INBOUND 2024 was a whirlwind of energy, innovation, and unforgettable experiences. 

The QuotaPath team was right in the heart of it all, making waves with our massive casino-themed booth (because who wants to gamble on commissions?), an exciting product launch in HubSpot with our App Cards, a speaking session that drew a filled room on pipeline reviews, and co-sponsoring one of the best happy hour events of the week. 

We also had the opportunity to connect with some of the brightest minds—HubSpot executives, App Partners, developers, customers, and more—throughout meeting-filled days.

But the real win? The pipeline we generated from booth demos, valuable conversations, and engaging experiences. INBOUND 2024 proved to be not just an incredible event, but a wise investment with a lucrative return for our team.

If you didn’t catch it all, don’t worry—we’ve rounded up the top 10 things you might have missed! 

Let’s dive in.

Easy. Fast. Unified.

Much of the theme from INBOUND’s Partner Day, an invite-only event designed exclusively for HubSpot partners, including solutions partners, app partners, and agency partners, focused on the theme, “Easy. Fast. Unified.”

This included a nod to the 200 product updates HubSpot launched throughout the Fall of 2024, and HubSpot’s ongoing efforts to bring together app and solutions partners who complement and build upon HubSpot’s easy, fast, and unified methodology.

Like us, who have invested in making significant enhancements to our integration with HubSpot that continue to bring powerful new capabilities to the HubSpot CRM ecosystem. (See: Commissions data and actions now in HubSpot.)

“At HubSpot, we work with scaling companies from all over the world, and they all have three things in common: they value tools that are easy, fast, and unified,” said Andy Pitre, EVP of Product at HubSpot, “Without these three ingredients, growth is harder to achieve. That’s why everything we build at HubSpot is easy, fast, and unified, including the over 200 updates from this year’s Fall 2024 Spotlight.”

Breeze

The darling of the Fall 2024 Spotlight was none other than Breeze, HubSpot’s AI to power the customer platform.

As part of this, HubSpot introduced Copilot, a new AI companion designed to boost productivity and streamline work across the platform. It includes four AI agents—Content Agent, Social Media Agent, Prospecting Agent, and Customer Agent—that help users complete tasks efficiently. 

Additionally, HubSpot unveiled Breeze Intelligence, a powerful data enrichment and buyer intent solution. Breeze enriches contact and company records using a database of over 200 million profiles and identifies high-fit prospects through buyer intent data. It also features form shortening, automatically filling in known information to improve conversion rates. Copilot and Breeze Intelligence are part of over 80 new AI-powered features embedded in HubSpot’s platform.

Read more about Breeze here.

Manage Commissions in HubSpot

Learn more about QuotaPath’s App Cards built natively in HubSpot Sales Hub for familiar, seamless experience.

Read More

Launch of Natively-built Apps in HubSpot

Called App Cards, HubSpot unveiled new App Cards powered by UI extensions from QuotaPath, Sendoso, Arrows, and more.

These companies received an exclusive, invite-only opportunity to build directly on top of HubSpot to present a uniquely native and unified experience within Sales Hub. 
Now, without having to toggle between platforms, Sales Hub customers can unlock commission tracking and forecasting, send gifts, and coordinate onboarding, amongst other mission critical tasks to the customer journey, directly in HubSpot.

“Companies that customize their CRM are 1.2x more likely to experience organizational growth.”

Read up on it here.

Growth Fund for Partners ($10M)

Another update that came directly from Partner Day was HubSpot’s announcement of a $10M Growth Fund.

This fund is created to recognize and reward partners who are driving substantial growth. The first group of qualified partners for 2025 has been selected based on their achievements in three key areas: sourced ARR, Upmarket ARR, and customer retention.

The fund will be ongoing, with plans to reopen for additional participants in 2026.

Plus, the new funds underscore HubSpot’s dedication to empowering its customers with innovative tools and services. By supporting promising startups and established companies within the HubSpot ecosystem, HubSpot aims to drive growth and innovation for both its partners and its customers.

Learn more here.

Increased APIs

Next up, increased APIs!

API limits control the number of requests a system can handle to ensure performance, reliability, and fair usage. And last week, HubSpot announced they are increasing them to provide more flexibility and capacity to scale their operations for accounts with Professional or Enterprise subscriptions, as well as those using the API Limit Increase capacity pack.

For Professional accounts, the daily request limit will increase from 500,000 to 650,000, with burst limits rising from 150 to 190 requests per 10 seconds. Enterprise accounts will see their daily limit increase to 1 million requests per day, with the same burst limit. 

The API Limit Increase capacity pack now adds 1 million daily requests, with the option to purchase two packs for an additional 2 million requests, and boosts the burst limit to 250 requests per 10 seconds.

Public apps will also see their burst limits increase from 100 to 110 requests per 10 seconds, while the CRM Search API will have its burst limit raised to 5 requests per second and will support up to 200 records per response, up from 100. These changes are already live for existing accounts and reflected in the X-HubSpot-RateLimit- response headers.

Learn more here. 

Marketing-Focused No More

Remember when INBOUND, and HubSpot even, was just for marketers?

That is not the case in 2024.

Twelve years later and the conference is filled with leaders and teams from the entire go-to-market function.

We checked our event lead base (north of 6,000 contacts) and 60% were not from the marketing function, according to titles and main responsibilities. 

Compare that to 20% in 2012 according to previous event data, and we think it’s fair to say that the times… they are a changing.

For companies like us, with buyers consisting of RevOps, Sales, and Finance leaders looking to make their sales and commissions processes easier, this is great news.

Sales Rapper, Content Creator, and Co-Founder of Event Shark Ding Zheng wraps while playing Blackjack at the QuotaPath booth at INBOUND24 alongside HubSpot Co-Founder and Chairperson Brian Halligan.

Content Creators

Whether you like it or not (we welcome it!), the rise of content creators at conferences like INBOUND has become a significant trend.

The presence of creators was more visible than ever, with many seen filming themselves or accompanied by small production teams. 

This shift highlights the evolving landscape of marketing and networking, where personal and professional brand-building often occurs simultaneously. 

Content creators are not just there to learn—they are sharing, engaging, and shaping the narrative of the event in real-time, amplifying its reach far beyond the walls of the venue. This trend is a testament to the growing power of individual voices in the digital age, and it’s clear that content creators will continue to play a pivotal role in the future of conferences like INBOUND.

For instance, we were featured in four separate videos, including HubSpot’s production team, RevPartners’, and the creator above, Ding Zheng. 

Sales Hub is Happening.

The growing adoption of HubSpot’s Sales Hub was evident at INBOUND.
This comes as no surprise, as over the past five years, HubSpot’s platform has been embraced by more than 150,000 companies, and Sales Hub has played a pivotal role in transforming how these businesses manage their sales operations.

Leaders are drawn to its seamless integration along with powerful features like automated lead scoring, AI-driven forecasting, and customizable sales pipelines.

The enthusiasm for Sales Hub was clear as we heard firsthand how sales teams are ditching legacy systems in favor of HubSpot’s agile, all-in-one platform.

Many emphasized how Sales Hub has streamlined their processes, automated critical tasks, and provided real-time insights that help their teams close deals faster. As more companies look for scalable and flexible solutions, Sales Hub’s growing presence in the market is solidifying it as the go-to CRM for modern sales organizations.

Solution Partners + App Partners + HubSpot is the Future of HubSpot

The future of HubSpot lies in the collaboration between Solution Partners, App Partners, and HubSpot itself. 

We’re seeing a shift where Solution Partners and App Partners are no longer just working independently with HubSpot—they’re working together.

This partnership ecosystem is creating new opportunities for innovation and growth.

At QuotaPath, we fully embraced this shift by setting up numerous meetings with Solution Partners at INBOUND to explore how we can collaborate, drive mutual success, and ultimately grow our business—and HubSpot’s—together.

This new model of partnership is paving the way for a more interconnected and powerful HubSpot ecosystem.

INBOUND 2025 in San Francisco!

And last but not least, INBOUND25 is headed to the West Coast!

The event will take place earlier in the month next year, Sept. 3-5, at Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Will you be there?

Wrapping Up INBOUND 2024: A Transformative Year for Partnerships and Innovation

INBOUND 2024 was a landmark event for innovation, growth, and collaboration. 

QuotaPath was at the center of the action, making a bold statement with our casino-themed booth, launching our App Cards directly in HubSpot, and delivering a packed speaking session on pipeline reviews. Beyond the exciting events, the real success came from the valuable conversations and partnerships we fostered. Meetings with HubSpot executives, App Partners, Solution Partners, and customers led to new opportunities, and our demo-packed booth generated a significant pipeline—solidifying our participation as a lucrative investment.

This year’s theme of “Easy. Fast. Unified” resonated throughout INBOUND, especially during Partner Day, where HubSpot emphasized the importance of collaboration between Solution Partners and App Partners. 

We experienced this firsthand by setting up numerous meetings with Solution Partners to explore new ways of working together to drive mutual growth. As HubSpot continues to evolve its product offerings and ecosystem, we’re excited to be a part of this forward-thinking community that is paving the way for more seamless and powerful integrations.

Want to learn more about QuotaPath’s seamless integration with HubSpot’s Sales Hub for streamlined commission process and earnings visibility? Schedule time with our team to learn more.

At QuotaPath, we’ve always been committed to providing innovative solutions that empower sales teams and revenue leaders. Today, I’m excited to share a major update we’ve been working on since February—a significant enhancement to our integration with HubSpot that brings powerful new capabilities to the HubSpot CRM ecosystem.

Now, using the QuotaPath App Card, reps and admins can see the commission data most relevant to their role and take action without leaving the CRM.

This results from an exclusive invite we received, along with a few other organizations, to develop directly on top of HubSpot Sales Hub.

HubSpot’s release of their public-facing UI extensions, called App Cards, has opened a new frontier for us. These extensions allow companies like ours to build on top of HubSpot’s existing instances, creating seamless and native experiences that elevate their CRM capabilities.

A New Frontier in CRM Integration

What sets HubSpot apart from other CRM platforms is its ability to offer these UI extensions as a layer that feels like a complete, cohesive product. 

HubSpot’s approach allows us to use its assets to build a truly integrated experience — one that feels native, complete, and designed for the user from the ground up.

For QuotaPath, this integration means we can now offer a suite of features directly within HubSpot’s interface. 

Imagine being able to approve deals, flag deals for review, or monitor commission payouts without ever leaving HubSpot. Our new App Card makes all of this possible, providing a system of engagement that keeps teams focused and efficient within the CRM they already use.

Enhancing Forecasting and Real-Time Insights

One of the standout features of our App Card is its ability to improve forecasting capabilities —a critical pain point for many organizations that can be the difference between hitting targets and falling short.  

This type of forecasting in a CRM doesn’t exist anywhere else.

Sales reps can now forecast their earnings in real-time, alongside deal values, directly within HubSpot. This functionality allows reps to see not only the potential revenue for the company but also their commission potential, which drives personal motivation and aligns their efforts with the company’s objectives.

We’ve taken “Rep Visibility” to the next level by matching your sales teams’ incentives directly with the company revenue to ensure another level of predictability. 

This more precise link between company objectives and predictable revenue forecasts allows teams to operate more urgently and efficiently.

Driving Impact and Achieving Goals Together

Our vision for this integration goes beyond just adding new features. 

It’s about partnering with HubSpot to enhance their CRM’s functionality, keep sales teams operating smoothly, and create a thriving ecosystem for HubSpot and QuotaPath users. 

This is just the beginning. 

We’re starting a journey to create a tightly integrated experience that will unlock even more collaborative opportunities between our organizations.

Looking Ahead: Feedback and Future Plans

What excites us most about this update is the opportunity to deliver it to our customers and see the impact firsthand. 

We’re eager to gather feedback, understand where we’re delivering value, and identify areas for further improvement. This is the start of a continuous journey to enhance our offerings and ensure we provide the best possible experience for HubSpot users.

Setting up App Cards is straightforward for our current HubSpot customers who are already bringing HubSpot data to QuotaPath. 

• In HubSpot Deals, click any deal and then click “Customize record” on the top right.
• Select a View to add App Cards to.
• Click “Add card” in the middle column of the page and enable the two new QuotaPath App Cards: “Earnings Overview” and “Earnings Details”. 
• Reposition them where you like, and hit Save.

You can follow the same steps to add them to the Deal Preview panel as well in HubSpot Deals, that would also enable them in HubSpot Forecasting.

If you’re a HubSpot user but not yet a QuotaPath one, you can trial the experience for free. 

See us at INBOUND

Lastly, this announcement launched at HubSpot’s INBOUND conference. We’re here to share these exciting updates while showcasing the value of our integration. 

