VP of Sales Carles Reina sets a sales quota of 20 times a rep's base salary (e.g., $2M quota for $100k base), far above the 6-10x industry standard. Reps who don't hit their quota are let go, creating a high-performance culture where over 80% succeed.

Hiring a single sales rep deprives founders of an objective baseline to evaluate whether struggles stem from individual performance or systemic company issues. Onboarding reps in cohorts also economizes executive training time, eliminates isolated seller burnout, and sparks healthy peer competition.

Quotas shouldn't be used as a false comfort to cover a revenue target. Instead, they should philosophically reflect the work's difficulty. Harder, strategic sales motions—like Figma's—deserve more achievable quotas (e.g., 3-4x OTE) to reward and retain top talent capable of that complex work.

In early-stage sales, candidates asking for quota confidence are a red flag as they seek safety where risk-taking is needed. The ideal hire is hungry, curious, and motivated to build—not just execute a pre-defined playbook. Prioritize these traits over a polished resume. Too much past success can even be a negative indicator.

Before hiring a sales team, a founder must personally sell the first $1-2 million in revenue. This earns the respect of future sales hires, proves the sales motion is possible, and provides invaluable learnings for the entire GTM strategy.

Your compensation plan covers the final outcome (quota). To improve performance, use SPIFs and competitions to incentivize the leading indicators—the daily activities like cold calls, research, and outreach. Motivating these input activities has a direct, positive correlation with achieving the final target.

Don't hire more reps until your current team hits its productivity target (e.g., generating 3x their OTE). Scaling headcount before proving the unit economics of your sales motion is a recipe for inefficient growth, missed forecasts, and a bloated cost structure.

ElevenLabs implemented a controversial 20x quota-to-OTE ratio. The key to success was leadership's public commitment to fairness: if quotas proved unattainable due to market changes, they would be lowered. This trust attracted top performers and enabled reps to hit 300-600% of their ambitious targets.

The cost of setting quotas too high is catastrophic: you demoralize and lose your A-player sales team. The cost of setting them too low is manageable: you overspend on commissions but exceed targets and retain a motivated team. The latter can be adjusted; the former is an unrecoverable error.