Commissions

• Philosophy
• Commission model at folk
• Our model is uncapped.
• Is there a ramp-up?
• 💼 Account Executive
• 🔧 Tech Account Manager

Philosophy

We know everyone in the GTM (and in the overall team) contributes to the commercial successes.

We believe a variable isn’t a bonus. It’s an integral part of the compensation (split between variable and base). Thus variable incentives are for salespeople only.

Here are the core principles of our commission model:

• We want a fair & transparent model
• We want something straight to the point and simple (% of ARR closed during the month)
• We want to keep the momentum (monthly payouts based on the previous month's objectives - trigger is on payment)

Commission model at folk

Who is concerned?

A variable isn’t a bonus, it’s part of the compensation (split between variable and base). In most companies, it's usual for sales teams to have a bonus while it’s not usual for other go-to-market roles. At folk, only people who spent time doing demos will be concerned.

How does it work?

100% of the variable is individual.

> 80%+ of the target

Let's take the example of a target at $40k new ARR generated

• Below 80% of the objective: No variable. e.g.: if you generate $30K ARR, this means you reach 75% of your objective. You won't get any variable this month.
• Above 80%: variable = 1x the percentage

e.g.: if you generate $36K ARR, this means you reach 90% of your objective. You will get 90% of your monthly variable.

e.g.: if you generate $44K ARR, this means you reach 110% of your objective. You will get 110% of your monthly variable.

Our model is uncapped.

We believe capping a variable is a very bad message to give to sales teams. That being said, we’re quite clear the objective is for a salesperson to be more or less at 100% of their objective. We will revisit targets every month if needed.

Is there a ramp-up?

Yes. In the initial months after a new sales joined the team, we implemented a gradual ramp-up of their objectives, rather than expecting them to meet the full objective right away.

• Month 1: 50%
• Month 2: 75%
• Month 3: 100%

💼 Account Executive

• Split: 65% base / 35% variable, uncapped, based on new ARR generated in the month.
• Objective is set on a monthly basis.
• Acceleration clause of x1.5 for an annual contract.

For example, in month N, if closing:

1. Yearly: 5K
2. Monthly: 6K

The monthly performance of this salesperson is calculated as being 5*1.5 + 6 = 13.5

• What’s accounted for? Upgrades, downgrades and churn resulting from deals closed in prior months but occurring in month N are included in the performance metrics for month N. It’s counted for the 3 months after closing.

🔧 Tech Account Manager

• Split: 80% base / 20% variable, uncapped, based on Net Revenue Growth.
• Net Revenue Growth objectives are set on a monthly basis.
• What’s accounted for? ARR from new customers signed during the month is excluded — only upgrades, downgrades and churn count.