If you’re attending INBOUND, I encourage you to stop by our booth (No. 7), attend our speaking session, and see these new features in action.

This integration marks a significant milestone in our partnership with HubSpot, and we’re just getting started. The excitement within QuotaPath is palpable, and we can’t wait to continue this journey, hand in hand with HubSpot, to create a better, more integrated CRM experience for all.

We look forward to seeing you at INBOUND and hearing your thoughts on these exciting new developments.

— AJ Bruno
CEO, QuotaPath

Due to the growing complexity of sales incentive programs, 97% of revenue leaders admitted to challenges with their sales compensation plans, including:

• 19% doesn’t motivate reps
• 19% contains unrealistic expectations
• 18% are too hard to execute
• 17% too complicated to understand

Traditional compensation management tools require heavy onboarding periods and aren’t the time-savers they’re supposed to be. Heck, they even make it difficult for admins to adjust plans in the platform by requiring tickets with support and long wait times for the simplest plan changes.

Complex incentive compensation plans require more advanced solutions to streamline sales compensation management processes. Sales commission software platforms like Performio, QuotaPath, CaptivateIQ, Spiff, and Xactly address traditional compensation management software challenges to lighten admins’ loads.

This blog compares Peformio competitors such as QuotaPath, CaptivateIQ, Spiff, and Xactly.

We’ll look at each platform’s key features and benefits and discuss how to select the best sales commission software to meet your organization’s needs.

Alternatives and Competitors Summary

Before diving into the details, let’s start with a brief overview of the Performio alternatives.

Criteria for Choosing Sales Compensation Tools

Consider these elements as you evaluate sales compensation solutions for your organization.

Consider these elements as you evaluate sales compensation solutions for your organization. 

 Buyers Guide

Transparent pricing and the opportunity to try sales commission software before you commit are essential. Here’s where each of the Performio alternatives stand.

Check Out Real Reviews

Doing thorough research before you buy means reading reviews by actual customers who have experienced the sales compensation solutions you are considering for a more informed selection.

QuotaPath 

G2: “Best choice in commission software”

What do you like best about QuotaPath?

When evaluating software I look at a few factors.

1. Ease of use

2. Ease of Integration and Implementation

3. Ongoing customer support and experience

The team at QuotaPath is very knowledgeable in this space and it shows that they understand the pains of commission management and payout with how easy their software is to set up and use.

Also, have had the best experience onboarding and feel confident that we have the right structure in place for our sales team.

Capterra: “Great tool to scale revenue “

Pros: Excellent tool that took a 9-16 hour process and eliminated it from our sales ops and accounting teams. Favorite functions- Integrations with our CRM, Clean UI, not over-featured, and the ability to handle complex commissions. But most of all customer support is top-notch.

HubSpot App Marketplace: Great for tracking complicated and fluctuating commissions

So far QP is fantastic for tracking many different plans for sales commissions. It automatically notifies you when a commission changes in our portal. This is very helpful when knowing all the money that you have paid, overpaid and underpaid. The integration with HS is almost as if it were another section of HubSpot. It automates commissions at specific deal stages and dates. We love it.

TrustRadius: Outstanding Solution and a Great Company to Partner With

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We used another product before Quotapath that somehow lost all of our commission data. This left us in a difficult position, and as a result, we reverted to manual commission reports on Excel. With more than 20 commissioned salespeople and growing, this became time-consuming and prone to error. It also provided no real-time visibility by our salespeople into their current standings. Quotapath made commission reporting almost effortless through its direct integration with SalesForce.com while providing the insight our commissioned staff requires. 

CaptivateIQ

G2: “Easy to understand ICM solution”

What do you like best about CaptivateIQ?

If you are familiar with basic data structure, SQL concepts and Excel tables you can quickly pick-up and understand CaptivateIQ.

The solution checks off several key boxes you would expect from an ICM:

– Commission Calculators and Statements

– Data import automation from Salesforce and Workato integrations many solutions

– Hierarchy Management

– Commission Approval templates (employee/manager review)

– Plan document distribution with DocuSign

The key positives with CaptivateIQ:

1) Workato Integrations are not charged with a monthly fee like with other solutions

2) Ability to solve a lot of data source complexity with Union and Join functionality in a visual relationship solution which includes the ability to trace measures to source data for troubleshooting.

What do you dislike about CaptivateIQ?

CaptivateIQ had a couple of key issues that caused us to stumble.

1) Failed integrations – When we originally scoped the solution, we thought the integration of data from our Microsoft Dynamics FO solution would have been easy. It was anything but. That forced us to do manual data imports which did not support the value of an automated ICM solution

2) Difficult Reporting – The reporting solution integrated in CaptivateIQ isn’t very intuitive and it’s difficult to share reporting to users outside of the system like with other ICM solutions.

3) Plan Management solution (where we send plan docs and get them signed) requires the use DocuSign. When my company switched to AdobeSign to save money it caused issues using this solution

Capterra: “A great tool that has found the sweet spot between functionality and simplicity”

Overall: We use CaptivateIQ to automate variable compensation calculations, along with sales performance tracking against quota. Time spent every month performing calculations is reduced by more than 90%, while calculation accuracy has increased. Payees no longer need to wait 1-2 weeks after month close before seeing expected payment amounts. They now have the option of previewing updated pay statements in real time as deals close.

Pros: Easy for a single individual to administer the entire application. Successfully and intuitively mirrors Excel functionality. Ease of integration with Salesforce CRM. Relatively easy to configure plans and troubleshoot any errors in calculation logic. The wealth of help articles and plan examples made available to customers in the product knowledge base. Pace and consistency in which the application receives updates.

Cons: Building custom reports is relatively convoluted compared to the rest of the application. Pay statement formatting and customization is functional, but a little basic.

HubSpot App Marketplace:

No listing

TrustRadius: CIQ Very user friendly & great support

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use CIQ to calculate sales reps’ commission payouts, the main business problem is the automation and streamlined process that the CIQ solution provides, it eliminates human error

Pros and Cons

• calculates the commission accurately
• Reporting
• Cloning existing plans

• Creating plans from scratch without support
• The test environment isn’t 100% replicated from production
• More reporting functionalities

 Spiff

G2: “Comprehensive CRM Solution with Robust Feaures and Excellent Support.”

What do you like best about Salesforce Spiff?

In my use of Salesforce Spiff is intuitive once you get used to it, though the extensive features can be overwhelming initially.

Implementation requires careful planning and execution. It’s complex but manageable with proper resources.

Salesforce provides good customer support and detailed assistance but in some cases, complex issues take more time to be fixed. I am used daily for managing customer relationships, tracking sales, and generating reports. Salesforce integrates smoothly with other tools.

What do you dislike about Salesforce Spiff?

In my opinion, the initial setup and configuration are pretty complex. It took us a lot of time and effort to get everything right. I think it’s expensive, which can be a challenge for smaller businesses or startups. Customer support is good but in some cases needing their help frequently for complex issues can slow us down.

Capterra: “A different company under Salesforce”

Overall: Unfortunate timing for us with the acquisition … of Spiff.com under Salesforce. ..thus the lost talent is going to be a major issue. We’ve been pushed to move on to the latest platform of Spiff.com which has been positioned to us as “not really ready” and they’ll be moving forward with it prematurely, fixing on the fly and/or rolling back until it’s stable.
It’s worth stating the obvious here but this is commission software that, when errors occur, greatly impacts the revenue operations team and eventually the general morale of the sales team. You could argue that one month of errors is somewhat acceptable but a second month with the same errors is simply unacceptable and a third month was enough for us to have to take our business elsewhere.

Despite Spiff acknowledging these issues, they simply pointed to the 2-year contract with the expectation of us continuing to partner with them. We have pivoted to Dealhub in this area for that reason. Our move to CaptivateIQ is a breath of fresh air and what required days/weeks of internal discussions at Spiff.com is something we are simply able to manage ourselves. The sales team are happy again and our rev ops team is no longer consumed by a single application. Glad we pulled the plug when we did before we realised churn in our organisation was attributable to Spiff.com

Happy to speak to anyone privately before you decide on a commission tool for your business given how in-depth our knowledge is in this area. For example, on the surface, Spiff.com and CaptivateIQ appear to be very similar but the sync time from SFDC to Spiff.com is ~2 hours so an AE is unable to see wins in real-time.

Pros: A decent set of folks trying to do the right thing if they had the bandwidth.

Cons: Terrible customer support which they admitted was a symptom of the acquisition. The same issues month in and month out impacted the morale of our sales org significantly. Our rev ops team has since implemented CaptivateIQ and the difference in the quality of the product and service is night and day.

HubSpot App Marketplace:

No listing

TrustRadius: Salesforce Spiff – all you need for commission Calculation.

Overall Satisfaction with Salesforce Spiff

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Salesforce Spiff is a great tool that helps in commission calculations. I have saved a large amount of hours previously invested in Excel data from different sources. Now it all gets clear and sales reps have full access to their monthly numbers, making everyone happy and avoiding unnecessary calls to evaluate how much is the correct amount.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Dashboard
• Communication
• Calculation
• Reporting
• Navigation Friendly

Cons

• Reporting needs a bit of improvement
• The customized reporting tool is not the best
• Sometimes support is a bit slow in replying to tickets 

Xactly

G2: “Comp Administration made easy by Xactly”

What do you like best about Xactly Incent?

Xactly is a user-friendly tool that really helps manage processing and reporting commissions. Incent is only one aspect of this tool, which is the key part. You can easily manage individual team member data, quotas, TI and revenue individually or in a batch. The processing time is overall pretty fast compared to other applications out there. The UI is great and constantly changing to accommodate additional needs, requirements and enhancements; although those changes are not so drastic and often beneficial and enable the user to be more efficient.

What do you dislike about Xactly Incent?

The only thing I dislike is when having to make drastic mid-year plan changes, where rules and formulas also need to change. This can sometimes become a little frustrating, but Xactly support is always available and quick to lend a helping hand.

Capterra: “Xactly – a Worthwhile investment”

Overall: We are able to process quarterly incentives accurately and quickly. This is saving us from having to make multiple adjusting payments after the fact. More importantly, it plays a role in reducing employee turnover as our sales force trusts their commission calculations and does not think they are being cheated by poor execution on the quarterly calculations.

Pros: Xactly is able to handle extremely complicated incentive calculations, utilizing data from multiple sources. It is flexible enough to accommodate rapidly changing organizations. From my perspective the best aspect of Xactly is the excellent customer support that comes with a license. The Xactly team is very responsive to address issues quickly, which is essential when trying to calculate incentive payouts in time for payroll deadlines.

Cons: Xactly does require significant investment to learn how to operate. It is a sophisticated program that has its own rules and processes. However, as a compensation professional, I have found it worthwhile to invest time to learn how to use Xactly. I used spreadsheets for years, but our profession is moving more and more towards full automation.

HubSpot App Marketplace:

No profile

TrustRadius:

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use the system as our source of truth for all commissions. Our reps are able to track their sales and commission payments using the system. Prior to implementing it exactly, we used an Excel spreadsheet to calculate commission. Then, I uploaded them to an outdated system; the reps had no visibility of their commission or how we came up with the numbers. Now that they can see it, they can inquire if items are missing or incorrect, and we can make it right, so they trust the process.

Pros

• Lay out of statements are easy for the reps.
• Reports are easy to pull.
• Auditing tools help.

Cons

• Non hierarchy-based reporting tools.
• No historical views of data.
• New views are hard to use.

#1 QuotaPath

Top QuotaPath features: 

• Performance Plan Modeling and Forecasting
• HubSpot and Salesforce visibility directly in those apps
• Multi-level payout approvals
• Mapping Manager 
• Dynamic Teams

QuotaPath Pricing:

Ranges from $25 – $45 per person per month

What customers say:

QuotaPath is praised for its cost-effectiveness, ease of use, and ability to improve commission visibility and confidence among sales teams, with strong customer support and seamless integration with other tech stack tools.

#2 CaptivateIQ

Top CaptivateIQ features:

• SmartGrid™: ELT & Calculation Engine
• Assist: AI-Powered Intelligence
• Enterprise Workflow Automation

CaptivateIQ Pricing:

Not available on CaptivateIQ website or review pages

What customers say:

Users find CaptivateIQ highly customizable, user-friendly, and effective for clear reporting and commission calculation transparency, supported by a strong customer service team. However, some users note issues with navigation, the need for manual data exports, and limitations in filtering or sorting fields within the platform.

#3 Spiff

Top Spiff features: 

• Advanced Reporting & Analytics
• Advanced Team Management
• Powerful Testing Capabilities

Spiff Pricing:

Not available on Spiff website. According to review pages, pricing starts at $75 per month per user billed annually.

