He's Seen 300+ Sales Comp Plans. 90% Make the Same Mistake | Siva Rajamani (Everstage CEO)

Most sales comp plans are quietly broken, and the people running them have no idea. Siva Rajamani, CEO of Everstage, has visibility into 300+ enterprise comp plans, and he says 90% of companies make the same mistakes. In this episode he breaks down what's going wrong, how to spot it, and what a comp plan that actually drives revenue looks like.Siva explains why sales compensation is not a back office cost center but the single biggest lever in your go-to-market strategy. It's the glue between what a company intends and what reps actually do. If your reps aren't doing what you want, the answer isn't in a 1-on-1. It's in your comp plan.We get into the over-complication trap, the hidden math that makes reps refuse your best deals, the base-to-variable ratios that actually work, why your top reps should out-earn almost everyone, and how AI is about to blow open the gap between your best and average sellers.Chapters:00:00 Intro00:30 Siva's RevOps background at Freshworks04:00 Scaling RevOps from 1 to 2504:50 Why he left to build Everstage06:30 Why incentives drive revenue, not tools08:00 Comp as the glue between intent and action10:30 The 1 to 2 mistakes almost every team makes12:00 "If your comp plan needs FAQs, it's a tax code"14:00 The 60-second test for a broken plan15:30 Designing comp to retain top talent16:50 How AI widens the gap between top and average reps18:00 The $1M sales rep is coming19:30 Why optimizing for top earners is better on margins21:30 Quota to OTE ratios that actually work23:00 Base vs variable: the 50/50 rule and exceptions24:00 What Everstage does and who it serves25:30 How Everstage structures its own comp plan28:00 The rise of the revenue architect48:00 CPQ and connecting margin to commissions50:30 When should reps earn commission in the deal cycle52:30 Six month vs twelve month comp cycles54:30 The most a sales rep has ever made55:20 Where to find SivaConnect with Siva Rajamani: Co-founder, CEO of EverstageTwitter/X: https://x.com/siva_rajamaniLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sivasrajamani/Host: Sophie Buonassisi, SVP at GTMnowFollow Sophie: https://x.com/sophiebuonaLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiebuonassisi/ABOUT GTMnowGTMnow is the media arm of GTMfund, sharing the strategies, tactics, and stories from the operators and investors building the next generation of go-to-market.Visit us on: https://gtmnow.comFollow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/gtmnowFollow us on X (Twitter): https://x.com/GTMnow_Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GTM_nowFollow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@gtmnow_Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gtmnow_/Subscribe for more conversations with the operators and founders behind today's best go-to-market teams.The GTMnow Podcast The GTMnow Podcast is a weekly podcast featuring interviews with the top 1% GTM executives, VCs, and founders. Conversations reveal the unshared details behind how they have grown companies, and the go-to-market strategies responsible for shaping that growth.Visit gtmnow.com for more episodes and other interesting content.