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Spot on!

Creating the right commission/compensation structure is super tough and crucial to create a scalable sales force.

In my experience that's not the first challenge startup founders have when they start their sales team.

First, figure out what sales channels/models are predictable and repeatable for your product/market.

Once you've validated a lot of assumptions reg sales model you can move on and worry about sales execution & scalability etc.

And at that point you better bring in someone who's done it before and knows how to create commission structures that will work for your company



what do you mean when you say "sales model" - is it the same as revenue structure ?

I'm trying to understand startup B2B sales as well and I'm trying to understand "sales terminology 101 for tech founders"


thanks for asking this question & sorry for the sales lingo :)

when I say sales model what I mean is the most successful/feasible way to sell your product.

is it via inside sales (people sending emails, making calls and giving online demos) or field sales ( people going door to door or flying to large enterprise customers for meetings etc) or a combination of both.

are you getting your leads via marketing (inbound) or do you have to do cold outreach (outbound) or a combination of both.

what tools and process do you use to sell what is the average time it takes you to close a deal what's the average deal size a sales person can close etc etc

all these factors and a bunch more would make up your sales model.

probably a good idea to write a post dedicated to this subject but I hope this clarifies it a bit :)


sometimes called the "Playbook"


thanks ! that helps.

I hope you write that blog post ;)




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