The new year is just around the corner, and with it comes the opportunity to refresh your company’s compensation strategy. 

While you and your leadership team should feel optimistic when it’s time to roll out your plan, it’s imperative to remember that those impacted by the comp plan—your teams—might not see it that way. 

In our experience, most teams resist comp plan changes and assume the worst. “The company wants us to do more and pay us less” is a common trope. 

And when leadership fails to keep their team privy to incoming changes, distrust, and negativity only worsen. Mark Roberge, Managing Director of Stage 2 Capital, has firsthand experience with the consequences of a poorly executed compensation plan. 

He recalls when “10 amazing salespeople from a particular company came to me with job applications” immediately following a botched compensation plan design coupled with ineffective communication.

As Mark emphasizes, “You have to carefully manage the design and communication process of a compensation plan.”

Here’s how to do it. 

The Importance of Proactive Communication

A well-executed comp plan rollout can significantly impact your team’s motivation, performance, and trust in your leadership. By proactively addressing concerns, gathering input, and providing clear information, you can help your team understand the rationale behind changes and maintain morale.

“Your salespeople deserve to know why the design is the way it is and why changes they propose can’t be done,”  said Mark.

Pre-Launch Communication:

• Involve Reps in the Development Process: When reps feel involved in decision-making, they are more likely to support the new plan. Consider forming a committee or conducting surveys to gather feedback.
  • Test the comp plan with a few sales reps to get “market feedback” before implementing. (Read: comp plan best practices.)
• Hold a town hall meeting with your team: Outline the plan’s drivers and reasons for upcoming changes. Make it a two-way conversation and invite feedback and suggestions. 
• Provide Ample Notice: Give your team ample time to adjust to the new plan. This will allow them to prepare and ask questions mentally.
• Address Concerns and Questions: Be prepared to answer questions and address concerns about the new plan. Open communication can help to alleviate anxiety and build trust.

During Implementation:

• Launch at Sales Kickoff (SKO): Crate alignment between business goals, sales goals, and compensation plans involving HR, sales operations, and sales executives. Communicate changes and provide the necessary support to inspire the sales organization.
• Offer Comprehensive Training: Ensure your team understands the new plan and how it will impact their earnings. Provide training sessions and resources to support their understanding.
• Monitor Performance and Address Issues: Monitor your team’s performance closely and address any issues promptly. This will help maintain morale and ensure that the plan is working as intended.
• Encourage Open Communication: Create a culture of open communication where employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and concerns. This can help to identify potential problems early on.  
• Hold team and one-on-one plan reviews: Conduct team meetings and one-on-ones to explain compensation plans in detail. Distribute supporting materials like FAQs, videos, and calculators to help employees understand the plan thoroughly.

Post-Launch Communication:

• Gather Feedback: Conduct surveys or one-on-one meetings to gather feedback on the new plan. This will help you identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments.
  • Ask:
    • Do you feel this comp plan is fair? Why or why not.
    • Are you incentivized? Why or why not.
    • Do you understand how you’re paid?
• Analyze Performance Data: Track key performance metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of the new plan and share with team.
  • Are reps achieving their quotas? 
  • Are they motivated to exceed expectations?
  • What were you hoping to drive with your comp plan, and have you seen evidence suggesting a change has happened?
  • How’s your win rate?
  • Is sales velocity increasing? What about average contract value? 
• Make Data-Driven Adjustments: Based on your analysis, make data-driven adjustments to the plan as needed. This could involve changes to commission rates, quotas, or other elements of the plan.

Comp Plan Rollout Scenarios

So, what does a good look look like in this case, and what does a bad look look like?

Example of Effective Communication:

• Scenario: A company is introducing a new commission structure that rewards team collaboration.
• Effective Communication: The company explains the new structure, highlighting the benefits of teamwork and collaboration. They also offer training sessions to help reps understand the new metrics and how they will be evaluated.

Example of Ineffective Communication:

• Scenario: A company suddenly announces a new comp plan with higher quotas and lower commission rates.
• Ineffective Communication: The company fails to explain the changes, leaving employees feeling surprised and demotivated.

Can QuotaPath Help Your Rollout?

Building a compensation plan that drives desired selling behaviors is essential for the success of any sales organization. You can create a motivating and effective compensation structure by aligning your plan with business goals, ensuring transparency and communication, and automating key processes. 

The best news? QuotaPath can make all of this easier for you. 

QuotaPath offers a comprehensive solution for building, managing, and measuring sales compensation plans. 

