Speakers

Erik W. Charles has spent thirty years figuring out why sales teams do what they do. Most of the answer, it turned out, was in the comp plan.

He started as a compensation consultant at Sibson & Company, modeling plans for Fortune 500 clients, and never quite picked a side after that. He helped launch one of the first software platforms for sales commissions at Callidus Software, then joined Xactly, the first SaaS company in the category, where he held roles including VP of Product Marketing, VP of Business Operations in Japan leading the company's international expansion, and CMO and Chief Evangelist. Between startup runs he took stints at Apple, Canon, and Sun Microsystems, partly to learn how big organizations actually work from the inside, and partly to refresh both the pain and the joy of stability.

Today he is Head of Revenue at Variabl, his third incentive compensation company after Callidus and Xactly, this one built from the ground up around AI. He also runs Braided Line Advisory, advising venture funds and their portfolio companies on sales compensation and go-to-market strategy. He keynotes conferences, moderates panels, and guest lectures at various universities. His first book, The Carrot IS the Stick: A Practical Guide to Sales Incentive Compensation, distills all of it into a field guide for the people who design, defend, and live with sales pay.