What customers say:

Users appreciate Spiff for its visibility into commissions, ease of use, and intuitive navigation, comparing it favorably to other tools like Xactly. However, some users mention limitations in filtering by date, challenges in getting detailed deal breakdowns, and difficulties with managing clawbacks within the platform.

#4 Xactly

Top Xactly features:

• Compensation configurator
• Customized incentive statements
• Real-time reporting and dashboards

Xactly Pricing:

Not available on Xactly website or on review pages.

What customers say:

Users appreciate Xactly for its excellent customer support, ease of configuration, and accurate commission calculations, making it suitable for small companies. However, some users experience challenges with complex logic, difficult reporting, and problematic implementation processes.

What Is Best For The Sales Team?

As you weigh your sales commission software options, it’s essential to consider the direct benefits to sales reps when using each platform. These tools can not only help simplify compensation plan design and offer time-saving workflow automation, but they also provide reps with real-time reporting through customizable dashboards.

The right program offers reps transparency, boosts their understanding of earning commissions, increases plan buy-in, and motivates activities that drive quota and organizational objective achievement. When salespeople receive these benefits, team morale and retention are also bolstered.

Use the following checklist to help you evaluate solutions for your sales reps.

• Ease of Use and User Interface: How intuitive is the platform for sales reps?
• Real-time Insights and Data Accessibility: How does the platform provide sales reps with the information they need to perform their jobs effectively?
•  Mobile Optimization: Can sales reps access and utilize the platform on their mobile devices?
• Integration with Existing Tools: How well does the platform integrate with other tools sales reps use daily (CRM, email, etc.)?
• Customer Support and Training: What resources are available to help sales reps learn and utilize the platform effectively?
• Gamification and Motivation: Does the platform offer features to motivate sales reps and foster a competitive spirit?

Sales commission software can address the challenges revenue leaders experience as they design and implement increasingly complex sales incentive programs. However, not all solutions are created equal, so it’s crucial to do thorough research.

Taking steps like looking at review site ratings, checking pricing, trying apps with a free trial, and reading actual user reviews can inform your selection.Learn more about QuotaPath’s user-friendly platform. Start a free trial or schedule time with a team member.

Usage-based pricing models offer a compelling alternative to traditional subscription models, benefiting both businesses and customers. 

Examples of companies that have a usage-based pricing model are: 

• Press Release companies that charge their customers for every release based on the number of words
• Data storage companies that charge per gigabyte of storage used
• VOIP providers that charge for every minute of talk time used by their customers

It’s no wonder this SaaS pricing model has taken off in recent years. For instance, OpenView’s 2023 Usage-Based Pricing Study found that three out of five SaaS companies now use some form of usage-based pricing. 

That’s because by tying pricing directly to product consumption, companies match the amount their customers spend with the value they receive. The result? Increased revenue and improved customer retention. 

However, designing effective usage-based sales compensation plans presents unique challenges and opportunities and requires careful consideration. Key challenges include complex commission structures, motivating sales reps to focus on long-term value, educating customers about the pricing model, ensuring data accuracy, and managing revenue forecasting complexities.

In this blog, we’ll explore the intricacies of a usage-based compensation model and examine its benefits, potential challenges, and best practices for implementation.

Discover how to create a sales compensation structure that drives customer success and sales performance.

Similarities Between Traditional and Usage-Based Compensation Models

Despite the fundamental differences between traditional and usage-based pricing models, the underlying principles of sales compensation remain consistent. Both models involve determining the optimal balance between base pay and variable compensation, aiming to motivate sales reps to drive revenue growth.

Plus, whether a company uses a subscription, usage-based, or hybrid model, sales reps are still compensated based on their ability to generate revenue.

But that’s where the similarities end. 

Challenges with Usage-Based Compensation Models

Implementing a usage-based compensation plan presents several challenges that require careful consideration:

• Balancing Accuracy with Speed of Outcome: Calculating commissions based on usage data can be time-consuming, especially for complex pricing models or large customer bases. Striking a balance between timely payouts and precise calculations is essential.
  
• Predicting Customer Behavior: Accurately forecasting customer usage patterns can be challenging, as consumption levels may fluctuate due to various factors, such as seasonality, economic conditions, or product adoption rates. It can take some customers a full year (or more!) before they are paying for 100% usage.
  
• Data Quality and Integration: Ensuring the accuracy and reliability of usage data is critical for accurate commission calculations. Integrating data from multiple systems and addressing potential discrepancies can be time-consuming.
  
• Sales Rep Motivation: Designing a compensation plan that motivates sales reps to focus on long-term customer value, rather than short-term gains, requires careful consideration of metrics and incentives.
  
• Customer Education: Clearly communicating the usage-based pricing model to customers and educating them on the benefits can be challenging.
  
• System Complexity: Implementing a usage-based compensation model often requires significant investments in technology and infrastructure to track usage, calculate commissions, and provide accurate reporting. This can delay usage, which can delay spend. 

Organizations can successfully implement usage-based compensation plans and maximize their benefits by understanding and addressing these challenges.

Below, I’ll review two of the most common, “pure” ways to run compensation off a usage-based model. 

The 2 Purest Ways to Pay on Usage-Based Plans

Usually, I see usage-based compensation plans set up according to estimated revenue or actual revenue.

Estimated Revenue

With estimated revenue, you tie attainment and comp to an estimated revenue number or assumption of the amount that will be spent during their contract. 

So, if you project a customer will spend $100,000 over the next year, the rep earns $100K of quota attainment. 

This is very similar to a regular compensation plan, but you should only do this if you’re confident in your revenue model’s estimates. 

A lot of external factors put this plan and estimates at risk.

For instance, if you sell a tool for recruiting and charge per background check a customer runs, an unexpected hiring freeze could throw off those numbers. Or, more recently, for corporate credit card companies that charge on usage, COVID would’ve thrown off their estimated spending since everyone stopped or slowed down travel spending. 

However, some industries have it much easier to get a reasonable estimate, like data warehouses that charge per API call, and each of their customers has a consistent, predictable amount of API calls.

Advantages:

The compensation process is quick. Rep closes a deal. They earn quota credit, their commissions, and everyone moves on.

Disadvantages:

So much of it depends on the accuracy of your usage and spend prediction. 

Actual Revenue

The alternative usage-based compensation plan is based on actual revenue.

In this process, if I’m the rep, I close a deal, and every month for the first 12 months, whatever the customer spends is what I earn toward quota credit and commissions.

Advantage:

Super accurate, the rep only gets credit for the true value the customer brings to your company.

Because the rep is incentivized to have the customer spend quick, they are often involved in the onboarding process, which could accelerate time-to-value.

Disadvantage:

Delayed outcome speed for the rep may impact motivation or put new reps in a tough spot. 

For instance, it would take a full year for me as a rep to earn credit, and it would take a full year for a new rep to get credit. 

Also, a huge early deal could set the rep up to hit their quota every month thereafter, enabling them to sit pretty and not push to overachieve. 

Usage-Based Compensation Plan Middle Ground Options

Just because those two formats are the cleanest doesn’t mean they’re the only way to pay commissions in a usage-based compensation plan. Below, you’ll find just a few of the countless ways companies pay their reps who sell on consumption pricing. 

Blended model

The blended model does exactly what it sounds like: it blends estimated revenue and actual revenue models. In this model, you reward partial quota credit at the front end based on estimated revenue with the opportunity to earn the rest, more, or less, throughout the year.

Let’s say a rep closes a deal with an estimated revenue of $120k. If I want to pay 10% of the deal value ($12k), I would first pay 5% of the estimated revenue (5% of $120k = $6k). Then, I would pay 5% of usage for the next 12 months. 

The rep gets paid their full commission if the usage is truly $120k. If the usage is higher than $120k, the rep earns more! The same is true if the usage is lower. 

Commission Triggers

To get your reps paid more quickly, you might consider giving them quota credit based on the estimated revenue but not paying out the commission until certain events (or ‘triggers’) happen.

For example, if you pay 10% of estimated revenue and the rep closes a $80k estimated revenue deal, they would earn $8k in commission. From there, 25% of the commission ($2k) would be paid immediately. The next 25% is paid once the customer is onboarded. The final 50% commission is paid out once the customer hits 50% of their estimated spend for the year – or $40k. 

True-Ups

In the true-up plan, you pay a commission based on the estimate, and then at the end of the 12 months, you add or subtract from the commission based on actual usage over the year. 

This model is helpful for situations where you want to pay the rep quickly but want to ensure the estimates are accurate. Some organizations only do a true-up if the estimate is wrong by a certain amount, say +/- 20% off the estimate.

An example would be if someone closes an estimated $40k deal, they get paid 10% of that up front—$4k. Then, at the end of the year, if the customer actually only spent $20k, you would claw back $2k. 

Guaranteed Minimums

A good way to ensure your reps aren’t under or overpaid is to have the customer commit to a minimum spend over the year – and compensate your reps on that amount.

This does require the company to but into this strategy, and we don’t recommend letting your comp plans dictate your company strategy… it should be the other way around! 

Shorter Durations

Because many organizations pay for the first 12 months of a contract, so some people don’t even consider this option. However, if you pay 10% on any revenue for the first 12 months, you could just as easily pay 20% on any revenue on the first six months. Or even pay 40% of any revenue for the first three months.

Most organizations avoid this because spending varies throughout the year, and it tends to take a company a while to ramp up spending. But if neither applies to you, this is a perfectly good methodology!

Automate Usage-Based Compensation Models with QuotaPath

Like other commission structures, usage-based models have rollout options that are dependent on your business. 

Are you looking to implement a usage-based compensation plan? QuotaPath can help. We’ve led numerous clients through transitioning to this model and then automated the tracking, payouts, and management. Our platform can adapt to your needs, ensuring smooth integration and automation.

Remember, a clear and transparent usage-based comp plan is essential for team alignment and success.

To learn more about QuotaPath, schedule time with our team. 

Q4 is the final sprint in the annual sales race. Maintaining momentum, motivation, and focus is crucial to crossing the finish line.

While base compensation plans provide a solid foundation, strategic SPIFFs (sales performance incentive funds) can be a powerful catalyst to drive exceptional performance during this critical period. 

However, crafting effective SPIFs requires careful consideration to ensure they align with your overall sales strategy and deliver the desired results.

This blog delves into the importance of SPIFs in Q4, explores best practices for implementation, and provides real-world examples from eight Sales and RevOps leaders, as sourced by our professional communities, RevOps Co-op, Women in Sales, and Pavilion. 

By the end, you’ll have a clear understanding of how to design and execute SPIF programs that energize your team, boost sales, and exceed your Q4 goals.

SPIFF Program Management

Effective program management and optimization are the keys to unlocking the power of spiffs.

Read More

SPIFF Best Practices

Your SPIFF is only as good as your implementation of it. 

To help, consider these SPIFF best practices.

Understanding Your Sales Team’s Motivations

Before crafting a SPIFF, it’s crucial to understand what truly drives your sales team. While leaders often have a vision for what motivates reps, gathering direct feedback is essential. This involves actively listening to your team’s needs, desires, and pain points. Understanding their perspective allows you to design SPIFs that resonate and deliver maximum impact.

Crafting the Perfect SPIF

A successful SPIFF aligns with your overall business objectives while motivating your sales team. We’ve found that the best ones share the following in common:

• Clear Goals: Define specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals for your SPIFF. What do you want to achieve? Is it increased sales of a new product, improved customer retention, or expansion into a new market?
• Compelling Rewards: Determine incentives that truly excite your team. While monetary rewards are common, consider offering experiences, exclusive merchandise, or public recognition.
• Simplicity: Keep the rules clear and easy to understand. Avoid complex calculations or convoluted eligibility criteria.
• Timeframe: Define a clear start and end date for the SPIFF to create a sense of urgency.

Maximizing SPIFF Impact

To truly leverage the power of SPIFFs, consider these best practices:

• Utilize sales performance management tools to track progress, calculate payouts, and analyze results.
• Communicate the SPIFF goals, rules, and rewards to your sales team.
• Publicly recognize top performers to foster a competitive and rewarding environment.
• Analyze SPIFF performance data to refine future programs.

By following these guidelines, you can create SPIFF programs that boost sales and enhance employee morale and engagement. A well-executed SPIFF is more than just an incentive; it’s a strategic tool to drive your business forward.

Q4 SPIFF Examples

For the inspiration for the Q4 SPIFF example, we sourced our communities to learn from the best.

Check out what these eight leaders found successful with their teams. 

Lindsay Rios, Revenue Leader

“The ones I’ve seen to motivate my teams the most were:

1. Extra day off
2. Fast start spiff ( Earned after reaching 70% of quota at the halfway mark and you had to hit quota to get it)
3. A special kicker on every deal they close after surpassing their annual quota
4. A “do your part spiff:” Everyone got the spiff if we met the target together. The spiff varied, but a day in Napa with an allowance really got my team going!”

