Combining Candela Scout with GTM Design to Prepare an EdTech Company for Growth
A leading PE-owned education technology company with a national footprint was preparing for a new fiscal year with ambitious growth targets.
This meant rising sales complexity: expanding into new territories, reshaping the leadership team, and implementing a data-driven approach to determine how to resource reps the right way — without overspending or underdelivering.
No clear data to guide how many reps were needed, or where they should be assigned
Existing selling territories were inconsistent in potential and lacked clear ownership
Sales roles (hunters vs. farmers) weren’t clearly defined, making planning difficult
Limited cross-selling opportunities across product lines
Compensation benchmarks and quota expectations lacked external validation
Leadership wanted to double down on key geographies — but needed data to justify investment
Candela partnered with executive and field leadership to deliver a holistic sales resourcing model grounded in data. The process began by implementing Candela Scout to build a fact base on current and prospective accounts, and followed through with territory modeling, headcount planning, and compensation design.
Implement Candela Scout to Map Account Potential
We started by deploying Candela Scout to build a detailed view of the company’s current and prospective accounts. This included
Mapping revenue potential across existing and whitespace accounts
Flagging misaligned coverage across territories
Identifying priority segments for near- and long-term growth
This provided the foundation for territory assignments and resourcing decisions.
Territory Design Rubric
To ensure consistent and scalable territory assignments, we built a scoring rubric incorporating
Account potential and historical performance
Rep workload and variability in revenue
Strategic fit and cross-sell opportunities
This rubric became the operating system for headcount planning and territory decisions.
Territory & Headcount Modeling
Using insights from Scout, we developed a bottom-up selling capacity model to answer
What’s the optimal number of reps per region?
Where is there headroom for growth?
Which territories are over- or under-assigned?
We modeled multiple scenarios to support:
Role alignment by territory type (e.g., hunters vs. farmers)
Data-driven headcount investments based on ramp and bandwidth
Strategic territory splits and rep expansion
Sales Compensation Benchmarking & Plan Redesign
To align incentives with both market realities and internal goals, we
Benchmarked OTE, pay mix, and plan structures using external data
Re-designed key plan components to reinforce desired behaviors
Delivered comp frameworks to help attract and retain top commercial talent
Laid a Fact-Based Foundation
Provided a rigorous, data-backed foundation for territory design and rep coverage
Staffed Teams for Scale
Informed headcount expansion with flexible growth levers across strategic and non-strategic regions
Set Fair, Realistic Goals
Helped executive leadership align growth expectations with achievable, quota-based sales planning
Right-Sized Compensation
Delivered actionable compensation benchmarks to attract and retain top talent across roles
With a modern sales resourcing model in place, the company could scale smart — not just fast. Territory plans were backed by data. Hiring decisions had rationale. And the team had confidence that its sales infrastructure could support the next stage of growth.
