So here’s the success story of Xactly Corporation, a company on the cutting edge of sales comp today.


What Every Sales Leader Needs to Know


The New Frontier is Built on Data:


CHRIS CABRERA As a long-time sales rep and


leader, I saw first hand the damage that can be caused by this approach. Case in point, I was overpaid by $72,000 in commissions one quar- ter, at a previous job. I returned the money, but that experience forever changed the way I look at compensa- tion management and its potential. Starting then, I made it my mis- sion to redefine sales and employee performance management, using incentive compensation as a strate- gic lever to drive engagement and performance.


The Rise of Data-Driven


Incentive Compensation I don’t think anyone would argue against the idea that Sales is the lifeblood of any business, with com- pensation as the primary vehicle to inspire employee engagement and success. Ironically, it also happens to be one of the biggest cost centers in any organization. Companies in the U.S. spend more than $800 billion on sales compensation annually – three times more than what is spent on advertising and $100 billion more than the gov- ernment spends on national defense. This is big money we are talking about, with the potential for costly pitfalls or performance-driving success. So why, in this golden age of technology, do an estimated 85 percent of organizations still rely on spreadsheets to manage this critical process?


26 | MAY 2016 SELLING POWER © 2016 SELLING POWER. CALL 1-800-752-7355 FOR REPRINT PERMISSION.


Compensation Meets the Cloud In 2005 I founded Xactly, the first


company to democratize incentive compensation management (ICM) and sales performance manage- ment (SPM) by moving them from on premises to the Cloud. With Xactly, companies of all sizes and industries could automate their compensation accurately, reliably, and affordably. This opened up organizations to a new


world of compensation management. For starters, our customers were no longer inhibited by what they could realistically track and manage manu- ally in spreadsheets. Plan design and execution could revolve around what was best for their businesses. Secondly, sales reps had 100 per- cent visibility into their sales pipelines, from any device, at any time. They were able to estimate how chang- ing the structure of a deal – say from one year to two – would affect their commission payouts, and they could see how close they were to reach- ing their goals. This inspired them to give that little bit of extra effort to meet their objectives and, in turn, meet the goals of the company. With spreadsheets, sales teams were lucky to have visibility into their commis- sions – weeks or even months after a cycle closed. Only then could they begin the painstaking process of comparing the commission they were paid on each deal to the numbers in their personal shadow accounting to


“ Like many companies, we had spreadsheets all over the company. Trying to standardize and integrate these spreadsheets all into one area for incentive programs was necessary both from an audit requirement and HR standpoint. Automating our incentive compensation was critical.”


– PATTI BLISS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, FROST BANK


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