Across industries, go-to-market teams are rapidly adjusting playbooks in real time.

Forecasts are scrutinized, sales compensation plans are evolving, and organizational structures are being reimagined for agility.

Now imagine navigating this era of flux inside one of the most recognizable consumer media brands in the world. This is just another day for Wade Jastremski.

As Head of Revenue Management & Forecasting at Spotify, Wade operates at the epicenter of global Sales Ops—supporting the teams managing ad revenue tied to the world’s top podcasts, audio books, and streaming music inventory.  

Over the past five years, Wade has helped steer Spotify Advertising through explosive transformation: international expansion into mature and emerging markets, and a fundamental shift in how the platform monetizes via advertising.

Navigating this has meant building forecasting rigor amid constant volatility, redesigning compensation in a high-velocity sales environment, and operationalizing growth on a global scale. And while Spotify’s brand and model are unique, Wade’s challenges mirror what many RevOps and Sales Ops leaders face today: unpredictable markets, evolving buyer behaviors, and pressure to be more accurate, agile, and strategic.

In this episode of The Sales Compensation Show, Wade unpacks how Spotify Advertising has scaled to support global growth, what it takes to deliver forecast accuracy, and how sales incentives are structured for an ad-supported model.

Catch the full episode, and some of the most compelling insights here:

Episode resources

• Connect with Wade on LinkedIn

• Book recommendations:  The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals, by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling

Forecasting in a volatile landscape: going from art to science

‍For sales operations leaders, accurate forecasting is how you earn trust across the business. In a media and advertising environment like Spotify’s, where volatility is the norm and seasonality can swing results wildly from quarter to quarter, precision is even more critical.

“I'm really proud of our sales operations forecast accuracy… One of the core differences to a SaaS business is the volatility, which leads us to plan quarterly.”

Wade Jastremski, Head of Revenue Management and Forecasting

Spotify

As Wade shared with us, Spotify runs a weekly forecasting cadence to stay ahead of shifts. Early in the quarter, the team uses prior year pacing data—analyzing where bookings stood at the same point in the previous year and how they played out—to project where the current quarter may land.

But it's not just historical modeling. Spotify layers in:

• Sales velocity indicators and weighted pipeline visibility

• Daily run rates from automated buying (programmatic + self-serve)

• Bottoms-up rep inputs, rolled up at the advertiser and vertical level

This multi-pronged approach helps Spotify triangulate their forecast and deliver predictable revenue within 1–3 percentage points.  

Here's Wade breaking down Spotify’s forecasting process — from weekly run-rates to quarterly projections:

Overall, if you’re operating in a volatile or seasonal market, consider shifting to more frequent forecasting with a blend of historical pacing, sales rep feedback, and automation-driven data. Improving forecast accuracy isn't just about better numbers—it's how you unlock faster planning cycles, smarter quota setting, and exec team confidence.

Scaling sales performance and forecast accuracy with insight-driven accountability

As the business has matured, so has Spotify’s ability to trust rep-level forecasting inputs. A few years ago, bottom-up forecasts came in at around 80–90% of actuals. Today though, for enterprise reps, Wade shares that figure is up to 96%. This accuracy enables tighter quota alignment and more proactive revenue planning.

How does Wade triangulate forecasts from the top down and bottom up? Here's a clip:

Spotify leverages this confidence not only to refine forecasting, but also to drive mid-quarter course correction. With condensed books of business, reps are expected to articulate what’s driving increases or shortfalls—helping identify where to accelerate or de-risk revenue.

The takeaway? As rep books of business get tighter and your team gains more forecasting maturity, use this trust to deepen accountability. Empower sellers with clarity on their slice of the annual number, and push for visibility into the why behind every forecast line. This is how you go from reactive to proactive.

Global expansion requires operational discipline

As Wade knows very well, expanding a sales organization globally requires nuance, especially when markets differ in maturity, buyer behavior, and sales infrastructure.