Scott Goodsir-Smyth, VP of Growth

“We utilize themed sales competitions where the incentives consist of cash/time off/trophies.

Most recently, we had a ‘Year of the Dragon’ theme to celebrate the Chinese New Year at the beginning of 2024. We also had a contest linked to our sales on-site location.

I believe these help elevate the standard spiff ideas and get individuals involved, and it’s important to provide regular updates and dashboard reporting to support the contest.”

Each spiff included a bonus payment, an extra day of paid vacation, and a trophy. Below are the categories:

• Dragon King Award:Highest demo conversion Q1 
•  Azure (⻘⻰) Dragon Award: Highest # of New biz deals
• Fuzanglong (伏藏⻰) Dragon Award : Highest # of Upsells
• Puloa (蒲牢) Dragon Award : Highest # Outbound Calls 
• Feilong Dragon Award (⻜⻰) : The Hubspot Champion (tied to data hygiene and new process changes) 

Alexine Mudawar, CEO

“The most motivating spiff I had was the ability to work from home on Fridays every month that I hit quota! Over two-plus years at that company, I never missed my monthly target.”

Joshua Janes, RevOps

“I don’t love Q4 spiffs since everyone runs to hit or exceed quota. Instead, use spiffs to support a priority for next fiscal year that is different from dealing with the current year.

For instance, train AEs to start selling the non-core product(s) with incent add-ons to support the next FY’s plan. 

1. Improve churn / net retention for up-market segments
2. Stretch attainment for FLM if your H2 is light -> get to 100%+ target”

Anne Pao, Fractional Revops and CRO

“I like customer success upsell signal spiffs. You can do this by having the CS team flag events or feedback from a customer speaking to the platform’s value. Then, for those with legs, they get attached to stage 0 expansion opportunities, and you pay CS a spiff of the closed-won.

I’ve done this in the past, leading to a strong conversion to closed-won.”

Beth Hightower, Sales Leader

“My reps have loved kickers on President’s Club credit. For instance, if we wanted larger deals, any deal over ‘X’ amount would equal double P-club credit. Or, if we wanted more multi-year contracts, we’d offer 1.5x P-club credit for two-year deals and 2x P-club credit for three-year deals. 

We have also done this similarly with commission credit, but that can add up fast!”

Emma Brady, Sales Leader

“First-class tickets to SKO.”

Summer Safrit, Sales Leader

“At a small startup, we had a weekly spiff once: If we closed $X in sales by Friday at noon, we got to take Friday afternoon off (it could only be the same week and not rolled over).

It was a great motivator for me, but keep in mind that we are selling a very transactional product.”

Jonathan Alarcon, Co-Founder

“I’m biased, but asking your people what motivates them individually is a great way to find out what will land.

It might be the vacations or trips they’ve always wanted, extra cash, time with loved ones, meaningful experiences, etc. 

Offering the same thing to everyone will only land with a certain % of your folks, so it has to be personalized to the individual to make sure it is truly motivating.”

John Quarles, Co-Founder

“I’ve given $1000 spot bonuses for Salesforce hygiene and sales process adherence to reinforce the importance of discipline. I’ve also rewarded better quarterly linearity by adding 2% points on commission for deals done in M1 and/or M2.”

Heather Foidart, Career Coach and Sales Leader

“Lunch with an executive 1:1. 

That level of visibility is priceless to a top performer. And all it costs is an hour and a meal.”

Tracking and Implementing SPIFFs

Which of the above will you test out this quarter? We’re personally intrigued by the first-class ticket to the sales kickoff and CRM hygiene bonus!

Whatever direction you go, remember that effective SPIFFs are essential for igniting your sales team’s performance, particularly during critical quarters like Q4.

You can maximize their impact by aligning your SPIFFs with clear business objectives, offering compelling rewards, and leveraging technology to streamline management. Remember, it’s not just about the incentive itself but how it’s structured, communicated, and executed that drives results.

Consider leveraging a platform like QuotaPath to optimize your SPIFF programs and give your team visibility into their progress. 

Our comprehensive solution simplifies SPIFF management, from creation and tracking to payout. With QuotaPath, can ensure accurate calculations, boost sales team motivation, and drive revenue growth.
Learn more by scheduling time with our team.

Aligning sales compensation plans with the needs and motivations of the sales team is crucial.

If incentive plans fail to inspire desirable selling behaviors, quotas, and organizational objectives become more difficult to achieve.

Yet leaders identified failure to motivate reps as their most challenging issue with comp plans in our 2024 sales compensation report. The same study revealed that another 30% admitted their plans don’t motivate reps when asked directly.

Part of the challenge is that not all reps are motivated by the same incentives.

Some prefer higher commissions, while others are inspired by personal interest or recognition of accomplishments. So, how can a leader align sales compensation plans with sales rep preferences?

We’re here to help.

Read below for insights into the components sales reps genuinely desire in their compensation plans, and take the guesswork out of motivating your sales reps.

The Disconnect Between Sales Reps and Leadership

The disconnect between sales reps and leadership regarding compensation plans is common. We found that 44% of sales reps aren’t motivated by their comp plans.

This happens for various reasons.

First, they may not understand them because they are too complex. Overly complicated plans occur frequently, especially in scaling organizations. Additionally, reps may feel that plans aren’t realistic or that the incentives aren’t what they really want.

But motivation is a balancing act.

Most salespeople are motivated by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors, including cash and non-cash rewards. So, it’s little wonder that a plan that only includes monetary rewards may not motivate the entire sales team.

Our study also revealed that 75% of sales reps don’t trust that they are paid fairly. This also can result from an overly complex plan but can be resolved by clear and transparent communication.

Understanding the sales team’s perspective is crucial to creating effective incentive structures that motivate your reps, inspire desired selling behaviors, and drive quota and goal achievement. The best way to do this is by having conversations about what motivates them.

You can start by asking yourself if this plan would motivate you personally. Then, gather rep feedback through anonymous surveys, one-on-ones, team meetings, and focus groups.

Essential Components of a Sales Rep-Centric Comp Plan

Then, after you’ve collected feedback from your team, you can consider including these elements in your compensation plans to make them more sales rep-centric.

Accelerators

An accelerator is a sales incentive that rewards reps for exceeding their sales goals. This compensation element motivates salespeople to sell more by awarding bonuses or other incentives for meeting or exceeding a specific goal.

This type of compensation is also attractive to candidates during the hiring process. “I look for Individual accelerators for exceeding quota rather than only team-based goals,” said Account Director Alana Dispena.

Quota Relief

Quota relief is also something worth considering.

Defined, quota relief is a limited-duration quota reduction designed to give a rep or leader a fair chance at achieving their on-target earnings.

Historically, leaders have enabled quota relief on a case-by-case basis when a salesperson or leader experiences circumstances that make achieving quota exceedingly tricky, such as illness, vacation, or family emergency.

However, we’ve noticed teams offering this more frequently across sales teams as quota relief can reduce sales pressure, boost rep retention, and improve morale.

“Scott Leese and the Qualia team introduced me to quota relief which was one of the most refreshing additions to a comp plan I’ve seen,” said Account Executive Caleb Cote. “Being able to guilt-free unplug on a trip makes a world of difference.”

Account Executive Libby Clary added, “I like the ability to adjust quota to accommodate using the unlimited PTO policy. I worked one place where we could apply for ‘quota relief’ once/year to go on vacation and not worry about not meeting goal.”

Uncapped Commissions

Uncapped commissions are also a good tactic, as long as you clearly define on-target earnings for your reps, too. Especially when you are hiring new team members, it’s crucial to provide an accurate base salary plus on-target commissions earned by the average rep, otherwise, you aren’t being fully transparent.

Overstating potential earnings or simply advertising “uncapped commissions” in sales role job postings doesn’t necessarily help you attract top talent, and it only shows that you don’t understand how to pay salespeople. Those you hire this way will likely become disappointed and demotivated if their earnings fall short of their expectations. This ultimately reduces sales performance and increases rep turnover.

Recognition and Rewards

Remember that although sales reps are motivated by money, most salespeople prefer a mix of monetary and non-monetary incentives. Average and lower-performing sales reps may be more motivated by rewards and recognition. So, including cash and non-cash rewards in your compensation plans increases its effectiveness.

Examples of non-monetary incentives include public recognition, physical items like tech gadgets or coffee brewers, professional development courses, gift cards, or activities and events like President’s Club. These incentives also inject a bit of fun into receiving rewards.

Competitive or Comfortable Base

Base pay is a set amount of money that a rep is paid consistently, that is not influenced by performance, and typically represents 50% of a rep’s pay. Base pay is a key consideration for most sales rep candidates to ensure sustainability and stability on an ongoing basis regardless of economic and market conditions.

As Elizabeth explains, “In my industry, advertising sales, the ramp-up time is lengthy,” said Elizabeth Striegel. “A healthy base salary level is important to me. Having a base that I can live comfortably without the freakout has been helpful over the years for the quarters that aren’t so great.  I’m wired to be motivated to make more, but without the lost sleep at night about how to pay bills, etc.”

Transparency and Communication

Lastly, clear and transparent communication regarding compensation plan details and performance metrics is essential to ensure sales rep understanding, buy-in, and motivation.

This drives the desired sales behaviors and quota and organizational objective achievement.

It is beneficial to distribute easy-to-understand plan documentation in various formats that include commission calculation examples, payout rules, and performance metrics.

Then, offer multiple opportunities for reps to present questions and provide feedback on the plan. Finally, documenting and gaining rep sign-off on a compensation agreement provides them with an easy reference and prevents future misunderstandings.

Help Reps Visualize Comp Plans Progress

Historically, leadership has struggled to create compensation plans that motivate sales reps.

Aligning compensation plans with the needs and motivations of your salespeople is essential to resolving this challenge.

The best way to find out what they want is to gather feedback from your sales teams to create more effective incentive structures. Then, include essential components to develop rep-centric comp plans that will motivate your team members and drive goal achievement.

QuotaPath is a compensation tool that encourages and motivates reps to better understand how they are paid and how to make the most in commissions. Start a free trial or schedule time with a team member to see for yourself.

You have a great sales team. You have a great and varied product offering. So, why are your sales not delivering the results you would expect? It may all be down to poor—or non-existent—sales performance management.

In this article, we’ll run you through sales performance management, its benefits, and how you can implement it for your organization. Without further ado, let’s dive right in.

Understanding Sales Performance Management

Sales Performance Management (SPM) is a comprehensive program designed to manage, optimize, and monitor sales performance within an organization. It includes strategies, tools, and processes that enable sales leaders to create, monitor, and assess the effectiveness of sales operations. Nowadays, it is essential in organizations of any size. 

Sales Performance Management (SPM) examines the entire sales process from all angles, identifying ways to maximize sales efficiency and effectiveness. SPM combines various techniques and technologies to align sales processes with wider business strategies and goals and, in return, increase revenue growth. 

This is a holistic management process—from sales planning to tracking performance, coaching, and incentive compensation management. The objective should be that the salesforce is motivated, informed, and able to reach their targets.

Key Components of Sales Performance Management

Let’s start by reviewing the main components of managing sales performance. Knowing these key components is important for improving your sales team’s success.

Sales Planning and Forecasting

This is all about setting realistic sales targets based on historical information, market analysis, and sales trends. 

This is where Marketing Data Platforms can also help by providing valuable data insights. MDPs consolidate historical data from multiple marketing campaigns and various points of interaction with customers to identify trends and possible goals that can be reached within a business. They also provide businesses with an in-depth analysis of the market to better understand market conditions and customer preferences.

Proper sales planning goes a long way in resource allocation and budgeting plans and also establishes benchmarks for performance.

Sales Performance Tracking

Any business has to seriously consider continuous tracking of sales activities and results. Monitoring sales performance shows just how effective various selling methods are, as well as performance on an individual level by sales team members. 

Organizations can assess what is driving results in their sales activities and what is not. This ongoing observation offers room for timely adjustments, ensuring that sales targets are met and resources are used efficiently.

Additionally, monitoring financial metrics such as Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) is essential as it reflects how quickly cash flow is generated from sales, impacting overall economic health.

Sales effectiveness involves evaluating different selling methodologies, such as online marketing campaigns, sales techniques, direct selling, and promotional events. A business can then compare the results to establish which methods yield positive results and allocate its resources accordingly.

Individual performance indicators, such as the number of calls made, the number of deals closed, and subsequent revenues, may provide insights into each sales team member’s performance. This will not only easily allow identification of top performers but also signal where to provide others in the team with support or training.