With QuotaPath:

• Align your plan with business goals: Easily create plans that directly support your company’s objectives.
• Ensure transparency and communication: Provide clear and accessible information to your sales team, fostering trust and understanding.
• Automate processes: Streamline tasks like tracking performance, calculating payouts, and generating reports.

Schedule time with our team to learn more.

October marks the beginning of Comptober at QuotaPath—when teams should begin building their compensation plan proposals for the upcoming year. 

As we dive into comp planning, one theme stands out more than ever: alignment. 

When we asked nearly 500 revenue leaders what area of their sales compensation management process needs the most improvement, 25% reported “alignment to business goals” as their top focus, followed closely by simplicity, optimization, visibility, and automation.

Given today’s rapidly changing economic environment, this focus on alignment isn’t surprising. 

Companies should ensure their compensation plans are designed in collaboration with Sales, Finance, and RevOps leaders to drive growth and efficiency. 

A lack of alignment between these teams can lead to comp plans that drive the wrong behaviors or favor the business more than the reps, jeopardizing the organization’s strategic objectives and the reps’ loyalty. 

In this blog, we’ll explore how alignment can make or break your comp plans and offer steps to ensure your team is on the right track as you build for the year ahead. 

How Misalignment Occurs

We’ll begin with the precious of misalignment in compensation plans. This typically occurs for one or multiple of the following reasons:

Cross-department Collaboration is Key to Avoiding Misalignment

The first and most crucial step in avoiding compensation plan misalignment is ensuring cross-department collaboration from the start. 

Compensation plans that are built in silos—whether by Sales, RevOps, or Finance—are bound to create friction, drive the wrong behaviors, or fail to align with business goals. That’s why involving key stakeholders from each department is essential to building a plan that works for everyone.

Who Should Be Involved?

• RevOps Leaders: As the team responsible for ensuring operational alignment between Sales, Marketing, and Finance, RevOps plays a critical role in ensuring the compensation plan ties back to the company’s overarching goals. RevOps leaders are often responsible for managing the data, processes, and systems that support the plan’s execution.
• Sales Leaders: Sales teams are on the frontlines of executing the company’s growth strategy. Sales leaders offer insight into what motivates the team, current market conditions, and how the compensation plan can drive behaviors that align with business objectives. They ensure that quotas, commissions, and incentives are realistic and achievable.
• Finance Leaders: Finance has the final say regarding the budget and ensuring the plan is financially viable. They provide the guardrails that ensure the plan is fair to reps and sustainable for the business.
• Reps Themselves: It’s equally important to involve sales reps. After all, they’re the ones being incentivized. Gathering feedback on current plans, understanding what motivates them, and identifying pain points will create a compensation structure aligning rep behavior with business goals. This buy-in from reps also increases engagement and motivation, making them more likely to hit their targets.

Why Collaboration Matters

Collaboration across departments ensures that the compensation plan reflects the perspectives and needs of the entire organization, not just one team. Without this collaboration, it’s easy to create plans that unintentionally drive the wrong behaviors—such as reps focusing too heavily on short-term wins at the expense of long-term growth, or plans that don’t account for the company’s financial reality. When Sales, RevOps, and Finance collaborate, it creates alignment, ensuring that the plan motivates reps and drives the right business outcomes.

By fostering collaboration across Sales, Finance, RevOps, and involving reps in the process, your organization can create a compensation plan that drives alignment, motivates the right behaviors, and supports your business goals.

Establish Organizational Goals Before Setting Compensation Plans

Equally as important as cross-department collaboration is the need to set organizational goals before designing compensation plans.

A well-crafted compensation plan should directly align with your company’s strategic objectives, ensuring every incentive is tied to the behaviors and outcomes that move the business forward. Without clear goals, you risk creating a comp plan that drives actions misaligned with what your organization needs to achieve.

Why Finalizing Goals First is Critical

The role of a compensation plan is to motivate and reward the right actions from your sales teams. 

However, if your company’s business objectives haven’t been clearly defined, it’s impossible to know what those “right actions” are. 

For example, if your primary business goal is to improve gross revenue retention, but your comp plan incentivizes reps based solely on new business without factoring in retention, you’ll find yourself driving the wrong behaviors.

In this scenario, reps may focus on closing new deals quickly, potentially at the cost of long-term customer relationships and retention—ultimately harming your company’s growth targets.

Start with the Big Picture

So, before drafting any compensation plan, sit down with your executive team to establish your key business metrics for the upcoming year. 

