Goal: this document will outline the expectations a Check Partner should have of their payroll sales team from Beta to 6 - 12 months of GA. The reason for this timeframe is this is when your sales team are trained, have had a couple of initial conversations with payroll prospects, and before there is enough historical references for your team to forecast activity expectations.

Output: Sales Performance and Compensation Plan - This document will serve as a guideline for sales reps to understand their performance metrics, quota expectations, and potential earnings through commissions, fostering a motivated sales force aligned with company goals during the critical early stages of the payroll product's go-to-market strategy.

We are going to discuss this into 3 types of sales motions Check Partners find fit into their current GTM workstreams, then cover the baseline activity all sale motions go through, and finally review what, if any, adjustment considerations for each type of sales motion.

All Products Inbound - These sales reps products all directly compliment each other and are easily cross-sold. Their activity consists of presenting on first-meetings / demos that are set for them through marketing and product-led initiatives.

All Products Inbound sales leads are mostly either window shopping or have nearly made their decision to move forward based on the marketing content and need to check a few last boxes. The sales rep needs to be able to quickly context switch between these two personas and effectively follow up with all first-meetings that don’t close they host.

Multi-Product Account Management - A sales motion a number of Check Partners have selected to use to sell payroll is including payroll as another product their Account Managers upsell their customer base with.

These Account Managers often have a working relationship with their book of customers and can easily schedule first meetings with their base. However, Check finds these sales representatives take longer to ramp as payroll has a high level of edge cases a sales rep must be able to discuss and knowing all of those edge cases on top of their other products can be challenging.

Payroll Only Current Customer Upsell - Check Partners that do have a suite of different products their platform offers find a blend of All Products Inbound and Multi-Product Account Management is the most effective model; or the hub-and-spoke model.

This model is built with 1 - 2 sales representatives sharing a round-robin style first-meeting booking system as well as partnering with their core product Sales teammates and Marketing on the outbound content to the customer base.

Understanding the baseline expectations of a payroll sales representative's daily activity is vital for aligning performance goals and optimizing time management. It ensures consistent, high-quality customer interactions while enabling effective performance assessment and targeted improvement efforts.

Adapting sales activity expectations based on different sales motions is essential because each motion, whether All Products, Multi-Product AM, or Payroll Only, requires distinct approaches and time investments. Tailoring expectations ensures sales teams focus on the appropriate activities that resonate with the specific motion, leading to more relevant customer engagements and higher chances of successful conversions.

Creating a sales quota for a new product requires a balance between setting ambitious goals and being realistic about the challenges of launching something new. Regular assessment and adaptation are key to ensuring the quotas remain aligned with the evolving market landscape.

For the timeframe this document covers, Beta to first 12 months of GA, Check recommends sales goals instead of quotas to hold sales representatives accountable to. An important note is that the majority of Check’s Partners find the legacy payroll sale funnel still applies to their sales motion, even when selling to current customers. This sales funnel is a 10 - 33 - 90 rule; 10% of your outreach will book a demo/first meeting, 33% of those prospects will say yes after 1 - 3 meetings, and 90% of that demographic will process their first payroll within 45 days of starting their implementation.

Therefore, work with your finance and sales leadership teams to create your sales goals and work backwards to create your sales goals.

In the dynamic realm of sales, a finely tuned payroll sales representative commission structure stands as the nexus between fiscal prudence and unbridled motivation. Striking the delicate balance between minimizing costs of commissions and igniting sales representatives' fervor is not just a challenge; it's a strategic imperative. This section will cover sales commission payout amounts, thresholds for amplified payouts, clawbacks, and true-ups.

It is Check’s recommendation to launch your payroll product with a single commission payout percentage of first year’s estimated revenue. After 12 months of operating in GA you may consider adding features to your commission payouts.

NOTE: There are unique California rules for commission based pay. Prior to determining the rules regarding the use of commissions as a form of compensation in the state of California, it is important to understand how the state of California defines commissions. Please request more information from Check if you have sales representatives based in California.