For example, as part of Sales Performance Management, you would measure metrics like sales cycle length, and use the data from sales prospecting tools to determine how well your sales reps are turning prospects into qualified leads and, ultimately, customers.

Sales Coaching and Training

Training and development programs should be continually enhanced to keep the sales force able, trained, and knowledgeable. Sales coaching can identify areas that require improvement and help sales reps achieve their full potential.

Sales methods and customer preferences change over time; hence, the updates ensure that the sales reps utilize the current techniques. These programs enhance the team’s ability, teach new skills through workshops and courses, and increase product knowledge.

Sales coaching is essential in this process. Coaches assess performance, give personalized feedback, and identify areas for improvement. They help sales reps develop skills, set goals, and provide motivation and support to achieve their best. 

The benefits include better sales performance, higher job satisfaction, and change adaptability. In other words, continual training and coaching improvement make sales teams effective and efficient.

Incentive Compensation Management

The design and management of incentives are considered core areas within Sales Performance Management. They revolve around creating and delivering incentives to motivate sales teams to be better, more motivated, and tuned into organizational goals.

The incentives provided drive sales teams, making them feel appreciated and motivated. The incentives help ensure that the sales team’s actions align with the business’s goals. That way, everyone does their work with a common interest in mind. 

A well-designed incentive program should encompass financial incentives like commissions and bonuses, and non-financial rewards like recognition and career development opportunities. 

Properly designed incentive programs lead to better sales performance, greater productivity, higher rates of employee satisfaction and retention, and a competitive edge in attracting top sales talent. 

For example, in a company that sells communication systems, incentive compensation management might look like tiered commission rates based on higher sales volumes and fixed quarterly and annual bonuses upon exceeding set targets. 

There might also be special incentives for selling high-margin products like a new IP phone system for small business, as well as team-based performance bonuses to encourage collaboration.

Data Analytics and Reporting

Leverage modern data tools to understand your sales performance better. You can scrutinize all the sales data, customer behavior, and dynamics within the market for any possible trends or patterns. These tools automatically create highly detailed reports and easy-to-read dashboards. 

You can also use B2B marketing tactics to track content engagement, email campaign performance, and social media interaction; this way, you know how all of these activities are impacting your lead generation and conversion rates.

With this information,  you can make informed decisions based on accurate information about what to do next.

Territory and Quota Management

Another key feature of an effective sales performance management system is that it should also manage territories and quotas. Sales territories need to be well defined so that a company can exploit maximum coverage in every single area or particular region without overlap or regions left out. 

Setting specific sales quotas for the sales reps motivates them to meet those targets and holds them accountable for their performance. It also increases market coverage, lessens internal conflict, and develops more productivity within the sales team. 

Regular adjustments of quotas and territories based on performance data can help adapt to changing market conditions while ensuring that company resources are used most effectively and sales targets are met consistently.

Why Is Sales Performance Management Important?

How your business brings its products or services to market is as important as the products themselves. Even high-quality products rarely sell themselves. By contrast, a great sales force supported by excellent sales techniques can sell just about anything. Appreciating this reality, top sales executives put as much emphasis on innovating their sales approach as on the products they offer. 

Sales Performance Management helps you develop and implement sales strategies affecting each stage of the selling cycle, which will influence each step of the sale. Successful management of this broad scope of sales performance will allow you to introduce new strategies and techniques to drive your sales team toward success.

Here are some reasons why your organization needs an SPM system.

Improved Sales Effectiveness

An effective Sales Performance Management system should make the sales process more efficient. With clearer goal setting, progress tracking, and ongoing feedback, sales teams can focus on activities that provide high business value and generate revenue. This, in turn, makes sales more effective and increases the number of sales closures.

Better Sales Forecasting

Accurate sales forecasting is the key to strategic planning and resource allocation. Advanced analytical capabilities and historical data used in Sales Performance Management tools help in predicting future sales trends. This enables organizations to make educated decisions and minimize risks.

More Transparency and Accountability

Sales Performance Management systems provide greater transparency into sales activities and performance metrics. This breeds accountability on the part of sales reps themselves, as they are aware of how their performance is measured. It’s also easier to tell which representatives are at the top of their game and in which area improvements need to be made.

Improved Fit With Business Objectives

Sales Performance Management aligns strategies in sales with overall business targets. By setting clear targets and KPIs, organizations may help ensure that the selling team’s efforts are set against and running parallel to the company’s growth objectives. This alignment is critical in driving sustainable business success.

Motivated and Engaged Sales Teams

Incentive compensation forms an integral part of Sales Performance Management and has a direct bearing on the motivation of a sales team. Well-designed incentive programs drive high flyers and create healthy competition, leading to a well-motivated and responsive workforce. And, in turn, this translates into higher levels of engagement and productivity.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Being data-driven is a significant advantage for any organization. A key part of this is having access to accurate and timely information. Sales Performance Management systems provide detailed analytics and reporting systems, allowing sales leaders to make well-informed decisions. This leads to better strategies and more effective resource utilization.

Continuous Improvement

Sales Performance Management is not a one-time event but a continuous exercise of evaluation and improvement. Regular performance appraisals, feedback sessions, and training programs help in identifying gaps and implementing corrective measures. This keeps a culture of continued improvement within the organization so that the sales team is always agile and adaptive to changes in market conditions.

Implementing Sales Performance Management

Implementation of the Sales Performance Management system calls for proper planning and execution. Keep reading to find out more about this.

Define Clear Objectives

It is good to start by laying down what you want from your Sales Performance Management system. What are you looking to accomplish? Is it increased sales effectiveness, better financial forecasting, or perhaps greater sales team motivation? Clear objectives will drive the entire implementation process.

Choose the Right Tools

Choose the Sales Performance Management tools that fit your business needs and objectives best. There are quite a good number of software solutions in the market that have varied features and capabilities. Look at the functionality of these tools, ease of use, and integration capabilities.

You can also consider incorporating additional tools like account based marketing platforms that can further enhance your sales strategies. With these, you can target high-value accounts, run personalized campaigns, and get detailed data insights. 

Engage Stakeholders

Engage main stakeholders, for example, the sales leaders, representatives, and IT personnel within the organization, to ensure you have their buy-in and input into the Sales Performance Management system. Conduct workshops and training sessions to help everybody within an organization understand the benefits and functionalities of the new system.

Set Up Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Now, decide on your KPIs to quantify sales performance. They should be well-connected to your business goals and reflect how well the sales team performs. Common KPIs include revenue, conversion rates, cost of customer acquisition, and average deal size. 

Develop Training Programs

Train your sales teams on how to use the Sales Performance Management tools and understand the performance metrics. Continuous training and development programs will keep the sales team updated with current strategies and techniques. 

Monitor and Adjust

With the sales performance management system in action, operational effectiveness can be monitored regularly. Gather feedback from sales reps and sales leadership on problem areas or potential areas of improvement. Be prepared for adjustments in the system to keep it tightly lined up with your objectives.

Key Features of Sales Performance Management Software

Sales Performance Management (SPM) software is central to empowering teams and aligning sales efforts with strategic business objectives. Here are key features to look for:

Sales Forecasting and Planning Tools: These tools allow sales leaders to set realistic targets by analyzing historical data and current market trends. Forecasting modules use AI to project future sales performance, helping businesses optimize resources.

Performance Tracking and Analytics: Tracking tools monitor sales activities, giving a clear view of team productivity, individual performance, and customer engagement. Advanced analytics help identify high-performing reps, lagging areas, and successful sales strategies.

Incentive Compensation Management: Effective SPM software includes features for designing, tracking, and distributing commissions and bonuses. This motivates reps by ensuring they understand their earning potential and how it ties to their achievements.

Sales Coaching and Development: Many SPM solutions offer coaching tools to set goals, provide feedback, and assess skill gaps. Regular coaching improves rep performance, enhances skill sets, and aligns reps with evolving sales methodologies.

Automated Reporting and Dashboards: Real-time reporting allows leaders to view metrics like conversion rates, quota attainment, and revenue trends, making data-driven decisions easier and more accurate. Intuitive dashboards make data accessible and actionable for sales reps and managers.

Territory and Quota Management: This feature allows leaders to assign territories, set quotas, and adjust targets as needed. It ensures balanced workload distribution and optimizes coverage, minimizing overlap and missed opportunities.

CRM Integration: SPM software integrates seamlessly with CRM systems (like Salesforce and HubSpot), centralizing data from lead generation to deal closure and making sales data accessible across the organization for enhanced performance insights.

How to Improve Sales Performance

Improving sales performance requires a strategic mix of technology, motivation, and training:

• Set Clear Goals and KPIs: Define measurable KPIs like conversion rates, average deal size, and quota attainment. Goals aligned with company objectives give teams a unified direction and help measure progress effectively.
• Invest in Training and Development: Regular training keeps reps updated on sales techniques, product knowledge, and customer preferences. Sales coaching sessions help reps refine skills and develop strategies for prospecting and closing.
• Enhance CRM and SPM Integration: An integrated CRM and SPM system provides visibility into the entire sales pipeline, allowing managers to track real-time performance data and making it easy to adjust strategies as needed.
• Implement Data-Driven Incentives: Design compensation plans that reward desired sales behaviors, such as cross-selling or upselling high-margin products. Data-driven incentives keep teams motivated and aligned with business goals.
• Leverage Analytics for Continuous Improvement: Use performance data to refine processes. Sales leaders can evaluate winning strategies and make improvements to weak areas, ensuring continual growth and adaptability to market changes.
• Promote a Culture of Accountability and Collaboration: Encourage reps to track their own performance and set personal goals. Sales performance transparency fosters a culture of accountability and teamwork, which drives higher overall productivity.
  

B2C vs B2B Sales Performance Management

Sales performance management differs significantly between B2C (Business-to-Consumer) and B2B (Business-to-Business) environments due to customer expectations, sales cycles, and deal complexity:

The Strategic Advantage of Sales Performance Management

There isn’t any modern sales organization that wouldn’t benefit from a Sales Performance Management tool. It offers a systematic method for managing and continually enhancing sales performance, ensuring that sales teams stay motivated, aligned with business objectives, well-prepared, and informed.

Investing in a comprehensive Sales Performance Management system is not just a strategic move; it’s a must for any organization looking to thrive amidst today’s changing business landscape. Whether you’re an SMB or a large enterprise, SPM can help you release the real potential of your sales team and achieve your revenue.

Author Bio:

David Becker – Growth Marketing ManagerDavid Becker is a Growth Marketing Manager at Leadfeeder, a powerful website visitor analytics software. He helps drive Leadfeeder’s growth strategies and demand generation with a keen focus on mental health and well-being in the workplace. David excels in creating impactful marketing campaigns, analyzing trends, and boosting customer engagement for the team.

75% of sales reps don’t trust they are paid fairly.

This isn’t surprising since 60% of reps take 3 to 6 months to fully understand how they earn variable pay from their comp plans, and 22% of sales reps have at least one commission dispute yearly.

Those who don’t understand how they earn incentives and experience errors in their pay statements are unlikely to be motivated by their compensation plans. Ultimately, this results in reps missing quotas and organizations falling short of their objectives.

Interestingly, leaders identified “too hard to execute” as their biggest challenge regarding sales compensation planning. This is because plans are too complex, unrealistic, and unattainable, according to our report.

Commissions become difficult to calculate, track, and pay, resulting in discrepancies and operational inefficiencies.

However, the same study revealed sales reps trust their compensation plans more when they use commission software. That’s in addition to the gains from leadership streamlining compensation management when they use commission software.

Sales incentive automation involves using technology and commission software solutions to streamline sales compensation management, commission calculations, and disbursement. It eliminates manual processes, increases accuracy, and boosts trust, transparency, and performance visibility.

Below, learn more about how sales incentive automation can make your job easier.

What is Sales Incentive Automation?

Sales incentive automation is the seamless integration of commission software with your sales tech stack to retrieve data required for automated commission calculations. It automates tasks like commission calculations, payout processing, and performance measurement.

Signs that it may be time to automate sales commissions include:

• Error-Prone Calculations: Are you experiencing frequent errors or inconsistencies in your commission calculations due to manual processes? This can lead to frustration and distrust among your sales team.
• Time-Consuming Process: Does calculating commissions and managing incentive programs take up a significant amount of your team’s time? Automating these tasks can free up valuable resources for more strategic activities.
• Growing Sales Team: As your sales team expands, managing incentive programs manually becomes increasingly complex and time-consuming. Automation can help you scale your incentive programs efficiently.
• Complex Compensation Plans: Do your incentive plans involve multiple variables, tiers, or commission structures? Automating calculations ensures accuracy and simplifies managing these complexities.
• Lack of Transparency: Are your sales reps confused or frustrated by the lack of transparency around their earnings? Automating incentive programs can provide real-time visibility into performance metrics and commission calculations.
• Difficulty with Forecasting: Is it challenging to forecast sales performance and commission payouts accurately due to reliance on manual data analysis? Automation can provide real-time insights for better forecasting and decision-making.
• Desire for Improved Sales Performance: Do you want to incentivize specific sales behaviors and drive overall performance? Automating incentives can ensure clear alignment between rewards and desired sales actions.

