Mark Roberge, Managing Director at Stage 2 Capital and former CRO at HubSpot, outlines a sales compensation model designed to align rep behavior with PLG land-and-expand customer behavior.
“I would do something like this, Harry, you're a salesperson, your job is bringing customers. I'm going to pay you know, three percent. Rate on the first ACB from a customer and five percent on any expansion revenue. So now it's like, oh, sweet. Okay. I get it. So I will make the most money if I sell customers on a very small ACB to start and expand them later.”
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More from Mark Roberge
Insight
Roberge: Startups Seeking Product-Market Fit Should Avoid Commission Plans
“I don't like commission plan salespeople in the journey to product market fit. Like I just want pure equity people.”
Mark RobergeJul 12, 2024▶ 14:59Mark Roberge: The Framework for How Startups Should Scale into the Enterprise -Stage 2 Capital|E1176 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
HubSpot rejected a $3M Facebook deal at $3M ARR to maintain focus
“I mean, I think we're at two, three million in revenue at HubSpot and one rep brought Facebook to the table as a customer. It was like a three million dollar contract. It would have doubled our revenue. And he said, no, we were being pulled, said no.”
Mark RobergeJul 12, 2024▶ 36:08Mark Roberge: The Framework for How Startups Should Scale into the Enterprise -Stage 2 Capital|E1176 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
AssertionSupported
Roberge: Hiring sales reps based on domain experience correlates with failure
“10 years of experience selling a product like mine to a customer like mine. And there's tremendous research that shows that that mindset correlates with lack of success, like doesn't work out.”
Mark RobergeJul 12, 2024▶ 5:23Mark Roberge: The Framework for How Startups Should Scale into the Enterprise -Stage 2 Capital|E1176 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Roberge: Prioritize deal size experience over domain expertise when hiring sales reps
“I have strong conviction that deal size has a higher weight. In correlation to success. Let's just say we sell million dollar deals to banks. And I have two candidates. One candidate sells 10,000 dollar deals to banks. And one candidate sells million dollar de…”
Mark RobergeJul 12, 2024▶ 8:28Mark Roberge: The Framework for How Startups Should Scale into the Enterprise -Stage 2 Capital|E1176 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Roberge: Sales Commissions Should Be Split to Reward Customer Retention
“I'm gonna give you half of the commission when the customer pays, and half the commission when they hit their leading indicator of retention, which usually happens in the first 30 days.”
Mark RobergeJul 12, 2024▶ 16:53Mark Roberge: The Framework for How Startups Should Scale into the Enterprise -Stage 2 Capital|E1176 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Roberge: SaaS CAC payback periods longer than 12 months signal flawed economics
“So if someone pays us 10,000 dollars a year, And it costs us 10,000 dollars to acquire them. We get paid back in 12 months, right? Anything above that, you start to question whether your economics work, anything below that, it's really good.”
Mark RobergeJul 12, 2024▶ 21:48Mark Roberge: The Framework for How Startups Should Scale into the Enterprise -Stage 2 Capital|E1176 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
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