These might include goals like:

• Increasing revenue growth
• Enhancing customer retention
• Driving efficiency across sales processes
• Expanding into new markets or verticals
• Improving profit margins

Once these broader objectives are set, you can tailor your compensation structure to reflect and support these goals. This ensures that every aspect of the plan—from quotas to commission structures to bonuses—works harmoniously with the company’s priorities.

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Misalignment

One of the most common reasons comp plans fail is because they were created before organizational goals were fully fleshed out. If the priorities of your business shift mid-year or after a plan is finalized, you’ll end up with misaligned incentives. This can lead to reps focusing on outdated or irrelevant targets, causing friction and ultimately slowing progress toward the company’s true goals.

By setting clear business goals first and ensuring every piece of your compensation plan is aligned to those goals, you’ll build a structure that motivates your team and drives the outcomes that matter most to the long-term success of your organization.

Limit Focusing Solely on Short-Term Outcomes

Next, remember that while short-term objectives like hitting quotas or generating leads are important, compensation plans that prioritize these exclusively can lead to unintended consequences. 

When reps are incentivized only on immediate wins, they focus on individual success—often at the expense of broader company goals like long-term customer retention or strategic growth.

To avoid this, it’s essential to balance rewarding short-term performance and aligning incentives with the company’s long-term objectives. Consider incorporating elements that promote sustainable growth, such as rewarding reps for high-quality deals, customer retention, or long-term contracts. 

This approach ensures your team remains focused not just on immediate results but on driving success that supports the company’s bigger picture.

Refrain From Copying Old Plans

Lastly, reusing old compensation plans—whether a new leader is bringing a model from their previous company or simply recycling last year’s plan—can create misalignment if the plan doesn’t account for the current business environment or strategic shifts. 

Each year brings new challenges and priorities, and compensation structures should evolve accordingly.

Instead of defaulting to what worked in the past, take the time to assess whether the previous plan aligns with your company’s current goals, market conditions, and team structure. By tailoring the comp plan to reflect the unique circumstances of the present, you’ll avoid driving behaviors that are out of sync with your organization’s needs.

Collaborating and Aligning Comp Plans to Drive Success

As we enter Comptober, teams must focus on aligning their sales compensation plans with their company’s most important business metrics. 

From cross-department collaboration to setting clear organizational goals, ensuring your comp plan is designed with the right framework can make or break your company’s success. Avoiding common pitfalls like focusing too heavily on short-term goals or recycling old plans ensures that your strategy is forward-thinking, motivating, and in sync with your business objectives.

Partnering with QuotaPath can help you structure and measure sales compensation plans that align with your company’s goals. 

Our platform provides transparency and collaboration between Sales, Finance, and RevOps teams, ensuring compensation plans drive the right behaviors and support long-term success. Talk to our team today.

SaaS company leaders face many challenges in compensation planning; however, aligning compensation with company goals is their biggest challenge. This alignment is crucial for driving business goals achievement.

But another challenge that pops up and is relative to alignment issues is the communication of comp plan changes. After all, 77% of revenue leaders said their reps found their comp plans challenging to understand, and 60% of reps take 3 to 6 months to completely understand how they earn variable pay from their compensation plans.

Compensation plans are ineffective if they don’t motivate reps. Another contributing factor is the failure to gather and integrate feedback into plans.  Even if reps understand how they earn commission, if they feel that the plan is unrealistic or the incentives aren’t attractive to them, plans won’t inspire the level of performance you’re seeking. The best way to solve this is by routinely asking reps for feedback and then carefully considering their input as you create or update the plan.

Alignment, communication, and feedback integration all lead to motivation and trust in sales compensation for driving sales performance. When reps don’t trust their compensation plan and aren’t motivated by their incentives, you’re likely to fall short of business goal attainment.

By gathering feedback from each person on the sales team, you learn where to prioritize your attention during compensation planning and what motivates each individual. These insights can help tailor compensation plans to motivate sales reps better and align with company goals. When reps are included and feel heard, trust is built, and they are more likely to be motivated by their comp plans.

Developing a Compensation Strategy with Feedback Integration

Feedback from reps includes insights about how they feel about their compensation plan if they feel incentivized, and how well they understand how they are paid. Plus, asking these questions of salespeople who aren’t driving the outcomes you aimed to achieve with your comp plan helps you determine how to adjust the plan to boost its effectiveness.