If you’re experiencing one or many of the above, you should consider upgrading from a spreadsheet.

Key Benefits of Sales Incentive Automation

Implementing automation can streamline operations, boost accuracy, and drive exceptional results.

The advantages of using compensation management software include:

Increased Accuracy in Commission Calculations

Manual commission calculations are fraught with human errors that result in disputes and wasted time. These same processes also limit transparency and rep understanding of compensation plans. Automation eliminates errors from manual calculations, ensuring fair and consistent payouts.

Streamlined Compensation Management

Automation simplifies the entire incentive management process by eliminating manual calculations for commissions, bonuses, and other payouts. Additionally, it streamlines administrative tasks like multi-level approvals for reps, managers, execs, and finance, as well as payouts and reporting, ultimately saving time and resources.

Enhanced Trust and Transparency

Sales incentive automation provides real-time visibility into earnings and performance measurement, fostering trust between sales reps and management. Quota-carrying reps gain an understanding of how they earn commissions including when and how much to expect in their paycheck. Plus, sales managers gain full visibility into their own attainment, even when team members move between teams.

Real-time Forecasting and Attainment Tracking

Compensation management automation generates real-time data insights into sales performance, allowing for better forecasting and course correction. For instance, it provides executive- and rep-level sales commission reporting on pipeline forecast and quota attainment so leadership can visualize their sales team projections. It tracks how your team is progressing to plan and allows visualizations of total earnings, average effective rate, and plan attainment by rep.

Increased Alignment to Business Goals

Automation allows you to connect comp plans to key business metrics and gives visibility to team members so they can connect their work to the overarching goals. This improves sales reps’ understanding of compensation plans for greater buy-in, motivating them to progress toward milestone achievement and drive business goal attainment.

Model and Test Comp Plans

Sales incentive automation enables you to predict how much commission plans will cost your organization according to attainment bands and test future plan changes using past performance data. Compensation reporting and modeling tools allow leaders to measure and model the business value and performance of their revenue teams’ compensation plans.  

The ability to see real-time attainment trends, recognize performance deviations and predict new plan costs allows you to optimize sales team efficiency and build confidence in incentive structures. These automations save time and are more accurate than a series of compensation spreadsheets and reports from your CRM and payroll platforms for scenario modeling.

Reporting on Compensation

Compensation data can inform future comp plans and strategy by measuring the business value and performance of the sales team’s compensation plans and performance. This allows you to confidently optimize your sales strategy, streamline sales processes, and boost performance. For instance, you can spot hidden trends, benchmark performance, identify performance gaps, optimize product strategy, maximize profitability, and reward top team members.

Implementing Sales Incentive Automation with QuotaPath

QuotaPath is a sales incentive automation solution that simplifies compensation management and offers the following benefits.

• Integration with Tech Stack: Seamless data flow ensures accurate calculations and eliminates manual data entry. QuotaPath enables you to easily pull data from various data sources to your payment processing platforms.
  • CRM integration options include HubSpot, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics. Other integrations include applications such as QuickBooks, Xero, Maxio, Oracle NetSuite, and spreadsheets.
  • Easily map your data with new plans using our Mapping Managers, which enables you to build a mapping template once to save, edit, and reuse anytime you need to add a plan.
  • See earning data directly in HubSpot or Salesforce without toggling between systems.
    
• Customizable Compensation Plans: Design flexible plans that adapt to your needs and sales goals as you scale in our system with our plan builder — or use one of our templates.
  
• Optimizing Sales Performance through Automation: Automate tasks and workflows to free up time for strategic initiatives. QuotaPath enables you to surface tasks needed at the rep and admin levels to individual home dashboards and ensure accurate and on-time payouts.
  
• Measuring Compensation Plan Performance: Track key metrics to evaluate your incentive programs’ effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. QuotaPath offers reporting options, including Deal Earnings vs. Deal Value, Attainment Over time, Earnings vs. Attainment, and Top Commission Rates Per Deal.
  
• Encouraging Accountability and Performance: Real-time data visibility motivates reps and fosters a performance and sales accountability culture. For instance, multi-level approvals enable reps to sign off on their upcoming commission checks before they are finalized. This creates ownership and streamlines the approval process for those who conduct final signoffs.

Getting Started with QuotaPath

Sales incentive automation eliminates manual compensation management processes and increases accuracy, trust, transparency, and performance visibility. QuotaPath is an all-in-one sales incentive automation tool that simplifies compensation management from start to finish.

Getting started with QuotaPath is easy. Build your sales compensation plans from scratch or use a free comp plan template from our compensation plan template library. Sync your CRM or data source by selecting your integration, authenticating it, and mapping it. Then, you can invite your team members and start automating your sales compensation management. Get started with a free QuotaPath trial or schedule time with a team member to learn more.

Explore the latest review of the best revenue operations and intelligence software providers for commissions.

Criteria for Comparing Revenue Operations Software Providers

Consider the following criteria when selecting Revenue Operations and Intelligence commission automation software tools.

Commission Management Features

• Commission Structure Configuration: Can the software handle complex commission structures with tiers, bonuses, and territory rules?
• Adaptability: How does the platform support changes as your team scales?
• Automated Commission Calculations: Does the software automate commission calculations based on pre-defined rules and sales data?
• Real-Time Commission Tracking: Can salespeople track their commission potential and progress in real time?
• Reporting and Analytics: Does the platform offer reports and analytics on commission payouts, team performance, and quota attainment?
• Integration with CRM & Payroll Systems: Does the software seamlessly integrate with your existing CRM and payroll systems, streamlining data flow?

Revenue Operations Integration

• Data Integration: Can the software integrate with other RO&I tools like forecasting, pipeline management, and deal tracking solutions?
• Unified Sales Performance Management: Does the platform offer a unified view of sales performance, combining commission data with other key metrics?
• Improved Sales Visibility: Does the solution enhance sales leadership’s visibility into team performance and commission payouts for informed decision-making?
• Workflow Automation: Can the software automate tasks related to commission calculations and approvals, improving efficiency?     
• Scalability for Growth: Is the solution scalable to accommodate your growing sales team and evolving commission structures?

Additional Considerations

• Ease of Use: How user-friendly is the commission software for both salespeople and sales management?
• Security and Compliance: Does the platform meet your security and data compliance requirements?
• Customer Support: What level of customer support does the software provider offer for implementation, training, and ongoing issues?
• Pricing Model: Does the software offer transparent pricing that aligns with your budget and sales team size?   
• Free Trial or Demo Availability: Does the provider offer a free trial or demo to allow you to test the software’s capabilities before committing?

Next, let’s compare each vendor based on the above considerations.

QuotaPath

Capterra 4.5 / G2 4.7 / TrustRadius 8.6

QuotaPath’s commission tracking and sales compensation management software creates ownership and accountability across RevOps, Finance, and Sales while managing and tracking variable pay. Described by customers as “easy to set up and use,” QuotaPath’s smart UX ensures admins can quickly adjust sales comp as business needs change. This also empowers reps to reference deals for commission, forecast potential earnings, and see quota attainment progress, motivating them to close that next deal.

Fit for sales compensation plans of all complexities and companies of all sizes, QuotaPath has no minimum user requirements.

Commission Features (reporting, modeling, and testing)

QuotaPath’s compensation reporting and modeling tools enable leaders to measure and model the business value and performance of their revenue teams’ comp plans.

See real-time attainment health, identify performance anomalies, and predict new plan costs in one place to optimize your team’s success and gain confidence in your compensation structures.

Custom reporting provides analytics and insights that facilitate data-driven decisions while plan performance modeling simplifies sales optimization to improve outcomes.

Integrations

QuotaPath’s self-serve integrations enable you to add and edit technology connections essential to your commission process, including data warehouses, spreadsheets, business intelligence, and payment and ERP systems.

For instance, CRM integration can be established with platforms like HubSpot and Salesforce as well as data sources such as Excel, Google Sheets, Stripe, and Chargebee.

Onboarding and Ease of Use

QuotaPath is known for fast and easy onboarding plus ease of use. Implementation timeframe estimates are listed on QuotaPath’s website along with transparent pricing.

Reviewers on sites like G2 stated that “Deployment was so easy that I was able to get around 99% complete with minimal support. The integration with Salesforce is extremely easy to understand and complete we were up and running within just a couple of hours of work from myself.” And, another reviewer stated, “The product team has made onboarding simple.”

Plus, “The ease of use of the platform is excellent…Their customer support is top-notch. I know I will always get my questions answered. They also have great resources available to help guide our comp strategy and decision making.”

Workflow Automation

QuotaPath’s workflow automation tools facilitate incentive payment calculations on multi-year deals, renewals, demos, specific products, and users. Sales commission automation in QuotaPath tags sales reps involved in each sale, tracks commission earnings, provides transparent sales commission reporting to sales reps and allows them to forecast their future earnings.

Additional QuotaPath automation tools include in-app compensation question and dispute resolution, deal approval, scheduled payments, and payout eligibility rules. And commissions amortization, pipeline and earnings forecasts, real-time attainment and effectiveness rates, and team leaderboards.

Support

QuotaPath’s support staff consists of Customer Success and Account Management agents available to guide implementation and provide best practices at key milestones. Live chat, an in-depth knowledge center, and monthly training webinars are available as part of QuotaPath’s highly-rated customer support model that continues throughout the customer’s entire engagement.

Help designing commission structures for a new team or compensation plan is easily accessible through QuotaPath’s ungated resource Compensation Hub, featuring a library of adjustable sales compensation plan examples.

Reviewers on sites like Capterra, G2, and TrustRadius reported, “When I needed customer support, their chat feature within the application with one of their reps was incredibly helpful.”

Pricing Model & Free Trial

QuotaPath lists transparent tiered pricing for a range of business sizes from startup to enterprise on its website, clearly stating what is included. Plus, QuotaPath offers a 14-day free trial is available enabling organizations to try the platform before becoming a customer with no credit card required.

Spiff

Capterra 4.7 / G2 4.7 / TrustRadius 8.8

Spiff commission software enables finance and sales operations teams to self-manage complex incentive compensation plans with ease. The Spiff platform is designed to build trust across organizations, motivate sales teams, increase visibility into performance and earnings, and ultimately drive top-line growth.

Commission Features (reporting, modeling, and testing)

Spiff enables organizations to generate custom reports incorporating metrics imported from business intelligence platforms or to use pre-configured reports, then visualize them on dashboards. These analytics and insights support data-driven decisions for modeling effective comp plans. The Spiff platform also allows the testing of new compensation plans against historical performance data confirming they won’t break the budget.

Integrations

Spiff offers CRM integration options as well as ERP, payroll, HCM, and other systems for real-time updates. Integration options include Salesforce, HubSpot, and Excel.

Onboarding and Ease of Use

Although most reviewers felt that Spiff was easy to use, some reported that “the initial setup and configuration are complex.” Another reviewer stated that “Improving the onboarding experience with more comprehensive tutorials or dedicated support resources could help alleviate this challenge and ensure a smoother transition for new users.”

Workflow Automation

Spiff streamlines workflows and automates complex commission structures. They offer real-time visibility for sales teams to drive performance. Spiff facilitates in-app compensation questions and dispute resolution communication and collaboration. Approval workflow automations and prescheduled reports are also possible with Spiff.

Support

According to Spiff’s website, there are additional fees for anything beyond basic support.

Spiff’s support received mixed reviews on review sites. Reviewers were either very happy with the customer support they received or reported that it was slow, with one reviewer reporting “they took over two weeks to attend to my ticket.”

Pricing Model & Free Trial

There is no pricing model or rates posted on Spiff’s website. Our research revealed that they offer a one-size-fits-all rate plan and no free trial.

Everstage

Capterra 4.9 / G2 4.8 / TrustRadius 9.4

Everstage is a Sales Commission Software that helps drive business outcomes and profitable growth through incentives and streamlined commission administration.

Commission Features (reporting, modeling, and testing)

Everstage’s commission features include standard and custom reporting to inform data-driven decisions. The Everstage platform allows organizations to model commission plans before publishing them using historical performance data. Then it enables potential comp plan testing to ensure they meet budgetary requirements.

Integrations

Everstage offers accounting, database, HR platform, and CRM integration options including Salesforce, HubSpot, Quickbooks, and Chargebee.

