GTMLead

GTM Lead

How to structure AE Sales Comp in pre-PMF Fintech

I’d love to know how experienced sales leaders think about comp for AEs in the following scenario:

- Pre-PMF and pre-revenue FinTech in Europe, selling infrastructure solutions to banks, fintechs and wealth managers

- Only 1 AE that runs sales together with CEO and is responsible for sales prospecting, sales operations, sales engineering and sales (account executive)

- Average deal cycle length: 6 - 18 months, onboarding time 6 months

- Average ACV min. 100k up to 500k p.a.

- Currently 1 customer signed with ACV 50k Euro p.a, and 2 customers about to sign with 100k ACV p.a., and 150k ACV

- Rest of pipe in exploratory stage

- 2024 revenue targets not discussed yet

There is no comp in place until today, and at my previous FinTech employer (already found PMF; series D), I received 4% on the signed deal value (not invoiced).

How do you think about a compensation plan for an AE in this context? Are there any benchmarks that you can reference to?

🍾 Commission

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19 comments

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braintank

Politicker

3

Enterprise Account Executive

Id ask for a lot of base...
No PMF, hard industry, crowded, etc.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

3

🦊

I'd be inclined to do so myself.

jefe

Arsonist

1

🍁

All about that base here

oldcloser

Arsonist

3

💀

The one bigass variable missing from this scenario is the current state of the orgs bank account. Any funding or is this a couple of dudes with a solution and a dream? Do they have 18 months cash?

GTMLead

Contributor

1

GTM Lead

Runrate is beyond 15 months, but will start fundraising in 2024 to be on the safe side! No need to worry about cash in the bank

braintank

Politicker

1

Enterprise Account Executive

They all say that...

saaskicker

Celebrated Contributor

1

Enterprise AE

i've seen this movie before.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

3

☕️

An ACV is the average and it can’t be a range. You’re already making me feel the pain this AE will surely experience.

GDO

Politicker

0

BDM

altough you're right it would be interesting to have the average and the median CV. or even better the average with a standard deviation :D

GTMLead

Contributor

1

GTM Lead

Point taken - important was to give you insight into the deal values even though the terminology was not appropriate

GDO

Politicker

0

BDM

my 2 cents. 4% seemes a bit low. Also how hard do the need you product compared to the competition? Being that small you'll get a lot of questions regarding continuity and you'll need to go through a huge amount of red tape as well

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

1

☕️

Terms are important for continuity.

Anyways, what’s the ROI (measured in time or dollars) of a new AE?

Pachacuti

Politicker

1

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Yah, heavy on the base til you figure things out.

4% is Probably good too (I was think 5% - but it could give you negotiating room to start at 5 and go down to 4).

You are basically Working for ‘24 now, so having that discussion sooner rather than later is good.

braintank

Politicker

0

Enterprise Account Executive

4% seems low for SaaS (assuming this is SaaS)

GTMLead

Contributor

0

GTM Lead

Thanks for the info! Out of curiosity - what’s the base salary for saas compensation in terms of signed ACV considering you said 4% is low?

braintank

Politicker

2

Enterprise Account Executive

Ive been an enterprise AE at cybersecurity companies for the past several years (both big and small). I've seen between 150-175 base with equal OTE. For commission payout I've had between 10-15% of ACV.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Same here.

Beans

Big Shot

0

Enterprise Account Executive

Base heavy, equity options.

ApocalyBoom

Politicker

0

Account Executive

An important variable missing from this situation is the status of the firms current bank account.

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