The key components of a compensation package include base salary, bonuses, and commissions. These are determined based on a combination of rep feedback and market research. Market research helps ensure you remain competitive in the marketplace, so you attract and retain top talent. Rep feedback helps you adjust plan elements, so they motivate reps to drive the outcomes tied to business objectives.

For instance, if the company wants reps to close more multi-year deals, the plan needs to reward reps for closing 2–3-year deals. However, if reps aren’t selling these deals, it may mean that the multi-year rate isn’t high enough compared to your base rate. Then, increasing the incentives for multi-year deals in the new plan is more likely to motivate reps to achieve this outcome.

Effective Communication Throughout the Compensation Planning Process to Build Trust

Communication is crucial to the success of new or altered sales compensation plans. Starting early builds trust and allows sufficient time for reps to understand their new plan. This understanding helps you gain rep buy-in and motivates reps to adopt desired behaviors to drive business goal achievement. Failure to effectively communicate compensation plans can result in rep frustration, loss of trust, demotivation, and rep turnover.

Steps for communicating the compensation plan rollout to employees include:

1. Management education: Before implementing the new compensation plan, present it to all management levels. Detail each component, the reasons for the changes, and their impact on the salesforce, specifying who will be affected and how. Emphasize the advantages of the new plan and provide tips on maximizing commissions. Distribute plan documents, FAQs, instructional videos, what-if calculators, promotional video templates, and other launch materials.
2. General plan and roll-out review by sales leadership: Senior sales management, such as a VP, should deliver a general plan and roll-out process review with the team. The goal is to energize and engage the entire sales organization as they launch the new compensation plan. After the session, send an email to the entire sales team summarizing the discussion and including a video highlighting the plan and outlining the roll-out process.
3. More detailed small group plan review: Next, sales managers should provide their teams with a thorough review of the plan. Clarify how the plan affects both the team as a whole and individual contributors. Share detailed plan documents, FAQs, videos, what-if calculators, and other launch materials with the sales team members for their review.
4. Individual plan review: After the group review, sales managers should meet individually with each team member to discuss how the new plan affects them personally. This allows reps to ask questions or express concerns about the new sales compensation plan in a private setting. Additionally, reps can submit any further questions via email, private chat, or phone as needed.
5. Plan verification: Finally, have reps confirm they understand their plans by signing off on them. This is a crucial step in ensuring alignment and transparency throughout the compensation planning process. Plan verification or re-verification should be completed whenever changes are made to compensation plans. This can be done using DocuSign, via email, in person, or through our in-app Plan Verification feature.

Explaining the “why” and the “math” behind compensation decisions helps build trust.

Strategies for sharing the reasoning behind comp plan changes include having senior leadership present at the start of the sales kickoff meeting where they share the organization’s goals and relate them to performance and compensation. Discussing how the sales team’s work supports business objectives and drives goal achievement boosts rep buy-in, understanding, and focus.

Once reps know the why, it’s essential that they understand how their compensation is calculated. A couple of ways to accomplish this include calculating examples based on various scenarios in plan documents or giving the sales team access to forecasting software that automates commission calculations. This answers questions and clarifies how the new plan affects team members’ income potential.

How to Motivate Sales Team

70% of leaders say their plans motivate reps. Is that good enough?

Read More

Best Practices for Feedback and Communication in Compensation Planning

Leverage these tips to incorporate feedback and communication throughout your compensation planning process to increase the effectiveness of your plans.

Integrate Feedback and Communication in Comp Planning

Feedback and communication are essential elements in the compensation planning process. Incorporating these practices enables you to make more informed strategic decisions as you create plans for the new year. Doing so increases the effectiveness of the comp plans, motivates desired rep behaviors, and drives organizational goal achievements.

Learn more about how QuotaPath can assist in the compensation planning process to ensure alignment between compensation and motivation, driving desired business outcomes. Schedule time with the QuotaPath team for a consultation.

“Comptober” is a term we use to signify the critical month of October when RevOps leaders begin planning and strategizing their sales compensation for the upcoming year. Starting the compensation planning process in October allows sufficient time to finalize plans by the new year or the next sales kickoff.

It also gives leadership ample time for thorough data analysis, stakeholder feedback, and strategic alignment, ensuring the final plan is well-structured, motivating, and ready for implementation by the new year.

Now’s the time to start running data and analysis on past performance to shape next year’s comp plans. Not sure where to start? We’re here to help. Continue reading for a step-by-step guide on conducting historical and market data analysis, plus best practices for data-driven decision-making in compensation strategy development.