The critical considerations for how to payout the sales commissions are:

Considering the structure of other products a payroll company is selling when adjusting their commission payouts is crucial to ensure equitable compensation. This approach prevents disproportionate incentives that could lead to neglecting certain offerings, promoting a balanced focus on the entire product portfolio and maximizing overall business growth.

Please consult with Check before applying any of the commission adjustments.

Commission amplifiers are used to motivate sales representatives to push more products per sales opportunity as well as rewarding top performers. There are three primary forms amplifiers take:

A commission clawback is when a previously paid out sales opportunity ends their service agreement with a payroll provider within a defined clawback period. The reasoning of why payroll providers add clawback windows is to ensure the sales representatives are effectively selling their opportunities and/or keep their clients engaged so that if issues arise they can help address them before churn. Common clawback clauses are often reflected in the size of the sales opportunities with SMB requiring 30 - 60 day windows and mid-market and above requiring 90 days.

An example is if a sales representative was paid $100 in commissions in March for a deal that ran February 1st and has a 60 day clawback window policy. The employer ends their service with March 27th and so that sales representative will have $100 deducted (or clawed back) from their April commission check.

A sales "true-up" refers to a process in which a company reconciles or adjusts sales commissions or incentives that were initially estimated or paid based on provisional data. This often occurs when sales data or metrics are subject to changes, corrections, or updates after the initial commission payments have been made. The true-up process involves comparing the initial commission calculations with the updated or accurate sales figures, and then making necessary adjustments to ensure that sales representatives receive the appropriate amount of compensation based on their actual performance.

Employee count on seasonal businesses can fluctuate wildly and incentivizes sales representatives to submit higher employee count businesses during their peaks instead of when it is most advantageous to onboard the employer. This is why payroll providers will offer their sales representatives the opportunity to “true-up” an opportunity within a defined window and minimum threshold so that the sales representative still submits the opportunity when it is best for the employer and implementation teams.

There are three considerations when a sales representative submits for a true-up:

Claw-back Optionality - To deter sales representatives from submitting all of their opportunities for true-up review a payroll provider will state that if an employer is found to have lost employees in a true-up that the sales representative who submitted for the review will have their commissions subtracted from.

Goal: this document will outline the expectations a Check Partner should have of their payroll sales team from Beta to 6 - 12 months of GA. The reason for this timeframe is this is when your sales team are trained, have had a couple of initial conversations with payroll prospects, and before there is enough historical references for your team to forecast activity expectations.

Output: Sales Performance and Compensation Plan - This document will serve as a guideline for sales reps to understand their performance metrics, quota expectations, and potential earnings through commissions, fostering a motivated sales force aligned with company goals during the critical early stages of the payroll product's go-to-market strategy.

We are going to discuss this into 3 types of sales motions Check Partners find fit into their current GTM workstreams, then cover the baseline activity all sale motions go through, and finally review what, if any, adjustment considerations for each type of sales motion.

All Products Inbound - These sales reps products all directly compliment each other and are easily cross-sold. Their activity consists of presenting on first-meetings / demos that are set for them through marketing and product-led initiatives.

All Products Inbound sales leads are mostly either window shopping or have nearly made their decision to move forward based on the marketing content and need to check a few last boxes. The sales rep needs to be able to quickly context switch between these two personas and effectively follow up with all first-meetings that don’t close they host.

Multi-Product Account Management - A sales motion a number of Check Partners have selected to use to sell payroll is including payroll as another product their Account Managers upsell their customer base with.

These Account Managers often have a working relationship with their book of customers and can easily schedule first meetings with their base. However, Check finds these sales representatives take longer to ramp as payroll has a high level of edge cases a sales rep must be able to discuss and knowing all of those edge cases on top of their other products can be challenging.

Payroll Only Current Customer Upsell - Check Partners that do have a suite of different products their platform offers find a blend of All Products Inbound and Multi-Product Account Management is the most effective model; or the hub-and-spoke model.

This model is built with 1 - 2 sales representatives sharing a round-robin style first-meeting booking system as well as partnering with their core product Sales teammates and Marketing on the outbound content to the customer base.

Understanding the baseline expectations of a payroll sales representative's daily activity is vital for aligning performance goals and optimizing time management. It ensures consistent, high-quality customer interactions while enabling effective performance assessment and targeted improvement efforts.