Some reviewers cited that “sometimes the data gets outdated and stuck, especially at the end of the month and the data sync with Salesforce and Everstage gets delayed.”

Onboarding and Ease of Use

Everstage is user-friendly and easy to set up and implement according to reviewers.

Workflow Automation

Everstage provides sales teams with real-time visibility of their quota attainment and earnings through reporting, forecasting, and leaderboards to motivate results. Reporting streamlines performance tracking by delivering analytics and insights for sales optimization. Everstage also automates commission calculations, approvals, user management, and compensation query and dispute resolution.

Support

According to the Everstage website, support includes a dedicated implementation team and 24×5 multi-channel support. No negative reviews were found concerning Everstage’s support.

Pricing Model & Free Trial

No fee structure or pricing was found on the Everstage website and there is no free trial offered.

Palette

Capterra no reviews / G2 4.9 / TrustRadius no reviews

Palette automates sales commissions, preventing errors, and provides sales teams with real-time visibility into commission accruals and payouts. Built to handle even the most complex commission plans, Palette enables businesses to trigger commission payouts based on customer payments and product usage thresholds.

Commission Features (reporting, modeling, and testing)

Palette offers reporting to inform data-driven decisions for sales optimization and compensation modeling. The platform enables testing of compensation plans to visualize their potential impact on cash flow and business objectives.

Integrations

Palette offers Billing, Database, and CRM integration options including Salesforce, HubSpot, QuickBooks, Chargebee, Google Sheets, and Excel.

Onboarding and Ease of Use

Reviewers report that Palette is easy to use and to implement.

Workflow Automation

Palette provides sales teams with real-time access for sales teams to personalized performance dashboards. The platform automates commission calculation and payouts, and generates monthly commission statements for team members. Palette also facilitates in-app dispute resolution, approval routing, and performance monitoring.

Support

Support includes initial training on how to effectively use the Palette application and training on new features as they are introduced. A limit of 3 one-hour admin training workshops per year is offered to onboard new Admins.  After initial onboarding, fee-based support for Professional Services is required for support such as training new users and assistance with comp plan creation.

Pricing Model & Free Trial

Palette offers a tiered subscription model based on business size. No pricing is published on their website and there is no free trial.

Qobra

Capterra 4.8 / G2 4.7 / TrustRadius no reviews

Qobra automates commission calculation, validation, and sharing while reducing errors and increasing sales motivation with real-time visibility to improve sales performance.

Commission Features (reporting, modeling, and testing)

Qobra enables reporting to help with data-driven decisions for compensation modeling and allows the performance of plan simulations and tests in a sandbox environment on the platform.

Integrations

Qobra offers data warehouse, financial, HR, and CRM integration options including Salesforce and HubSpot.

Onboarding and Ease of Use

Although there are a limited number of reviews on review sites, there are currently no negative reviews about setup and onboarding and a few reviewers mentioned that Qobra is easy to use.

Workflow Automation

Qobra offers sales teams real-time visibility to quota attainment through dashboards. The platform automates commission calculations, approvals, and dispute resolution.

Support

We couldn’t find any details concerning support services on Qobra’s site. However, reviewers reported positive and timely support experiences.

Pricing Model & Free Trial

No pricing model, rates, or free trial is offered on Qobra’s website.

Top Revenue Operations and Intelligence Commission Software

As we compare Revenue Operations and Intelligence commission automation software tools, all brands have similarities. However, QuotaPath offers the greatest flexibility and is the most adaptable commission system for businesses ranging in size from startup to enterprise as they scale.To learn more schedule time with a QuotaPath team member or start a free trial today.

RevOps tools FAQs

What is revenue operations software?

Revenue operations (RevOps) software is a platform that aligns sales, marketing, and customer success teams by streamlining processes, data, and analytics to drive predictable revenue growth. It helps organizations automate workflows, track key metrics, and improve forecasting by integrating with CRMs, commission tracking tools, and financial systems. By centralizing revenue data and optimizing operations, RevOps software enhances efficiency, eliminates silos, and ensures teams work toward shared business goals.

How does rev ops software fit into my sales/marketing tech stack?

RevOps software acts as the central hub that connects and optimizes your sales and marketing tech stack. It integrates with CRMs (like Salesforce and HubSpot), commission tracking tools (like QuotaPath), marketing automation platforms (like Marketo), and financial systems to ensure accurate data flow and streamlined processes. By automating reporting, pipeline forecasting, and compensation tracking, it eliminates silos between sales, marketing, and finance, ensuring that all teams work toward shared revenue goals. With RevOps software, companies gain better visibility, improved efficiency, and data-driven decision-making across their entire go-to-market strategy.

What should I look for in a rev ops solution?

When choosing a RevOps solution, look for seamless integrations with your existing CRM, commission tracking, and financial systems to ensure smooth data flow. Prioritize automation features for reporting, forecasting, and compensation management to reduce manual work and improve accuracy. Finally, choose a platform with clear visibility into pipeline performance and revenue metrics so sales, marketing, and finance teams can align on shared goals.

What is the best rev ops software?

The best RevOps software depends on your needs, but top options include QuotaPath for commission tracking, Clari for forecasting, and Salesforce Revenue Cloud for revenue management. The ideal platform integrates with your CRM, automates key processes, and provides clear revenue visibility. Choose a solution that scales with your business and aligns sales, marketing, and finance teams.

The best way to ensure smooth pipeline management is to know exactly how to optimize it.

That means understanding every last step closely so you always know how to approach and respond to people at all stages of your sales funnel, including separating sales suspects from prospects.

This guest blog from Databricks walks you through the main ways to differentiate between the two after covering why it’s so important to do so in the first place. First, however, we’ll show you what both sales suspects and prospects are so the difference becomes clearer.

What is a sales suspect?

Your sales pipeline often begins with strangers who have never heard of your company and might not have even considered buying the types of products you sell. You’ll pick out the most promising group to eventually become customers from these people.

Sales suspects, or leads, are the ones that fall into this more promising group.

A sales suspect is someone who might, at some point, be interested in your products. For example, if you’re a retailer selling swimwear, you might include holidaymakers in your list of leads.

Incorporating recognizable business names into your marketing strategies, possibly in the form of co-marketing campaigns, can also attract attention from these suspects, as recognizable brands often inspire trust and curiosity.

However, it’s important to avoid common website design mistakes that confuse or deter these sales suspects, such as poor navigation or slow load times, ensuring a smooth transition from initial interest to actual engagement.

The key here is that your sales suspects have indicated some passing interest–but no more than that.

If they’ve subscribed to your email list but haven’t followed up on any of your email promotions or offers, they count as sales suspects. And that’s going to be a lot of your email list subscribers because most companies see very low email open rates:

Characteristics of sales suspects

Typically, a sales suspect will be a member of one of your target demographics. For example, if you’re a software developer providing tech-based solutions to customers, a sales suspect might be interested in different machine learning model types and their uses.

A sales suspect needs further targeting to become a customer or even a sales prospect (more on this shortly). Someone who has already put a few items in their shopping cart and has progressed to the checkout stage is no longer a sales suspect.

At the same time, sales suspects can’t be completely uninterested. If you sell furniture to homeowners, a student living in rented accommodation that comes pre-furnished is highly unlikely to be a serious buyer at any point, so they won’t be a sales suspect.

When (and How) to Shorten Sales Cycles

Explore when it’s appropriate to incentivize shorter sales cycles (and when not).

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What is a sales prospect?

If a sales suspect is someone who might be interested in your products, a sales prospect is actively interested.

Sales prospects represent the next stage in your sales pipeline after suspects. They have a genuine interest in your products, and alongside this, they’re likely to want to make a purchase.

Knowing how to identify a sales prospect can shorten sales cycles. This group of prospects contains all the people who will eventually become your customers. So, by targeting them more specifically, you can make more sales and identify your buying customers more easily.

Characteristics of sales prospects

A sales prospect has to have demonstrated clear interest–something more concrete than simply following you on social media, for example.

They might do this by filling up their cart but not quite making a purchase yet. They could also repeatedly click on a specific product and spend time on its dedicated page. Both of these examples involve a sales suspect going above the level of casual interest that comes with the ‘suspect’ label and heading into ‘prospect’ territory.

Prospects are also part of your target demographics. More specifically, they’re likely to belong to two or more target groups, which helps ensure your product is tailored to their wants and needs.

Why differentiate between sales suspect vs prospect?

We’ve alluded to the importance of separating sales suspects vs prospects since this distinction helps you optimize your pipeline management.

But how?

Below are some of the main reasons why it’s such a good idea to draw a line between your sales suspects and prospects actively. They are presented in no particular order.

Proper targeting

A major aspect of pipeline management is knowing exactly how to target leads at different stages of the funnel. Getting this just right means interacting comfortably with potential customers every time, improving relationships, and fostering a positive brand image.

Implementing standardized SOPs or work instructions helps ensure that these interactions are consistently effective and align with overall sales strategies.

Proper targeting is much easier when you know your target group. By effectively differentiating between sales suspects and prospects, you can tailor your approach to each group’s needs and preferences, leading to higher customer retention rates and a more positive brand image.

Sales suspects need content that will help get them engaged and interested. Giving them promotional codes won’t be helpful, as they’re still unsure whether they even want your products in the first place. What they need is information.

On the other hand, sales prospects need that last bit of incentive to encourage them to make the purchase. Promotions do help here, while information won’t be very helpful, as they already know they’re interested in your products.

An online business coach can provide personalized guidance and strategies to improve sales teams’ targeting and engagement with these groups, ultimately enhancing pipeline efficiency and effectiveness.

Improved efficiency

When everyone in your sales department understands exactly how to approach every potential new customer, they’ll become more productive. This makes both commission management and pipeline optimization much easier.

The end result is a more efficient sales process and sales personnel spending all their time in the best possible way.

It also means turning more sales suspects into prospects, which in turn helps drive up total conversions. When you can convert more leads into buyers, you can directly improve your bottom line, which helps everyone in the company.

Making use of the data

If you know the answer to questions like what is Apache Hive used for, you probably know that it’s important to collect lots of data on your customers.

But that data is only useful when you’re making the most of it. Otherwise, it’s just information that sits there doing nothing.

Instead, you should use the data you have on customers to map and understand their behavior. Incorporating KYC (Know Your Customer) practices, such as verifying customer identity through official documentation, conducting background checks, and maintaining continuous data validation, helps ensure that the data collected is accurate and deeply informative, allowing more tailored and effective customer interactions. 

This will help you determine whether they’re a prospect or suspect, informing your approach so you’re always taking advantage of the resources at your disposal. 

7 ways to separate sales prospects and suspects

Next, we’ll share how you can separate sales prospects from suspects. These will help you determine which type of lead you’re dealing with and how to proceed so you can get the most out of every interaction with them.

1. Purchase intent

When you gather data on your customers, you can learn all about what their actions mean. That means you can gauge what they’re planning to do and whether they’re planning to become a customer based on the information you collect.

In other words, you can separate your sales prospects from suspects using data on purchase intent.

Monitoring purchase intent also lets you notice when someone starts to show signs of graduating from a sales suspect to a true prospect. That way, you can flexibly adjust your strategy and approach so you’re always ready with the right materials at the right time.

2. Tailored offers

Sending specifically personalized offers to a sales suspect vs. a prospect will yield different results, just as both groups call for different types of personalization.

Where a suspect will likely be interested in offers that let them sample just a little bit of your merchandise, such as ‘tasters’ or smaller versions of products, a prospect will often be after discounts. The prospect already wanted to buy, so a discount can be an incentive.

Additionally, strategically planned online campaigns focused on generating online sales can further enhance the attractiveness of these offers, encouraging quicker conversions from prospect to customer.

Sending out these tailored offers can also help you transition suspects into becoming full-fledged prospects. If they love your sampler, they’re more likely to be interested in the full product.

Plus, if your prospects don’t respond to any offers or promotions, they are likely mislabeled as true prospects. They will have needed more than a nudge to become customers, making them closer to suspects than prospects.

3. Sales team feedback

The people who work the most closely with your leads are the ones who know the most about them. This makes your sales team–or, if you’ve undergone plenty of business growth, your whole sales department–a highly valuable source of information.

Your sales team can tell you which specific leads have shown lots of promise. They’ll be able to explain what led them to that conclusion and tell you how sure they are of their assessment.

In the long run, this also helps you inform your approach when you’re separating sales suspects from prospects, as your sales team will help you identify differentiating trends. That means you’ll get more accurate in distinguishing the two types of leads the longer you spend listening to your sales team and trusting in their expertise.

4. Tracking behavior

We’ve already mentioned purchasing intent, but that’s not the only kind of data that gives insight into leads’ likelihood of becoming prospects.