Wade’s team encountered this firsthand as Spotify Advertising expanded into regions like the EU5, APAC, and Latin America. In terms of how this impacted their KPIs, he shared:

“Largely across our regions, they're the same metrics we want to look at. I would say the benchmarks are different.”

The U.S. business, for example, is highly concentrated, with client partners managing a small number of advertisers. But international markets required a different approach. Spotify needed to balance penetration among top global advertisers with strategies tailored to local buyers and multi-market campaigns—especially where media spend is centralized in one country but delivered across many.

This complexity shifted the reporting logic. Spotify moved from reporting by delivered country (where the ad was delivered) to tracking revenue by where sales reps generated the deal, creating better alignment between effort and attribution. As Wade recounted:

“Previously we were reporting just on delivered country... It was difficult to coach sales leaders when the attribution didn't match how revenue was actually earned.”

Here's Wade on how Spotify evolved benchmarks amid expansion:

Spotify's global strategy also had to flex across enterprise, SMB, and external partner models, making consistent data governance critical.

Overall, the lesson here for revenue leaders is: when scaling internationally, avoid assuming one-size-fits-all benchmarks. Instead, focus on:

• Aligning sales performance metrics to rep effort, not just delivery location

• Adjusting benchmarks by market maturity

• Investing early in clean attribution models and governance

These are all ways to empower local teams while maintaining global clarity.

Why Spotify centralized RevOps

Prioritizing agility, Spotify made a strategic shift: consolidating its once-regionally fragmented sales operations into a centralized, functional global structure, which Wade shared was critical.

"We had 15 people forecasting—all using the same methodology but interpreting the data differently. It led to inconsistency and confusion. Centralizing that function has driven accuracy and consistency."

Ultimately Spotify consolidated forecasting, quota setting, reporting, territory planning, and analytics into functional centers of excellence.

“Forecasting is something that can be done centrally. We should all be using the same docs, we should all be using the same metrics.”

While there are still localized needs—sales ops personnel in-market for time zone coverage and team rapport—Spotify now anchors its RevOps model in global consistency.

Key takeaway: If your rapidly scaling Sales or RevOps team is still regionally siloed, consider the costs of duplication and misalignment. Centralizing core RevOps functions:

• Eliminates redundant work and manual reconciliation

• Creates consistent metrics and language for decision-making

• Unlocks more accurate and faster forecasting

It may take a reorg, but as Wade notes, the benefits have been immediate and significant.

“Advocate for global functional sales ops. There are regional benefits, but functional expertise, consistent docs, shared metrics—that leads to more informed decisions.”

Wade's hot takes on the future of sales ops

Lastly, in a rapid-fire "hot seat" segment, Wade shared an unfiltered perspective on org structure to quota methodology. His answers offer a peek into how Spotify thinks about scaling high-performance revenue teams.

Is Sales Ops becoming the new RevOps?

‍Wade has seen this evolution firsthand—and fully embraces it. While Spotify originally called his team "Revenue Operations," it was clear to him that the function was more than workflows and reporting.

“We are that data-driven consultative partner to executive leadership. And within that comes expansion of roles and responsibility.”

His take? When Sales Ops nails strategy and forecasting, it earns the trust to take on more. Overall, this year, expect more Sales Ops teams to expand their remit and become the connective tissue across GTM.

Quota setting in media: More science than art

Despite the volatility in media, Wade argues quota setting should be 90% science vs art.

Spotify's approach ensures reps are measured fairly and consistently. And Wade is clear: you can’t build a high-performance culture by “peanut butter spreading” quotas to accommodate underperformance.

If your Sales Ops team is seen as a back-office function, it may be time to reposition it as a strategic driver. Lean into data, partner deeply with leadership, and structure comp and quota with rigor—not gut feel.

Tune in to the entire epsiode above for Wade's view on whether AI can coach sales teams, and much more!