Adapting sales activity expectations based on different sales motions is essential because each motion, whether All Products, Multi-Product AM, or Payroll Only, requires distinct approaches and time investments. Tailoring expectations ensures sales teams focus on the appropriate activities that resonate with the specific motion, leading to more relevant customer engagements and higher chances of successful conversions.

Creating a sales quota for a new product requires a balance between setting ambitious goals and being realistic about the challenges of launching something new. Regular assessment and adaptation are key to ensuring the quotas remain aligned with the evolving market landscape.

For the timeframe this document covers, Beta to first 12 months of GA, Check recommends sales goals instead of quotas to hold sales representatives accountable to. An important note is that the majority of Check’s Partners find the legacy payroll sale funnel still applies to their sales motion, even when selling to current customers. This sales funnel is a 10 - 33 - 90 rule; 10% of your outreach will book a demo/first meeting, 33% of those prospects will say yes after 1 - 3 meetings, and 90% of that demographic will process their first payroll within 45 days of starting their implementation.

Therefore, work with your finance and sales leadership teams to create your sales goals and work backwards to create your sales goals.

In the dynamic realm of sales, a finely tuned payroll sales representative commission structure stands as the nexus between fiscal prudence and unbridled motivation. Striking the delicate balance between minimizing costs of commissions and igniting sales representatives' fervor is not just a challenge; it's a strategic imperative. This section will cover sales commission payout amounts, thresholds for amplified payouts, clawbacks, and true-ups.

It is Check’s recommendation to launch your payroll product with a single commission payout percentage of first year’s estimated revenue. After 12 months of operating in GA you may consider adding features to your commission payouts.

NOTE: There are unique California rules for commission based pay. Prior to determining the rules regarding the use of commissions as a form of compensation in the state of California, it is important to understand how the state of California defines commissions. Please request more information from Check if you have sales representatives based in California.

The critical considerations for how to payout the sales commissions are:

Considering the structure of other products a payroll company is selling when adjusting their commission payouts is crucial to ensure equitable compensation. This approach prevents disproportionate incentives that could lead to neglecting certain offerings, promoting a balanced focus on the entire product portfolio and maximizing overall business growth.

Please consult with Check before applying any of the commission adjustments.

Commission amplifiers are used to motivate sales representatives to push more products per sales opportunity as well as rewarding top performers. There are three primary forms amplifiers take:

A commission clawback is when a previously paid out sales opportunity ends their service agreement with a payroll provider within a defined clawback period. The reasoning of why payroll providers add clawback windows is to ensure the sales representatives are effectively selling their opportunities and/or keep their clients engaged so that if issues arise they can help address them before churn. Common clawback clauses are often reflected in the size of the sales opportunities with SMB requiring 30 - 60 day windows and mid-market and above requiring 90 days.

An example is if a sales representative was paid $100 in commissions in March for a deal that ran February 1st and has a 60 day clawback window policy. The employer ends their service with March 27th and so that sales representative will have $100 deducted (or clawed back) from their April commission check.

A sales "true-up" refers to a process in which a company reconciles or adjusts sales commissions or incentives that were initially estimated or paid based on provisional data. This often occurs when sales data or metrics are subject to changes, corrections, or updates after the initial commission payments have been made. The true-up process involves comparing the initial commission calculations with the updated or accurate sales figures, and then making necessary adjustments to ensure that sales representatives receive the appropriate amount of compensation based on their actual performance.

Employee count on seasonal businesses can fluctuate wildly and incentivizes sales representatives to submit higher employee count businesses during their peaks instead of when it is most advantageous to onboard the employer. This is why payroll providers will offer their sales representatives the opportunity to “true-up” an opportunity within a defined window and minimum threshold so that the sales representative still submits the opportunity when it is best for the employer and implementation teams.

There are three considerations when a sales representative submits for a true-up:

Claw-back Optionality - To deter sales representatives from submitting all of their opportunities for true-up review a payroll provider will state that if an employer is found to have lost employees in a true-up that the sales representative who submitted for the review will have their commissions subtracted from.