K (page 32). This is up from $740K in 2022. Taking a step back, we ..read more

Last month, I just put together a presentation for a handful of VC-backed portfolio companies on building attrition into SDR planning. The broader topic was what happens to your 2024 SDR pipeline number if your quit rate spikes. You can watch a shorter video version of the talk here. For many companies in the audience, the SDR operating plan was built off of 2023. “We did $20M new logo ARR last year, want to grow by 30%, goal for this year is $26. We need sales development to source 25% of that so we need 2 more SDRs.” This is a very common aspect of the headcount planning process but what is ..read more

Today we launch our 2023 Account Executive motions, metrics, and compensation research. This is our 10th iteration of this project since 2007. This edition will take ~6 minutes to complete. If you lead an AE group, please participate below. We've redesigned this year’s survey based on your feedback to dig into how things are changing. But, equally importantly, we want to focus in on what outperformance looks like in this environment.  We’ll be sharing the results in the coming months. I appreciate that so many of you take the time to share. We couldn’t do it without you.>   &nbs ..read more

Today we launch our 2022-23 SDR motions, metrics, and compensation research. This is our 9th iteration of this project since 2007. This edition is more streamlined than prior years and will take ~5 minutes to complete. If you lead a Sales Development group, please participate.  We've redesigned this year’s survey based on your feedback to dig into how things are changing. But, equally importantly, we want to focus in on what outperformance looks like in this environment.  Two quick points of housekeeping: This survey covers SDRs, not AE (we've concluded our AE research until 2023) Y ..read more

Today we launch our 2021 Account Executive motions, metrics, and compensation research. This is our 9th iteration of this project since 2007. This edition is more streamlined than prior years and will take ~5 minutes to complete. If you lead an AE group, please participate.  We've redesigned this year’s survey based on your feedback to dig into how things are changing. But, equally importantly, we want to focus in on what outperformance looks like in this environment.  Two quick points of housekeeping: This survey covers Account Executive, not SDRs (we've concluded our SDR research ..read more

We’ve been closely following the B2B tech hiring market over the last twelve months. And with the Bureau Labor Statistics releasing the new Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS) last week, I thought now was a good time to take stock. Compared to the trough (mid 2020) things are massively improved. But compared to the peak (late 2019) we aren’t yet fully recovered. Here are four things I’m seeing:  1) Layoffs are well behind us Back in May 2020, I looked at 200 funded B2B SaaS companies and found: Hiring freezes roared into April and turned to layoffs by May By the middle of Q2 ..read more

For obvious reasons, 2020 will be remembered for COVID-19. While some implications already seem apparent (hanging out slacking on teamed zooms, remote work, inside selling), many will take time to become perceptible. It’s been said 1,000 times but remains true. The pandemic accelerated many pre-existing trends.   In our just released 2021 SDR Metrics & Compensation Report, we analyze the shifts in sales development over recent years and which trends have accelerated. We dig into areas like motion, model, ramp, promotions, attrition, activity, comp, tech stack, and front-line leadershi ..read more

I saw an interesting LinkedIn post from Tito Bohrt the other day. He wrote: Promotions from SDR to AE have slowed down in 2020…. The question is how to you prevent SDR burnout?   I think Tito’s intuition is spot on, but I wondered how much and where the slow down is occurring.  So, I ran some numbers. I started by identifying 14 SaaS companies who: Have 150+ total employees Have SDRs (or ADRs, BDRs, etc.) Promote SDR into AE roles I ended up with a list of 200 US-based reps who started as SDRs in 2017, 2018, or 2019. 2020 hires won’t yet have the tenure to be captured, so I ex ..read more

After much delay (and many pings asking when we're launching), today we launch our 2020 Sales Development research. This is our 8th iteration of this project. This edition is more streamlined than prior years and will take ~5 minutes to complete. If you lead an ADR/BDR/SDR group, please participate.  We had originally planned to launch this round in April. And then...Covid. My original thinking was to punt till 2021. But the volume of inbound emails asking for the timing of our new edition convinced me to reconsider. We have redesigned this year’s survey (ever so slightly) to help determi ..read more

Last week, Trish and I did an event with Sam Jacobs of Revenue Collective. We discussed our recent research on sellers' appetites, attitudes, and apprehensions about returning to in-person work. You can access the full 45-minute recording (which I highly recommend) or . For those of you who want the Reader’s Digest | tl;dr version, we shot a 10-minute Bridge Group Client Brief hitting highlights.                                         11:18       ..read more