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- The Sales Middle Class Is Disappearing — and the Pay at the Top Is About to Explode
The Sales Middle Class Is Disappearing — and the Pay at the Top Is About to Explode
Why the Middle Is Getting Cut in 2026
Joey Brodsky
February 02, 2026
Hello and welcome to The Modern GTM Executive by Lunar Executive Search - read by 2,000+ leading Sales, Marketing, and Executive Leaders within Growth-Stage Technology businesses. We’re here to help people redefine their perspective on modern revenue acquisition models, understand what talent & skills are necessary to do so, and how to find the to 10% of GTM Leaders to execute.
| Sales Hiring Market – Current LinkedIn Job Postings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Within Software Industry – Posted Last 7 Days | ||
| VP of Sales Jobs | 392 | -4% |
| Enterprise AE Jobs | 544 | +7% |
| BDR Jobs | 348 | +27% |
To help readers stay grounded in the reality of today’s GTM hiring landscape, I’ll be sharing a weekly snapshot of active sales roles on LinkedIn. These metrics offer a simple but powerful pulse check: where demand is rising, where it’s cooling, and how the broader software market is shifting beneath the surface.
This Week's Signal The Top 3 News Stories for Your GTM Career Early 2026 signals shaping sales compensation, hiring bars, and career outcomes. |
1 · Sales Hiring & Org Design Recent labor data shows hiring growth moderating while compensation for high-impact roles remains resilient. For GTM teams, this reinforces a clear pattern: fewer seats overall, but sustained willingness to pay for top-tier performers who can carry larger revenue responsibility. |
2 · Sales Skill Evolution As AI-driven products grow more complex, companies are prioritizing sellers who combine technical fluency with commercial execution. This shift is accelerating demand — and compensation — for hybrid sales profiles, while compressing opportunities for more traditional, mid-level roles. |
3 · Sales Compensation Trends Bloomberg highlights how companies are redesigning commission plans to reward extreme overperformance, with richer accelerators and uncapped upside. The takeaway for sellers is clear: compensation is becoming more polarized — extraordinary earnings for a few, flatter outcomes for the rest. |
To help you stay sharper and more informed, I’m adding this new weekly snapshot of the three GTM stories that matter most. No fluff - just the signals every sales leader should track.
The Sales Middle Class Is Disappearing — and the Pay at the Top Is About to Explode
Over the next few years, something uncomfortable, and likely unavoidable, is going to happen inside sales orgs.
The “middle class” of sales is disappearing.
And at the same time, compensation at the very top end is about to reach levels that would’ve sounded absurd just a few years ago.
$500K OTEs won’t be rare.
Seven-figure earning years won’t be urban legends.
They’ll be real, visible, and attainable - for a much smaller group of people.
Why This Is Happening
This isn’t just inflation or AI hype.
It’s simple economics.
Markets in software, cyber, and AI continue to expand, but sales headcount isn’t scaling at the same rate. More opportunity. Same (or smaller) talent pool. That forces companies to make bigger bets on fewer reps.
When you consolidate quota, you consolidate dollars.
And when you consolidate dollars, you pay the people who can actually deliver.
Smaller Teams. Bigger Quotas. Fewer Layers.
This is the most important shift.
Sales orgs are flattening:
Fewer reps
Thinner middle management
More autonomy and accountability on the sales floor
Instead of spreading prime accounts across a wide middle tier, companies are increasingly giving larger, higher-quality books to a handful of elite sellers — and paying them aggressively to win.
It’s more efficient. And it works.
The New “Elite Seller”
The top earners won’t just be good closers.
They’ll look like:
Half seller, half solutions engineer
Comfortable discussing architecture, security, data, and AI workflows
Fluent in both business outcomes and technical nuance
That combination is rare.
Rare skills get paid more.
What Happens to Everyone Else?
This is where the divergence gets interesting.
The high end inflates.
The entry-level and support layers inflate to enable more complex selling motions.
The middle? It gets squeezed out.
That gap — between junior support roles and elite, high-impact sellers — is where the biggest career risk and opportunity will live.
The Bottom Line
The future of sales isn’t “more reps.”
It’s fewer, better, more capable reps — paid accordingly.
The opportunity will be massive.
But it won’t be evenly distributed.
And the people who recognize this early — and skill up accordingly — will be sitting very comfortably on the other side of it.
If you want the full breakdown of our thoughts on what ‘good’ GTM looks like in 2026 — including team design, enablement impact, and what “great” teams actually look like — the data is in this report.
We've got a number of active opportunities across our portfolio of software clients at Lunar Executive Search currently.
A few select openings:
(New) RVP of Sales, East – VC Backed – Enterprise AI (NYC, Boston, Philly)
VP of Sales – PE Backed – HealthTech (US Remote)
(New) Chief of Staff - VC Backed - InsurTech (NYC Hybrid)
(New) Revenue Operations Lead - VC Backed - InsurTech (NYC Hybrid)
(New) Enterprise Account Executive - VC Backed - Enterprise SaaS (Remote - Central Territory)
(New) Strategic Account Executive - VC Backed - Enterprise AI (Remote)
(New) Enterprise Account Executive - VC Backed - InsurTech (NYC Hybrid)
(New) Enterprise Account Executive - VC Backed - Media Tech (NYC OR LA Remote)
Account Executive - PE Backed - HealthTech (US Remote)
I'm also always looking to speak to great candidates for future roles:
Chief Revenue Officer - Venture/PE-Backed - SaaS/Cyber/AI
Chief Marketing Officer - Venture/PE-Backed - SaaS/Cyber/AI
VP of Product Marketing - Venture/PE-Backed - SaaS/Cyber/AI
VP of Partnerships - Venture/PE-Backed - SaaS/Cyber/AI
Highlights from The GTM Kickback! Podcast
We've had a number of excellent interviews recently on The GTM Kickback!, with many more already booked and recorded on the way.
Want to be a guest? Ping me on LinkedIn! 😎
We're looking for: High-performance GTM Operators, VC/PE Investors in SaaS, and Leading GTM Consultants for early stage technology businesses
New to "The GTM Kickback!"? Subscribe to the podcast!
This newsletter is powered by Lunar Executive Search - Finding Premier GTM Talent for Growth Stage Tech Businesses.
We help disruptive technology companies grow. For venture-funded start-ups and PE-backed enterprise software firms, we have a track record in finding the Top 10% of Sales and Marketing Leadership Talent, and doing so swiftly.
Reach out here: [email protected]
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Till next time,
Joey