The 2023 Sales Salary Guide

Published: Wed, 05/24/23

May 24, 2023

TOGETHER WITH

Welcome back. The weather has been absolutely perfect lately. Hasn’t it? Don’t you just love talking about the weather with your prospects twenty times a day? Isn’t it great? The sun? The clouds? The weather. The WEATHER. In this week’s issue, we’ll give you the sales salary guide for 2023, share a Sales Fail about an inbound call gone wrong, and give some advice to a rep with a case of imposter syndrome. Enjoy!

NUMBER OF THE WEEK

Just 13 percent of clients feel a salesperson can comprehend their wants.

Source: Brevet

SALES ROUNDUP

Here’s what’s happening in the sales world this week:

If you think you’re competitive, you probably have nothing on the two ice cream salesmen from Ireland who have been involved in a series of incidents over the years as they’ve fought for the same stretch of beach, even getting the police involved because of their antics. Well, the two salesmen have agreed to put their rivalry on ice (you like that?) for the time being, after a judge delayed their case and asked them to resolve things on their own. You can read about the two vanilla-slingers here.
According to a recent article by noted sales author Dave Kurlan, salespeople who are strong in one particular competency are 2125% more likely to be top performers. Are we going to tell you what that competency is or are we going to make you click through? Yes, we are! The competency is… following a sales process! Kurlan has some data to back up his assertion. You can read the article here.

FEATURE

Source: RepVue

The 2023 Sales Salary Guide, from RepVue

There have been lots of changes in sales over the last eight or so months, with layoffs, restructures, and falling (and rising) stock prices affecting industries across the globe. We wanted to check in on what comp looks like in 2023 so far, so we reached out to our friends at RepVue and got our hands on a 2023 salary guide. While this guide primarily focuses on technology sales, it can serve as a good benchmark for various positions in the sales world at large.

This guide provides median base pay, on-target earnings (OTE), top performer salaries, and the percentage of reps hitting quota for various sales roles such as Strategic Account Executive, SMB Account Executive, SLED Account Executive, Sales Development Representative, Mid Market Account Executive, Enterprise Account Executive, Customer Success Manager, and Account Manager. You can view specific salaries at any company by going to RepVue here.

Role: Sales Development Representative

Median Base Pay: 55k
Median OTE: 80k
Top Performers: 119k
Percentage of Reps Hitting Quota: 52.2

Role: SMB Account Executive

Median Base Pay: 65k
Median OTE: 125k
Top Performers: 263k
Percentage of Reps Hitting Quota: 43.4

Role: Mid Market Account Executive

Median Base Pay: 80k
Median OTE: 160k
Top Performers: 365k
Percentage of Reps Hitting Quota: 42.7

Role: Strategic Account Executive

Median Base Pay: 130k
Median On-Target Earnings (OTE): 250k
Top Performers: 616k
Percentage of Reps Hitting Quota: 36.9

Role: SLED Account Executive

Median Base Pay: 100k
Median OTE: 187k
Top Performers: 500k
Percentage of Reps Hitting Quota: 45.1

Role: Enterprise Account Executive

Median Base Pay: 120k
Median OTE: 240k
Top Performers: 563k
Percentage of Reps Hitting Quota: 38.9

Role: Customer Success Manager

Median Base Pay: 85k
Median OTE: 120k
Top Performers: 207k
Percentage of Reps Hitting Quota: 59.4

Role: Account Manager

Median Base Pay: 85k
Median OTE: 160k
Top Performers: 371k
Percentage of Reps Hitting Quota: 53.8

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MEME OF THE WEEK

Source: Instagram -- Sales Humor

QUIZ

What are the 3 top paying states for sales and related occupations?

A. California, New York, Texas
B. California, New York, Illinois
C. New York, California, Massachusetts
D. New York, Colorado, Washington

SALES FAILS

Each week, we bring you the most cringe-worthy sales moments from across the web. To submit your sales fail story for consideration, click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

I used to work at a call center. We sold financial services for a regional company that’s no longer around. The company did a lot of radio and television advertising, so a lot of our business came through inbound calls after people saw our ads and called into the 800-number.

Weekends were slow, but we still needed coverage, so we would essentially rotate employees who had to work weekends. It would work out that every rep would work one weekend day a month, either Saturday or Sunday. There were barely any employees working on those weekend days, usually no manager, and it was super casual. We all wore whatever we wanted etc.

One day, I was on a weekend shift with two other guys. It happened to be two of the funnier people I worked with, so we were kind of having a great time. We ordered a pizza and basically hung out, talking in between calls.

It was my turn in the call queue, and I got a call from a guy who seemed like a great prospect. He seemed normal (sometimes we got some very strange people calling because they saw our number), was qualified, and seemed like he would be easy to deal with.

