maromillion

Mid-Market AE

Valued Contributor

How to calculate revenue generated selling revenue based software

I am taking everyone's advice on leaving my shitty startup. So I'm starting my job search, but I could use help defining the revenue I generated in my SMB AE role.

Our platform is revenue based - our customers pay us a monthly subscription & we take a percentage of the revenue they accumulate using our platform.

Our contract sizes are based only on customers paying a year of our monthly subscription. They pay this subscription only if they meet a certain revenue threshold (no cost upfront).

If I take this number at face value, this means I sold deals worth a measly $1k to $20k in ACV.

Here's the thing, that measly $1k customer could end up doing $50k on our platform...

If I signed up 50 customers at $1k deal sizes, that only looks like $50k in revenue generated.

BUT...if each 50 customers do $10k in revenue, that's half a million in revenue I helped my customers generate.

Kind of a three-sided question.

1.) Should I add up the revenue my customers have made using our platform and lead interviews with that number?

2.) Should I add up the amount of revenue my company has made based on the revenue my customers have generated?

3.) Or, should I just base my revenue generated solely on deal sizes alone? Not taking into account the revenue my customers/my company has made from my customers.

I really want to grow my sales acumen for 2-3 more years before going upstream to Mid-Market/Enterprise. So I'm only looking for baby AE roles with $100k-$130k OTE. I know my future deal sizes won't be crazy big, just want to make sure I'm not selling myself short.

😋 Job Searching

6

23 comments

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antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

4

Bravado's Resident Asshole

Be upfront about it. Give the amount that you initially sold the deals for then separate that from the amount the program brought in for those companies you sold to. Show your value in creating solutions for your clients.

I hope you are following me on that.

braintank

Politicker

3

Enterprise Account Executive

Agree with this. Don't inflate the numbers.

Also focus on other metrics (e.g. close rate, number of new clients won, etc.)

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

4

Bravado's Resident Asshole

Does that make sense?

maromillion

Politicker

2

Mid-Market AE

Thanks for the advice! Would appreciate if you could explain further about "showing value created".

Do you mean, "I used my consultative skills to generate xyz in revenue for my customers"?

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

4

Bravado's Resident Asshole

Boom. What gap did you fill for them and why did they choose you. The value created would be the additional revenue that you brought in due to the service you provided.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

^^^ Take this advice! And if you want to post an anonymous version of your resume once you've started, we'll take a look to make specific recommendations for getting your message across.

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

2

Bravado's Resident Asshole

emphasis on ANONYMOUS haha cross out your name and shit.

maromillion

Politicker

1

Mid-Market AE

Will do, thanks! That's also where I'm not sure what to do. I've been at my role 1.5 years so I took off my two other roles where I had only stayed for 3 months.

What my progression looks like is:

SDR for 3 months at a cybersecurity startup, Associate AE for 3 months at a public Adtech company, SMB AE for 1.5 years in last-mile delivery tech with a Saas model.

Keep in mind, I had all 3 roles while I was still in undergrad. So if I remove the two short stints as SDR and Associate AE from my resume, I wonder if I can effectively explain how I got a closing role while still in college. My current company definitely took a chance on me, but not sure if it will be believable to hiring managers if I don't show the progression to AE.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

2

🦊

Mad respect for the Grinch.

maromillion

Politicker

1

Mid-Market AE

*Update*

Just heard from my CRO today that he is trying to get approval to raise my base pay to $70k, apparently they want to be "competitive in the market".

Even with a $70k base, I'm not sure if it is even worth it to stay..

Thoughts? OTE comes out to $133k but I think I'd barely hit $100k.

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

1

Bravado's Resident Asshole

why the sudden notice to get your base bumped? Did they catch wind of you wanting to leave?

maromillion

Politicker

1

Mid-Market AE

Ah, forgot to mention. The one thing I appreciate about this job is that they let me work outside of the states. So for most of 2022 I've been overseas. One of the main reasons I am moving back is to find a different job. Anyways...I've been telling my CRO about the cities I am looking at, and he is pushing me to move to a big city. I told him I'm looking at mostly rural areas and he asked if a raise to $70k will help me find a better place.

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

3

Bravado's Resident Asshole

Then with that information, this entire conversation is subjective to what you want/don't want.

maromillion

Politicker

1

Mid-Market AE

I really just want to make sure I'm not leaving this startup for the wrong reasons.

I left my SDR role 3 months in just because I wanted to "get closing skills while I was still in college". - which was immature at the time since I didn't fully appreciate the art of generating new business, which is crucial for full-cycle AEs.

I see my current company as the playoffs, where all of the reps go after they have learned how to sell, demo, and close on their own.

How I see it, me learning from the reps on my team will only get me so far. Even if I end up succeeding in hitting quota consistently, I will forever be without the basics.

I want to focus on growing my sales skills, honing down the basics, and developing my own sales styles - instead of being scrappy and just barely hitting quota each month.

I really want a company with structure, hands-on training, and repeatable processes. Something that I can study logically instead of learning subjectively.

Am I just being lazy for not self-learning all I need to know? Am I just overthinking this and need to just focus on closing deals?
Just want to make sure I don't leave a good opportunity.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

No, you're not being lazy. Getting a good foundation of training can be very beneficial and pay off downroad.

That said, it doesn't hurt to start applying and see what happens. This is all theoretical anyway until you start landing some interest and interviews.

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

1

Bravado's Resident Asshole

well put @Sunbunny31

TennisandSales

Politicker

2

Head Of Sales

on the resume I would indicate the number of deals you sold, and the total amount of revenue your customers have brought to the company overall.

I think it would also be important to be able to explain HOW you identified what customers would be bigger accounts after the initial deal is sold.

a company will like that you were able to identify what customers will bring the most revenue in, and not jus trying to close 1000 $1k deals.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

2

Sales Rep

Do you have a quota/goal where you can do % of goal also?

maromillion

Politicker

1

Mid-Market AE

Yes! According to Hubspot I am already 108% for the year.

Diablo

Politicker

1

Sr. AE

It always what you bring in - are you also doing Account Management along with Net New?

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

0

Bravado's Resident Asshole

Great question.

maromillion

Politicker

0

Mid-Market AE

Our CS team is outsourced so I have to handhold
most deals instead of the AMs. I do upsell as well though.

activity

Politicker

0

VP, Business Development

I would be focusing on what your accounts actually produced. You can talk through the subscription fee as being separate and then talk about on average your customers generated xxxxx in additional revenue after onboarding them.

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