2019 CRO Compensation Report
Here at The Bridge Group, we’ve been compiling rep and manager comp research since 2007. Many thanks to Matt Bertuzzi for the untold hours he spends analyzing data! (You can get the latest SDR report here and AE report here.) Although we’ve been asked about CRO/SVP of Sales compensation a lot, it’s one area we’ve never delved into.
Until now.
Before we launched the project, we reached out to senior sales leaders in our network to ask them what they’d like to learn from anonymous peer research. Their responses centered around:
- Responsibilities (by size of company)
- OTE & equity package
- The relationship between revenue contribution and earnings
In short, what’s within the CRO span of control, what quota are they signed up for, and how much are they paid to deliver it.
Those 3 big asks shaped the surveys we developed and information we gathered.
A big learning along the way is that a “CRO” isn’t a CRO isn’t a CRO. Lots of definitions and expectations are attached to that one little acronym. We shared an early preview of our findings with CRO, board member, and growth company advisor Peter Weyman. Who offered a brilliant suggestion:
Rather than report on a fictional “median CRO,” what if you look for clustered characteristics to identify and drill into distinct profiles?
We ended up identifying three distinct CRO personas: Emerging, Commercial, and Enterprise. Each with varying responsibilities, revenue targets, and earning potentials.
The response to the survey was fantastic. We collected data from 145+ senior sales leaders and were able to compile more than 200 data points.
As a small preview, one item that stood out to me was the variation in what makes up quota between the above profiles:
The report should be of interest to any current (and aspiring) CROs. I hope you’ll take a look and share your impressions. To read the full report, download the CRO Compensation Research Report.
Thanks as always for supporting, and participating in, Bridge Group research.
Retired from consulting but still running Sales Summits
5 年Trish, thanks to you and your team for preparing this.? As usual with your stuff it is chock full of insights. Keep up the good work. Bob
On a mission to have everyone LOVE Sunday nights. Talks about #Predictive Analytics #Leadership Development #Employee Engagement #Quiet Quitting #Retention #Executive Coaching #Employee Wellness
5 年This is a great read. Very insightful and actionable
Seasoned executive who leads with Passion & Creativity | Cyber security | GTM Strategy | Sales Transformation | Chief of Staff | Sales/Revenue Operations | Coaching | Change Management
5 年Trish Bertuzzi?very informational - thanks for sharing.? It's especially interesting to see which orgs report into a CRO, considering 'Rev Ops' is also becoming a more common function.? In my experience, I have seen both CRO and Rev Ops refer to just a renaming of the traditional Sales Exec and Sales Operations roles, as well as situations where? sales, marketing and csm sales and ops teams report into CRO and RevOps teams.
Good insights.