Well, as I’m going through the application, one of my coworkers, who was a big guy, stretched. And as he stretched, he let out this primal scream at the top of his lungs. I don’t know if he forgot that I was on the phone or what, but he sounded like he had just been attacked or something like that. So loud!

All of a sudden, my caller stopped talking. Then he asked me what that sound was. I tried to play it off like it was nothing and everything was fine, but he got super uncomfortable. Then he asked if I was sure everything was okay, and I said yes. But he only talked to me for another minute or so before saying he forgot he had an appointment and that he had to go. I tried calling him back a bunch of times later that day and the following week, but he never answered my calls. Quiet down when people are selling!

Anonymous Location Withheld

GRAPH OF THE WEEK

Source: LinkedIn Poll -- May 2023

WORTH A PEEK

Missing quota is absolutely brutal, but it happens! So how do you bounce back after a big miss? HubSpot has a solid article on eight ways to recover after you’ve missed your sales quota. Hopefully you won’t need it, but if you do, you can check it out here.

ASK THE QUOTA

Want to submit a question and be featured in our advice column? Click here. (Don't worry, you'll remain completely anonymous).

Dear Quota Team

I've been in sales, in the same industry, for over a decade. Two years ago, I started a new job with a more specialized product and a different account mix than I had before, but overall, I’m still in the same industry.

The company has treated me very well (a refreshing change of pace from my last job), but our lead gen and support systems are a bit of a mess.

I started experimenting with social selling to help myself out. I've built up a good following online, the company loves that I'm doing it, and a few leads have actually come in! (Ultimately all those leads were for other people's territories or product lines, not mine though).

Here's my dilemma: I'm busting my butt (traditional selling and social selling) and the needle is moving up, but it is crawling. There's no way I'm hitting my number this year, just like last year. And I'd never not hit my number before. It's a tough time for the industry, but it feels like I'm just getting pummeled.

Everyone treats me like I'm this huge success though. They see me on LinkedIn and I guess because my face pops up, to them that equals "killing it." My old coworkers rib me about being an influencer, but also gush over how well I'm doing. My current employer doesn't seem to care that it would literally take a miracle for me to hit quota (which was unrealistically high); they love me (and have even given me a bump in pay for my "marketing" work and even given me a small promotion).

It feels like I'm failing for the first time in my career, but everyone is talking like I'm at an apex! Even when I open up about how rough it's going, people seem to write it off. I feel like I'm going crazy sometimes.

The company really cares about me as a person, and I'm loyal because of that, but at the same time, I don't know how many years I can go on just grinding away while not selling. I'm not losing deals, it's just that no one on my team can get enough people in the pipeline to hit our numbers!

Do you have any advice for maintaining my sanity? Should I switch jobs and go to a place that doesn't care as much about me as a person but has more traction? How do I handle my "success" vs reality? I never wanted to be a "celebrity" but people are (genuinely) hailing me as the "superstar" at work. I just want to sell something...

Drowning in Location Withheld

Dear Drowning,

This is a tough one. And there’s some important information missing. Namely: are you making an amount of money that you’re happy with? Because if you are, then the fact that you’re at a place that treats you well, respects you, and doesn’t care whether you hit quota or not is somewhat unusual and maybe a place you might want to consider staying.

But maybe that’s not enough. Maybe you need to be successful on your own terms, and those terms seem to involve achieving what you believe to be important, not what everybody else believes it to be.

It does sound like you’re tasked with selling a product which might not have a large pool of potential customers. Maybe you can bring this up to your management and tell them how you’re feeling about your role and that you’re not satisfied. Maybe they’ll want to keep you on in another capacity (marketing? evangelist?), or maybe they can switch you to another line with more deal potential. The point is, you’ll never know unless you bring it up in a very direct way. Don’t let them brush you off or dismiss your concerns. If it matters to you, let them know it matters.

There also seems to be a case of imposter syndrome here. You are building up your name recognition online, and that is an important skill in this day and age. The problem seems to be, however, that you don’t really want to build a name for yourself. If that’s the case, then why are you continuing to do it? Or is it that you don’t feel like you deserve the recognition? In any case, you need to figure out why you’re doing what you’re doing, and if you have no problem with being an “evangelist” (avoiding the word influencer here), then lean into it and stop second-guessing yourself.

The bottom line is you need to figure out what you want. You said you never wanted to be a celebrity. Would it be so bad to stop posting and to go sell somewhere else? Imagine you’re selling for another company, not posting anymore, but not being treated with the same respect you’re getting now. Does that life sound better or worse than present day? Only you can decide what to do, but some changes are definitely in order. Good luck, we wish you well!

Quiz answer: D – New York, Colorado, Washington (you can read the source article here)

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Today's email was written by Ken Kupchik, Erica Furgiuele, Steve Rado, and Emily Hill.

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