It’s worth checking who’s visited your landing pages and how often. Someone who took a quick look at one of your product pages for a minute is far more likely to be a lead suspect, for example, whereas someone who spends a long time on a given product page multiple times over is almost definitely a sales prospect.

Tracking behavior also helps you determine what kinds of content to target your leads with. For example, a prospect that’s shown interest in multiple products would need different targeting than one that’s very dedicated to a single item.

5. Reaching out

Sales suspects and prospects alike can benefit from having direct contact with your brand.

For example, a prospect might want to know about any limited or time-sensitive offers. They might also like to hear about your customer care approach so they’ll know that you’re there for them once the purchase is made. Either way, Vonage voice calls will help you build a stronger connection and gently encourage these promising leads to bear fruit.

Sales suspects, meanwhile, very often have questions. They’re not as closely familiar with your brand or products, so they might not even know how you can help them. That means reaching out offers you an excellent opportunity to explain how you can address their pain points and give them what they’re looking for, which helps convert them to prospects.

6. Creating customer profiles

Once you know what your ideal customer looks like, it’s so much easier to match suspects to those profiles and see who fits. That way, you can qualify leads and pick out sales prospects in less time and with greater accuracy.

Multiple ideal customer profiles are a great idea here. That’s because you’ll likely have a variety of people who are interested in your products, so you should also know how to recognize those types of people.

Your prospects should also, in turn, influence your customer profiles. If you keep encountering prospects that share common characteristics, you can add those to existing profiles or create new ones accordingly so you can identify prospects among suspects with greater accuracy.

7. Getting help from AI

Lastly, enlist the help of generative AI platforms. These can process large volumes of data and draw insights for you, which will help separate suspects from prospects.

Also, sales-specific AIs, in particular, can create bespoke suggestions for you to help you maximize your ROI for investments made into sales suspects. This will let you create more prospects without wasting effort on suspects who are not interested after all.

Since machine learning algorithms improve the more they’re used, you can get better results from any AI by simply involving it in your sales separation processes.

Final thoughts

To maximize your sales team’s productivity, ensure everyone knows the exact differences between a sales prospect and a sales suspect. This will help them interact appropriately with both groups of potential customers so they can drive sales and improve your brand’s reputation.

While the intricacies of a sales suspect vs prospect can seem confusing, it’s actually quite simple. Briefly put, a sales prospect is someone who’s looking to make a purchase, while a suspect is someone who might, at some point, want to become a customer.

With our handy list of key differentiating factors, you’ll separate the two groups quickly.

Attracting and retaining top sales talent in a competitive market is challenging, especially in the rapidly evolving SaaS market. To win the attention of the best candidates, you offer them flexibility, great pay and benefits, growth and advancement opportunities, and an appealing company culture.

Finding the ideal candidate for a SaaS sales position is another matter.

The best candidates thrive in a fast-paced, innovative, and rapidly evolving environment while finding satisfaction in contributing to the company’s growth. Adding a highly complex enterprise comp plan to the mix increases the hiring challenge, potentially hindering understanding and trust.

Compensation benchmarking is crucial for large sales teams to make informed incentive decisions.

It ensures the development of fair and logical incentive packages that remain competitive. This enables businesses to attract and retain top talent and accurately budget for all compensation plan components without any unpleasant financial surprises.

What is Compensation Benchmarking?

Compensation benchmarking is the process of gathering, analyzing, and leveraging data that defines the costs associated with salaries and other compensation plan elements.

Sales compensation benchmarking insights enable organizations to remain competitive as industries and markets evolve to attract and retain top talent. Sales compensation components to benchmark include elements like base salary, commission rates, bonuses, and benefits.

How to do Compensation Benchmarking

Follow these four steps to effectively benchmark compensation and create a competitive incentive package.

Step 1: Identify Your Benchmark Group

Define your ideal sales rep profile including tenure, skill set, and industry.

For instance, reps with more experience may qualify for a higher salary and a richer incentive package than less experienced team salespeople.

Additional factors to consider include company size, geographic location, sales methodology, and sales cycle length. Benchmark against similar businesses for the best results or adjust the data according to things like geographic differences such as cost of living.

Step 2: Gather Data

Utilize reliable compensation benchmarking tools such as:

• Pavilion’s 2024 B2B Compensation Benchmarks report
• Betts 2024 Compensation Guide
• Betts 2024 Executive Compensation Guide

Consider conducting surveys of similar companies in your industry or leverage job boards and salary comparison websites such as Indeed and ZipRecruiter. When referring to job boards and websites, always consider how well-aligned the company and role are with the factors you are benchmarking. Otherwise, you risk skewing your data and negatively impacting your results.

Step 3: Analyze the Data

Review the data you’ve assembled. Examine factors beyond base salary, such as commission structures, bonus potential, and benefits packages. These are important elements for attracting and retaining top talent.

Look for trends and median figures within your defined benchmark group. These are key factors to prioritize as you progress to the next step of creating your compensation package.

Step 4: Develop a Competitive Compensation Package

Use your analysis to design a compensation package attractive to top sales talent while remaining financially responsible. Test the new plan against historical data to ensure it doesn’t break the budget.

Consider offering a mix of base salary, commission, and bonuses to incentivize performance that drives organizational goal achievement.

5 Compensation Benchmarking Practices Specific to Large Sales Teams

Large sales teams should complete additional steps during the benchmarking process. These best practices will further enhance your results.

• Account for Team Dynamics and Specialization: In large sales teams, roles can become specialized. Benchmarking should consider specializations such as SDR, BDR, and Account Executive and their unique contribution to the sales cycle. Analyze data for specific roles within your team structure to ensure competitive compensation for each level.
• Factor in Performance Variability within a Large Team: Large teams naturally experience a wider range of individual performance. Consider segmenting your analysis within the benchmark group to account for top performers, average performers, and those requiring improvement. This allows you to design a compensation structure that rewards high achievers while providing a baseline for development within the team.
• Analyze Quota Attainment Rates Across Similar Teams: Quota attainment is a key performance metric in sales. Benchmarking should not just focus on compensation but also on quota attainment rates within the benchmark group, specifically for teams with similar sizes and structures. This allows you to assess the achievability of your quotas and ensure your compensation plan incentivizes reaching those goals.
• Leverage Internal Data for Segmentation and Targeting: Large teams often generate a wealth of internal sales data. Utilize this data to segment your team based on performance metrics like revenue generated, deals closed, and meetings scheduled. This allows for targeted compensation adjustments within your team, addressing performance gaps and motivating improvement.
• Consider Retention Rates and Competitive Counteroffers: Employee turnover can be disruptive for large teams. Analyze data on retention rates within your benchmark group, particularly for top performers. Understanding counteroffer trends in the market can also be valuable. Use this information to develop competitive compensation packages that incentivize your top talent to stay.

Additional Considerations for Large Sales Teams

These additional compensation best practices will help you remain competitive and continue attracting and retaining the best talent in the marketplace.

• Ensure compensation packages are internally aligned based on experience, performance, and territory.
• Clearly communicate compensation structures and how performance translates to rewards.
• Regularly review compensation benchmarking data and adjust salary ranges and structures as needed.

Compensation Benchmarking For Large Sales Teams

Compensation benchmarking is important for businesses with large sales teams. It facilitates informed, financially prudent incentive package decisions.

Pay benchmarking helps ensure industry and market competitive incentives that attract and retain top talent. This comparative process ensures internal fairness in comp plans across an organization and ultimately drives sales performance to achieve organizational goals.

Offering competitive compensation packages helps attract top talent. These incentives also boost team morale, create a high-performance culture, and increase sales productivity.

Start benchmarking your compensation package by leveraging the above tools and adapting the outlined steps to your specific needs.

To learn more about the compensation resources QuotaPath offers, schedule time with a team member.

91% of sales teams missed quota last year, according to our 2024 Compensation Trends Report. Leaders attributed those misses to factors such as market conditions, misaligned sales activities, unstructured sales processes, lack of motivation, and unrealistic quotas or sales goals.

Understanding quotas and commissions in the tech industry is important for employers and potential employees alike. This knowledge is valuable when ensuring targets are attainable for employee motivation and retention and ensuring quotas align with and drive key business goals.

A thorough grasp of quotas and commissions also supports accurate forecasting. It enables smart sales strategy improvements by recognizing signs revealing broken or proven sales processes so they can be addressed or invested.

Read on to expand your knowledge of the industry standard for quotas and commissions.

Understanding Sales Compensation in Tech

Base salary, commission, quota, and commission structure are fundamental to understanding sales compensation in tech. This section reviews these terms, their role in compensation, and common compensation plans to consider. 

• Base Salary vs. Commission: Base salary plus commission is the most common sales compensation structure in SaaS. It offers salespeople some financial security while also motivating more sales activity.

Base pay is a pre-determined monetary biweekly or monthly payment to the employee regardless of their performance.

A commission is a financial incentive paid to sales reps for completing specific business activities. For instance, a salesperson may earn a commission for selling specific products or closing a multi-year deal.

The typical split between base salary and commission in tech sales is 50/50 or 60/40.

• Quota: A sales quota is an objective an individual sales rep or team is intended to achieve within a set period. The amount of quota attainment influences the commission rate of variable pay for a given deal. For instance, the closer a salesperson is to hitting quota, the higher the commission rate. Quotas are typically set based on historical data, market trends, and the company’s overall sales objectives.

After analyzing essential information, apply these best practices for setting sales quota:

1. Sales reps must pay for themselves. Their quota must represent a multiple of their On-Target Earnings (OTE) to cover the salesperson’s base salary, benefits, and other expenses to ensure profitability. The industry standard multiplier ranges from 3x OTE to 8x OTE to calculate an annualized quota. However, many factors influence which multiplier is best for you. That’s where our Quota:OTE Ratio Calculator comes in. Use this handy free tool while setting quotas to identify the best multiplier to use.

2. Consider sales cycle length, average sales price, and company stage.  These three factors help you set a quota frequency of monthly, quarterly, or annual. Our research indicated that companies typically rely on average sales price and sales cycle length, and preferred quarterly quota cycles. The company stage can mean a longer, annual quota period for an older, more established company, or a shorter, monthly quota period for startups to create urgency for their reps.

3. Confirm that reps can achieve their sales quota. Regardless of the amount of analysis and planning invested in setting quota, if your salespeople feel it’s unattainable, they may feel demotivated and frustrated. That’s not to say that 100% of your reps should hit quota, however, if nobody has ever achieved it, that is a bad quota. A good rule of thumb is that 80% of reps hit quota each month. Then, top performers will compensate for bottom performers and the overall organization will achieve quota.

• Commission Structures: The most common commission structures in tech sales are single-rate commission, commission with accelerators, and a milestone bonus on exceeding quota. The single-rate commission plan is easy to understand and pays the same rate on every deal. Commission with accelerators is a great way to reward overperformance since incentives increase in tiers as reps work toward and beyond quota attainment. The milestone bonus encourages consistent performance by rewarding quota achievement. This makes it an excellent addition to the single-rate commission plan.

Base salary plus commission is the most common sales compensation structure in tech. Sales quotas tied to the right commission structure motivate reps to excel.

Tech Industry Standards

These tech industry averages will give you perspective as you build your compensation plan.

Average Commission Rates

The standard commission rate for sales is typically between 20% and 30% of gross margins. However, it can vary depending on factors such as industry, total sales volume, seniority and experience, and product complexity. According to our research, average commission rates for different tech sectors like software, hardware, and SaaS are:

• Telecommunications: 5–20% of the total sale value
• Insurance: 5–15% of the total premium amount
• Advertising: 5–20% of the total advertising spend
• Manufacturing: 2–10% of the total sale value
• SaaS: 10–30% of the total sale value
• Automobile: 1–5% of the total sale value

Quota Attainment Rates

Our research found that 91% of companies fail to achieve our suggested attainment of 80% or more of their quota targets as a team.

Quota attainment and sales commissions typically rise and fall together. Meeting or exceeding quota can lead to higher commission rates, bonuses, and rewards. On the other hand, falling short of quota can mean lower commission rates or reduced incentives.

Leverage Industry Standards

Gaining a clear understanding of quotas and commissions in the tech industry can help you attract, motivate, and retain top talent while supporting accurate forecasting and intelligent sales strategy improvements.

Now you know the difference between base salary and commission, the relationship between quota and commissions, how to set a quota and the best commission structures in tech sales. Combined with the industry standards for average commission and quota attainment rates, you are armed with what you need to establish your tech company’s compensation plans.

See how QuotaPath supports tech businesses as they set fair and logical quotas that challenge and motivate your organization while driving targets. Schedule time with a team member or start a free trial today.