ExtremeVibeChecker44

Inside Sales

Y'all get paid out on implementation / professional services?

I just sold a deal with a fairly large implementation cost ($30K+). Unfortunately, I don't get very much of it, and it doesn't count towards quota retirement.

I think this is kinda BS - I had to sell the friggin' thing, so I feel it should count towards quota and I should get a cut.

What do y'all think? Is it typical for implementation / services costs to count towards quota?

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buckets1

Politicker

We get paid 0% on Professional Services. But from what I understand this is typical of public companies looking to shift Professional Services away from in-house and to partners/System Integrators.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

One-time revenue does not contribute to ARR, which is what Sales Orgs are responsible for growing. Low % payouts on implementation and onboarding is representative of the fact that it is a requirement to use the platform, not an elected and/or upsold service. If anything, it benefits the CS/SE org.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

This is the best explanation of why it works this way I've ever seen.

ExtremeVibeChecker44

Arsonist

Inside Sales

I dislike this but appreciate the explanation

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Yeah, I like to get comped on anything I sell as well, but I understand. The margins are comparatively thin for services, so when I did get comped on them, it was light. On the flip side, we don't carry a quota for services, so I'm not responsible for selling dollars I don't get comped on.

FinanceEngineer

Politicker

Sr Director, sales and partnerships

What would you think about selling increased services? I only ask as that is an option and it is an annual charge on top of the platform.

southernfriedsales

Opinionated

Senior AE & Business Owner

Yeah that responsibility shouldn’t fall to AE’s the the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.
CS/SE’s are the product experts, onboarders, etc. Putting this stuff on your salespeople and not compensating them - just like you are?
Just dumb.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

If your customers NEEDS to buy onboarding to use the product you are not spending time selling it...it's a requirement to move forward (especially if it cannot be waived or discounted). If you need help articulating the value/onboarding plan to the client then you should be bringing in CS/SE colleagues to do that for you as a "looking forward to working with you after the close" type conversation. If the AE is shouldering this alone then we can see a sign of an immature sales org that needs to improve its motion.

However, if onboarding is optional, then you should be comped in a greater fashion than 2-3% since you did sell something to the client that is non-compulsory. However, comp should not be equal to recurring costs (ARR) as this would lead to a higher CAC, lower margin, and the business loses money. This is not dumb, it is simply how margins and SaaS economics work.

Reps often don't understand the calculus behind the economics that make the business run, mostly because you shouldn't have to worry about it. However, if you want to know more about why we aren't just making "dumb" decisions when designing comp plans then I'd be happy to go deeper.

southernfriedsales

Opinionated

Senior AE & Business Owner

Yeah I think you’re totally missing the point. We have onboarding. It’s not something paid for

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Our customers require implementation, as our solution needs to be configured to meet the customer's requirements. Onboarding (training) is specific to that configuration. Both for us are necessary, but our AEs are not comped on it. However, we can bring a team in to provide a presentation regarding the services and write the quotes out, so while our AEs aren't comped, we don't have to do all the lifting to get the services proposals and quotes done.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

I did not miss the point as you did not make one.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I don't get paid on it at all. We are comped purely on ARR and get bonuses based on hitting certain targets the company set this year to incent sales of some elements. This does make it very easy to work with partners, as we aren't walking away from potential revenue. Honestly, it encourages us to work for the benefit of the customer.

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

Sales

Our comp counts it as 25% credit. So you sell a dollar of it, you get 25 cents credit. Agreed with you, I’m the one pushing and making the sale, I should get quota credit at 100%. Because it doesn’t make me money, I don’t focus on it at all.

BmajoR

Arsonist

Account Executive

Yes, I get 10%.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

👀

JustGonnaSendIt

Politicker

Burn Towns, Get Money

I have two quota metrics, one for license sales and another for professional services.

Enterprise rep here for reference.

I get PS credit from training sales as well, even though it's not technically PS.

The objective here is that the company incentivizes me to sell a complete package to ensure customer success while also increasing revenue.

If I sell thru a partner, I get less credit for the PS, but still get a piece.

So, for all direct sales, it's a dollar-for-dollar contribution against whichever quota metric the specific SKU maps to.

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

It typically has to do with the Margins that are attached to the service being sold. Implementation and professional services usually have a 10-20% margin on them and that leaves little room for a payout to anyone aside from the team responsible for the services rendered being paid their salary. For software the margin is typically 70-80% as a reference. I have never received quota attainment for professional services nor implementation. You could potentially suggest that the implementation cost be built into the software contract in order to get credit there.

ExtremeVibeChecker44

Arsonist

Inside Sales

True. Margins are probably the biggest thing. Implementation requires man hours.

techsales

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

We get comped if the pro services are retained monthly for at least 1 year. It counts as recurring revenue and retires quota. The rate is around half what we get for our normal commission

we also get a tiny percentage of the one time pro services, but it does not retire quota

our services engagements tend to be $100k+ and we have to scope and sell them, so it’s justified for us to be comped

SeattleSales

Politicker

We get paid 3% on our professional services. It’s always the first thing I discount because It doesn’t make me much

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

We don't get paid for it either as it doesn't add much value for the company

MrMonte

Arsonist

Head of Sales

THAT IS TOTAL BS!!

I sell SaaS to hospitals. My three-year deals involve an Implementation Fee (one-time) which usually includes some services aspect (Training, etc.) and then the Subscription Fee (annual). I get paid 15% of each deal I close, inclusive of both the implementation, services and subscription fee.

How can they justify not paying you for it?

If you don't scope the project appropriately, and end up selling something with a smaller implementation and services fee, you make the sale but that could screw up the project for everyone else going forward.

Your leadership should want you to get it right -- so it causes less confusion, makes the hand off to implementation and/or customer success a better experience, and add money to the bottom line (ACV/LCV).

I'm suspect the leadership pays commission based on ARR so that's why they're excluding implementation and services? Is that right?

whatbeclosing

Member

Account Executive

We get 2% on implementation/professional services

SalesBeast

Politicker

Sales Director

Low percentage is standard or 0.

DealDonkey

Acclaimed Answer

Director of Business

I sell SaaS and have separate quotas for license versus services revenue. Services pays 4% commission and license is 16%. If they don't pay on services then try to give it away or discount in order to sell license or product. Good luck!

Upper_Class_SaaS

Politicker

Account Executive

😂😐 of course not

QueenSoopers

Opinionated

Account Executive

yeah i get paid on implementation/start up fees like my normal percentage (11%) that i’ll get off of the rest of the deal. we also have full flexibility so i can go as low as $199 up to whatever (recently a teammate did 30k for a large deal)
edit: also i believe it all goes to quota attainment

dwightyouignorantsale

Politicker

Account Executive

We used to, but not anymore. Now they have actually changed it so that if we waive any part of the implementation/pro services, a percentage gets deducted from our commission 😑

Allisce

Tycoon

Account Executive

We get 10%, but it does not count towards quota. It is paid the month after signature

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ExtremeVibeChecker44

Y'all get paid out on implementation / professional services?

29 comments

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