Article · 10 min read

Getting the Quotas Right for Your SaaS Sales Teams

Siva Rajamani · SaaSBoomi Free Intermediate India

Written for Indian SaaS founders by the Everstage CEO, ex Freshworks. It gives the working numbers: quota period must be at least the sales cycle, quota to OTE around 5 to 6x, and two thirds of reps landing between 80 and 100 percent attainment.

  • Target a 5:1 quota to OTE ratio; below 4:1 something is wrong (600K quota against 120K OTE).
  • Ramp time equals sales cycle length plus training time, assuming the rep gets enough MQLs.
  • Never set a quota period shorter than the sales cycle, so no monthly quotas on a 90 day cycle.
  • About two thirds of reps should land in the 80 to 100 percent attainment band, otherwise the quota is wrong.
  • Only worth doing past 1M ARR with product-market fit, and needs 12 months of funnel history.
Open on saasboomi.org ↗

It answers 7 questions

  1. I have been offered the first sales hire job at a startup. What should I check before I say yes?
  2. I am a founder writing my first sales comp plan. What is the simplest thing that works?
  3. What is a fair quota for my first rep when we have no history to go on?
  4. How do I set quotas that most of the team can actually hit?
  5. How do I split territories and segments without starting a civil war?
  6. What does sales comp look like for an India based team selling into the US?
  7. How do the best-run comp teams operate the plan through the year, not just design it?

Read with it

  1. The clearest arithmetic anywhere on rep economics: the rule of 10 for quota against base, four months to productivity, draws... Craft Ventures Essay · 12 min read Simple Math to Set Up a Sales Team David Sacks
  2. The headcount question answered as arithmetic: revenue target divided by revenue per rep and capacity utilisation, with ramp... Everstage Article · 12 min read Sales Capacity Planning Everstage
  3. The numbers you want when arguing about a plan: median commission around 11.5 percent of ACV, AE pay mix near 53:47, quota to... Everstage Report · 12 min read SaaS Sales Compensation Benchmarks: Trends and Best Practices Everstage
  4. Roughly 47,000 quota carrying reps across 246 companies, with average attainment at 42.7 percent. The number to put in front of... QuotaPath, using RepVue's Cloud Sales Index Report · 8 min read 57% of SaaS Sales Reps Missed Quota in Q2 2025. Here's What That Means QuotaPath, using RepVue's Cloud Sales Index
  5. The practical method for combining top down targets with bottom up rep feedback, and the attainment bell curve to aim for: 60... Everstage Article · 13 min read Sales Quota Planning: How to Align Targets and Drive Results Arvinda Bharathi
  6. The counterweight: the POSist co-founder on what to do when your product genuinely cannot be self-serve, including pricing... SaaSBoomi Article · 12 min read AMA with Sakshi Tulsian: Growth strategies for your non-self-serve product Shweta Mishra
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →