How Many of My Reps Need to Hit Quota?
How many of your reps should be hitting quota? It’s tempting to say “all of them!” But that’s not realistic. Not all AEs work out and quotas shouldn’t be a “gimme”. Using BenchSights data, we looked at AE performance tracked against overall group performance:
What % of AEs Performed below/Above Quota?
- AE segments which collectively performed “Under Plan” had a median of just 10% of their reps at/above quota, with 55% missing badly.
- AE segments performing “On Plan” or “Above Plan” had a median of 20%-34% of their reps at/above quota, and 17%-20% missing badly.
Of course, it’s no surprise that if 55% of your reps whiff, you’re going to miss your plan! The valuable insight here is that you can be comfortable with up to 20% of your reps missing badly. Just make sure that at least another 20% meet or beat quota, and give yourself some cushion. In our data, the “On Plan” segments delivered a median of 88% of Quota Capacity* – so 12 points of cushion.
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* AEs “missing badly” is defined as performance of <75% of quota. Quota Capacity is total ARR bookings achieved by the AE team divided by the product of (1) avg. Quota per AE and (2) avg. number of AEs.