We were recently engaged by a client to conduct a search for a VP Sales. Our client is a privately held Canadian SaaS vendor. Their solution is sold to large enterprises across multiple verticals for those seeking to understand market insights about their brand or products.

This search represented our client's decision to hire their first ever VP Sales. Until this point, the Founder/CEO had been providing leadership to the sales organization, but recognized there were market opportunities that made it necessary to bring in an experienced leader to take the business to the next level.

The Founder/CEO was looking for candidates who had:

• A B2B SaaS business model background
• Startup or scale-up experience
• Worked on a product with an average deal size less than $50K
• Experience managing inbound lead funnels
• Ability to bring process and best practices to the business

We presented a range of candidates: 

The Seasoned Startup-er: $200K base & $380K OTE 

• 28 years of employment experience - all of it spent in B2B sales working for multiple tech companies
• 23 years of sales leadership experience leading teams of 20+, including managing functional leaders
• Participated in a Series A raise as well as multiple exits (acquisitions) as the sales leader 
• International business experience; building teams of high-performance sales talent in international markets
• Experience working in both inbound and outbound sales models while introducing process and rigour to rapidly growing teams
• Consistent revenue and ACV growth 
• Economics Degree

The All-round Allstar: Base $275K & $400K OTE

• 28 years of employment experience working for numerous tech companies in a variety of roles which combined sales and marketing leadership
• 19 years of sales leadership experience leading teams as large as 120 people
• Experience leading high-performance teams of multiple sales models: inbound, outbound, and large enterprise; successfully identifying opportunities to strengthen and optimize to exceed targets
• North American sales leadership experience
• Economics degree + numerous sales training certifications including Challenger Sales certification

The Scale-up Specialist: $190K base & $300K OTE 

• 15 years of employment experience - all of it spent in B2B sales working for multiple tech companies
• 12 years of sales leadership experience leading teams of 6-15 direct reports
• Multiple experiences joining start-up/scale-ups; being employee #7 and #24 of B2B SaaS companies who went on to become successful 
• Participated in an exit (acquisition)
• Continual quota attainment, President's Club and sales achievements
• Commerce Degree

The Hire:

• 24 years of employment experience - all of it spent in B2B sales working for multiple tech companies
• 19 years of sales leadership experience leading teams of 4-12 direct reports
• Experience working for 2 software vendors who are considered global leaders in their categories and whose sales methodologies and practices are considered "best in class"
• Managed a sales organization where 80% of revenue came from inbound leads and developed a playbook and process to optimize this type of sales model
• Accustomed to ACV of $10K-30K ARR
• Most recently at a startup as that company's first sales leader; taking the baton from the Founder/CEO and introducing processes and best practices
• Numerous President's Club and Sales Achievement awards
• Business Degree + multiple sales-related training courses included Miller Heiman

To attract this candidate, our client offered a base salary of $180K with OTE of $330K. 

As you can see, compensation for these candidates varies significantly based on the length and scope of experience, and leadership capability.

For organizations and job seekers alike, it can be challenging to understand what a particular position should pay. Often, it’s a calculation between salary surveys that lack all context, what a person has earned in the past, and ad hoc conversations with others in the field.

We’re sharing market insights into current compensation packages for key roles in the tech industry. Our recruiters conduct targeted searches on behalf of our clients, seeking out candidates who fit the requirements of the role and diligently qualifying them to present only the very best talent. These posts are meant to highlight the contextual elements that makeup compensation, and to help our clients and candidates better understand the current market forces that affect earning potential. 

Is your organization hiring key product talent that will drive your growth? Book a consultation with our friendly and knowledgeable team today—we live and breathe the tech talent ecosystem every day, and can help you understand the market for the talent you need.