sales
Customer
Success
marketing
2023 H2
COMPENSATION GUIDE
A Message From Betts Founder and CEO, Carolyn Betts
I'm delighted to present our revised compensation guide for the year 2023, with data up to mid-year! As we persistently shape the future of recruiting, we equally strive to develop engaging, interactive content. In our refreshed guide, you will find updates to sales, marketing, and customer success compensation, with all data drawn from the thousands of placements we made in the first half of this year. We trust that you'll find this information valuable, and as always, we hope you enjoy the interactive experience.
2023
Overview
The year 2023 has undeniably brought further changes to the tech landscape, proving again that when one door closes, another opens. The hiring market remains largely competitive, and from interviewing hundreds of candidates and clients, Betts has found that even amid varying job growth rates, job openings continue to exceed the available talent pool.
Interestingly, the first half of 2023 saw only 10% of SDR roles filled by recent graduates, with 90% requiring six months to 1.5 years of experience. Enterprise roles accounted for 60% of our positions, a significant increase from the previous 15%. We observed that in-office SDR (Sales Development Representatives)/AE (Account Executives) roles are fetching a 10% premium, reinforcing the value of specific industry experience and roles. Retention jobs like CSMs (customer success managers), mid-level sales leadership and Enterprise AEs (EAEs) saw base salaries hold steady for the most part.
While entry-level sales and marketing saw a dip in average compensation, specialized roles such as Revenue Operations continue to witness pay increases due to scarcity and demand. The high demand for industry-specific, experience-oriented roles has kept wages stable, but with a marked shift towards a more specific skill set - in essence, the same rates for better-qualified candidates.
The power of remote work continues to influence rate changes and even disrupt averages in traditionally high-paying US locations. The tech industry continues to harness the benefits of a remote workforce, such as improved productivity and reduced hiring times. Conversely, candidates are less willing to accept pay cuts for remote work than in past years.
However, the growing importance of remote work options and job perks mirrors another compensation trend to consider. For many candidates, these benefits are as significant - if not more so - as the salary itself. Aspects like additional pay (bonus, equity, etc.) and various benefits (health insurance, gym stipends and more) each play a substantial role.
In reflection, the tech job market in 2022 endured impacts from the downturn, only retracting from significant advances made during the pandemic and maintaining a high demand for the right talent. Meanwhile, 2023 emerges as a year of opportunity for high-growth startups to compete with Big Tech for experienced candidates, who are more accessible than in previous years.
In this guide, we dissect the compensation averages for sales and marketing roles in tech for the first half of 2023 and anticipate what packages need to encompass to stay competitive. We'll supply salaries for each timezone, including NYC and San Francisco, and dive into how various pay and benefit trends are impacting hiring across all sizes and levels.
Salaries for entry-level roles in sales and marketing experienced a drop at the beginning of 2023. However, they have held steady over the last few months, suggesting this might have been a temporary occurrence. Below we outline our target compensation recommendations and the trends that inform them.
Target compensation is the Market Rate. It's the benchmark that companies must strive to meet if they want to have an extensive candidate pool and hire rapidly to meet their growth goals. If companies offer compensation below this benchmark, hiring top talent will take much longer, and the candidate pool they work from is much smaller. If they are way above it, they will yield a larger candidate pool but at diminishing returns.
target Compensation
2023
5
Key Stats
perks
- Several tech enterprises are planning to grant additional monetary benefits (stock options and equity) to current employees and candidates to offset budget shortfalls (e.g., Amazon raised available employee stock by 82%).
- Job postings with health insurance benefits included increased by 40%.
- 62% of US workers see 401(k) matching as a critical requirement.
- Many candidates preferred compensation plans with better practical benefits than a higher salary in 2022 and early 2023.
BENEFITS
- 100% health insurance coverage
- Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO)
- Increased 401(k) matching
- Expanded Health Saving Account (HSA)
- Commuter benefits
- Gym membership stipends
- Meals provided in-office
- Free Uber rides
- Remote and hybrid options
market
- Compensation gap between enterprises and startups continues to shrink.
- Number of open jobs in tech will grow by up to 700% in Q4 2023.
- 10% of sales professionals haven't returned to tech after layoffs, further shrinking the talent pool for the industry.
- Sales and marketing roles that saw pay drops in 2022 have not yet seen the predicted compensation increases in 2023.
- Average earnings for remote positions caught up with in-office rates. However, companies are now paying a 10% premium for in-office AEs and SDRs.
- AEs going remote has grown 30% YOY. A majority of AEs and SDRs in the Betts network now work remotely and signs point to this trend keeping momentum.
