larufina

Sales Director

Negotiating Comp - Well funded startup hiring for important role

Sales pros: I need your help.

I'm interviewing for Sales Director at a very well funded blockchain startup (raised over $50m with only ~20 employees) and am unsure how aggressive to get with comp negotiations.

The responsibilities for the role are essentially: "here, you figure it out". No one on the team really has sales experience (bunch of consultants and engineers) and I'm quite confident I could do great there. I would need to move to NYC from LA since they aren't the biggest fans of fully remote. Not a huge issue for me but definitely something to consider.

Base is healthy at $200k but I'm struggling on how aggressive to make my own comp plan for a market that is basically untouched. Important factors I've used to previously build comp models like length of sales cycle and avg deal size are unknown... because no one has sold it yet.

I'm sure I'm leaving important factors out but curious what you all think.

☁️ Software Tech

💰 Compensation

💎 Cryptocurrency

7

21 comment

Sort by:

braintank

Politicker

6

Enterprise Account Executive

Do you have a good job now? I would be very wary of joining a early stage blockchain startup in this climate.

Do they have customers and revenue?

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

3

SaaS Eater

This x1,000,000

Do they have any semblance of growth goals that are remotely realistic that you can derive into a comp plan?

I would go with option #2 of what @TennisandSales outlined but I would really just avoid this whole situation like the plague.

Do you have experience selling in this industry? Or knowledge/contacts relevant to this role? You're being asked to be the first sales person at a company that has very little GTM knowledge from what you have provided. In an industry and market that is insanely volatile.

I would tread very carefully here if I were you.

braintank

Politicker

1

Enterprise Account Executive

Sounds like a money laundering operation 🤑💸📉

jefe

Arsonist

3

🍁

I'ma add a few 000000's to what @UrAssIsSaaS is saying.

Volatile as hell, and complex enough that most people don't really understand it.

braintank

Politicker

3

Enterprise Account Executive

And you're gonna relocate across the country. Hell no!!!

Also isn't Blockchain just a distributed database, which is basically open source? What would you even be selling?

jefe

Arsonist

3

🍁

Totally missed the relocation part. JEEZ

Just gets worse

larufina

Member

0

Sales Director

I was recently laid off. Customers and rev would be on me to find, which I don't think will be hard. Company is climate-tech focused.

braintank

Politicker

2

Enterprise Account Executive

Is this Adam Neumann's new company (Flowcarbon)?

I'm a self professed crypto skeptic, but this sounds like a recipe for disaster.

How much do you know about Blockchain? Are you connected in the climate space? Have you built a company from scratch before?

Please, this ain't it!!!

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

3

SaaS Eater

What makes you say that finding customers and rev wont be hard? Asking genuinely, because there is no playbook, and unless you are well connected and HIGHLY knowledgeable in the blockchain/climate tech space (is that a real sentence I just typed?) its going to take time to ramp and get a playbook in place.

larufina

Member

0

Sales Director

Not Flowcarbon but similar. Built and led my last startup’s sales team and know the carbon market well.

Curious why you think this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen?

larufina

Member

0

Sales Director

Agreed that ramp and playbook need to be taken into account. Voluntary net zero pledges are climbing year on year and I believe they have something special to offer. Ive worked in climate tech before and blockchain solves for a lot of the persistent problems with carbon markets.

Appreciate your input so far, but we’ve deviated a bit from my initial question of how aggressive can I get with my own comp structure.

Not aggressive enough and I’m leaving money on the table. Too aggressive and they look at someone else.

braintank

Politicker

2

Enterprise Account Executive

That's becuase the situation you're describing has more red flags than CCP parade.

Hell, the premise of your question is a red flag.

larufina

Member

0

Sales Director

You guys are adorable

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

2

SaaS Eater

I get that you probably have your decision made and arent going to listen to some random people on an internet forum.

So in that case I would go with the #2 option outlined by tennisandsales. Just get like 7.5% of closed rev

larufina

Member

1

Sales Director

Haha I'm here to listen to internet randos, so appreciate your insight.

TennisandSales

Politicker

2

Head Of Sales

i would say 2 options -
1. go no commission in the first year.
Take the next 12 months to start to figure out some of these details like avg potential deal size and get a feel for what a sales cycle could look like.
Whether that is to just stay at the $200K or determine what a quarterly bonus could look like thats not tied to revenue numbers for the first year.

(Ive been on a comp plan like this before in a new market where my OTE was guaranteed and i got commission like i was hitting quota even though I didnt close anything for that year. but there was an established OTE and quota for that to happen haha)

2. just suggest a % of closed revenue with no quota. idk how you could even have a quota in this situation so if you just throw out a percentage to start that could be an option. with the understanding that this will be evaluated next year.

Gyro25

Notorious Answer

2

Account Executive

After reading the news about Coinbase today, I'd be wary...

AnchorPoint

Politicker

2

Business Coach

If you are confident in your ability to produce results, put emphasis on the a strong upside for the results. Set levels of comp based on achievement. Wish you the best brother - go make it happen.

larufina

Member

0

Sales Director

Hell yeah. Thanks!

saaskicker

Celebrated Contributor

1

Enterprise AE

More aggressive you are, bigger the target on your back is.

PkThunder

0

Head of Sales

I was the first AE in a seed round blockchain company, so I get it, blockchain goes over peoples heads still and it was tough for me, but This one has really good funding so very different situation. I would just make sure the founding team has realistic expectations, open door policy, great communication and overall you mesh well with. Otherwise you might get booted in 6 months. 200k base sounds like the cycle might be longer since maybe enterprise will be the most common deals. I would ask for 15% of rev and a lower OTE, like 1 mil. Most likely you will be the benchmark for all future hires, but for now might as well get the bread. They will most likely counter with 5-7 and u can negotiate to 10-12 range. Also make sure you voice your opinions and concerns in writing and all your comms in email not signal or telegram. GL WAGMI!

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

© 2024 Bravado Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy Legal and Privacy Center Sales Jobs

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.