“If sales productivity is going down, we might as well stop what we’re doing. The whole intent of RevOps is to increase sales productivity.” - Werner Schmidt
You’ve done it. You’ve created the perfect target and quota assignment plan and sent it to the sales org. Now it’s time to close some deals…or not. Even when you think you’ve planned quotas perfectly, within a week, people are asking for changes.
Werner Schmidt, CEO and Co-Founder at Lative, recommends making sales productivity the center of your RevOps universe. It should influence everything, like how you look at strategic initiatives, plan designs, and your tech stack.
This can prevent disruptions in your sales planning and performance by promoting realistic and motivating targets essential for your sales operations' health and success. Not to mention, reducing high rep turnover and maintaining sales morale.
“Targets and quotas that are set too high have a negative impact on a sales organization's health. It will increase your attrition, making it more difficult to reach your target.” - Werner Schmidt
Quota assignment starts with finance coming up with their target figures. In order to reach this number, companies will set an over-assignment ratio, typically around a 20% uplift. This gives you coverage from the top to bottom to account for things like rep time off, for example.
Sales reps are given their own individual target and quotas with variables. As you move up the chain from managers to VP to CRO, you increase the target by 5%. In reality, a 20% uplift is hard to reach so you’ll probably land around a 10% to 15% uplift on your finance target.
Next, you’ll need to determine your business’ seasonality, which influences how you set quotas across months or quarters. Every company has a pattern for when sales are most likely to come in. Make sure to understand the trends in your business, region, vertical, and industry so you can reduce quota attainment expectations during slow months and increase them during busy months.
“Sales productivity doesn't lie. This is your bookings, your billings. It’s your foundation and everything you decide to do will impact this.” - Werner Schmidt
By linking quota planning with sales outcomes, you can have more of an impact on the sustainability of your revenue growth and better match sales goals with business objectives. Target and quota attainment planning can become a powerful tool for RevOps to improve productivity, efficiency, and morale in your sales organization.
This is just a crash course, there’s so much more to learn! Grab your RevOpsAF ticket today to dive into more quota attainment best practices like:
Lative is hosting a workshop on quota assignment and planning at RevOpsAF. Join Werner Schmidt for free resources that will support your journey toward profitable, efficient growth, including sales productivity and efficiency workbooks and quota assignment and capacity planning templates.
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