In this episode, Chris Strom sits down with James Jackson, VP of Revenue Operations at Canva, to discuss how companies should approach sales compensation planning.

James shares lessons from his experience leading RevOps and go-to-market strategy at companies like Microsoft, Cisco Meraki, DocuSign, Snowflake, and now Canva. The conversation covers how compensation plans should reflect company strategy, how different sales roles' comp plans should be structured, and how RevOps leaders can manage comp planning across sales, finance, and leadership.

They also discuss common comp plan mistakes, when to make mid-year adjustments, and how to align incentives across account executives, BDRs, and customer success teams.

If you work in RevOps, sales operations, or go-to-market leadership, this episode provides a practical look at how compensation planning works inside high-growth companies.

Topics covered:

• How sales compensation should reflect company strategy
• Structuring comp plans for AEs, BDRs, and CSMs
• Quota design and attainment expectations
• Aligning sales, finance, and RevOps on comp planning
• What to do if you need to adjust comp plans mid-year
• Using SPIFFs vs. redesigning comp plans
• Lessons from companies going through different growth velocities

Subscribe for more conversations on revenue operations, go-to-market strategy, and scaling sales teams.