- Employers are focusing more on timezones than on specific locations for remote workers.
- Companies are more likely to recruit hybrid workers further away from the office as long as they’re in the same metropolitan area (e.g., within the Tri-State for NY).
remote
- Approximately 85% of our positions are narrowly tailored to specific industry experience and specializations, thus maintaining wage consistency, while requiring an increasingly specific skill set.
- Only 10% of SDR roles went to recent grads. 90% had 6-months to 1.5 years of experience.
- Sales and customer success roles with Enterprise experience kept more stable rates, as did marketing jobs over 3-5 years of experience.
- Compensation for tech sales and marketing roles with 0-3 years experience dropped 5% - 10% on average compared to 2022. Earnings for AEs with 0-5 years experience dropped 5% YoY.
experience
Some of the top hiring and compensation trends in tech to watch out for in 2023:
2023
TRENDS
sales
Both AE and SDR average compensation dropped $5k - $10k in 2022 and early 2023, coming down off the peaks reached in 2021. EAE earnings remained stable, though stagnant compared to previous years’ growth. Industry-specific experience has also become more important, though salaries for these candidates did not change. Over the past 6 months, remote and in-office salaries for sales professionals had equalized, setting a new baseline. However, companies have already started to pay a 10% premium for in-office employees.
SDRs, AEs, and EAEs
Target Compensation
All compensation is listed in thousands of $USD, all timezones are US timezones.
Compensation by Location
sales
SDRs, AEs, and EAEs
sales
Operations
Revenue Operations, Sales Operations and Sales Engineers
Revenue Operations is the one position where we saw continuous growth YoY, with a 10% increase in compensation since 2021 - and 300% hiring growth Quarter over Quarter in the same period. It’s important to note that since this role is still relatively new, there is still a lack of a deep, experienced talent pool. This allows candidates for Revenue Ops Manager roles with more than 3 years of experience to command a wider base salary range in top markets. The first half of 2023 saw a slight increase in salaries for Sales Engineers, an exception when most roles remained stable throughout the first half of the year.
All compensation is listed in thousands of $USD, all timezones are US timezones. DOE: Depending on Experience
Compensation by Location
sales
Revenue Operations, Sales Operations and Sales Engineers
Sales and SDR Managers
Sales leadership compensation remained stable with few major increases or decreases in early 2023. The average base salary for remote SDR Managers saw a slight $10k bump at the higher end compared to 2022, catching up with local on-site rates, though overall earnings remained stagnant.
sales
leadership
All compensation is listed in thousands of $USD, all timezones are US timezones. DOE: Depending on Experience
Compensation by Location
sales
Sales and SDR Managers
Target Compensation
customer success
Customer Success and Account Management
Customer Success roles maintained steady compensation rates through 2022 as tech companies kept a focus on maintaining efficiency and preventing churn. We did notice an increased push for hiring Enterprise CSMs (i.e., those with experience in managing enterprise-level accounts) over the second half of the year, and even more so in 2023. The fluidity of the role also means that the CSM salary range can scale much higher than the average, with the highest in Betts network at $200k - $260k.
All compensation is listed in thousands of $USD, all timezones are US timezones. DOE: Depending on Experience
Compensation by Location
Customer success
Customer Success and Account Management
marketing
Content, Demand Generation, Product and Event Marketing
General Marketing roles were also affected by layoffs, with entry level compensation dropping by about 10% on average. However, earnings for positions with more experience remained stable. One trend to watch for is the return of events which led to more open jobs for Event Marketers in Q3 - Q4 2022.
All compensation is listed in thousands of $USD, all timezones are US timezones. DOE: Depending on Experience
Compensation by Location
marketing
Content, Demand Generation, Product and Event Marketing
Betts Can Help
Betts Recruiting is the go-to-market talent partner for the nation's most innovative tech and tech-enabled companies. We service companies of all sizes and have worked with Fortune 500 companies, over 10,000 start-ups, and helped scale 35 unicorns.
With a unique Recruitment as a Service model (RaaS), Betts provides a cost-effective approach to sourcing top talent. For an annual fee, our customers have access to a dedicated recruiter, as well as our Connect platform, which boasts the largest and most diverse tech talent pool in the United States. Everything you've come to love from a traditional Search firm, leveled up and offered in an affordable SaaS package
In addition, our experienced teams always know the most up to date information on compensation and the working arrangements that top professionals are seeking from a future employer. If you have any questions, please reach out. We look forward to speaking with you!