Where to Start: Identifying the Right Data to Analyze

Let’s start by diving into what historical and market data you need to evaluate.

Gather historical data such as: 

• Sales Performance Data: Measures individual and team sales achievement, helping with incentive structure optimization and commission adjustments.
• Quota Attainment: Measures how well individual sales reps and teams are hitting their sales targets for a given period. This metric helps identify seasonal trends, star performers, how well the comp plan motivates sales reps, and determines when targets must be adjusted.
• Win Rates: The percentage of deals won versus lost helps assess the effectiveness of sales strategies and determine when to adjust commission rates.
• Average Deal Size: Identifies the average value of sales transactions, showing how commissions affect sales reps’ focus on high-value opportunities.
• Customer Acquisition Costs: The costs associated with attaining new customers, helping determine the profitability of your compensation plan.
• Sales Rep Turnover Rate: Reveals the rate at which salespeople leave the organization, indicating the effectiveness of compensation plans in motivating and retaining talent.

Market Data: The Gains

You also need to gather market data, such as industry benchmarks, competitor analysis, and salary surveys to increase the effectiveness of your incentive plan. You’ll reap the following benefits from leveraging these insights as you start your compensation planning process.

Ensures Competitive Compensation

Market data helps benchmark salaries and incentives against industry standards to attract and retain top talent. Analyzing market data prevents you from underpaying or overpaying employees by aligning compensation with market rates.

Helps You Understand Industry Trends

Leveraging market data enables you to glean insights into current compensation trends and emerging practices, such as new types of incentives or benefits. These revelations help to adjust pay structures, so you remain relevant and competitive.

Informs Strategic Decisions

Data from industry benchmarks, competitor analysis, and salary surveys aid in setting competitive but sustainable compensation packages that align with business goals and budget constraints. These insights prevent guesswork and support decision-making on salary ranges, bonus structures, and commission rates.

Identifies Competitive Positioning

Delving into market data provides a clear view of how competitors are compensating their teams and where you rank, enabling you to make strategic adjustments to stand out in the challenging talent market.

Enhances Employee Satisfaction and Retention

Market data supports transparent communications with employees, showing them that their compensation is aligned with market standards. This ensures employees feel valued and fairly compensated compared to industry peers, reducing turnover rates.

Tools and resources for data collection and management include salary services and industry benchmarks such as:

1. Pavilion’s B2B Compensation Benchmarks
2. Betts Recruiting 2024 Compensation Guide

What You Can Learn from Historical Data

Analyzing past sales performance enables you to identify trends, strengths, and areas for improvement.

Trends such as:

• Seasonal Trends: Recognizing high or low-performance periods and correlating them with market conditions or internal strategies.
• Consistent Top Performers: Identifying high-performing sales reps and teams to understand what drives their success.
• Product or Service Performance: Analyzing which products or services have the highest sales and the factors contributing to their success.

Strengths like:

• Individual and team strengths to leverage in future strategies.
• Effective sales tactics and strategies that contributed to past successes.

Areas of improvement like:

• Underperforming sales reps or teams and diagnosing potential causes. For instance, lack of training or market conditions.
• Inefficiencies in the sales process, such as bottlenecks or extended sales cycles, and suggesting improvements.

How Data Informs Compensation Strategy

Data-driven insights can help RevOps leaders make informed decisions that align with business goals.

Best Practices for Conducting Data Analysis

Effective data analysis is crucial for making informed decisions. Here are some tips to help you effectively interpret and leverage the data:

Define Clear Objectives: Determine what you want to achieve with your analysis. For instance, learn what competitors are including in their AE compensation plans. This helps you focus on the right data types and sources.

Understand the Context: Have an understanding of the source and methods used to gather the data. This is especially true when selecting market data sources.

Use Visualizations: Utilizing charts, graphs, and dashboards to visualize your data makes it easier to identify patterns and trends.

Test Your Assumptions: Test your preliminary compensation plan ideas with modeling tools to ensure they are viable.

Collaborate with Others: Involving cross-functional teams such as Finance and HR in the data analysis process is crucial to gain different perspectives and insights for a more complete analysis.

Conduct Regular Reviews: Compensation data analysis is not one and done, it is a recurring process as business, market, and industry conditions and practices continually evolve. This enables you to remain competitive and relevant to attract and retain top talent.

Maintain Transparency: Sharing your findings with relevant stakeholders fosters trust, increases understanding, ensures fairness, and facilitates better decision-making.

Gain a clearer picture for better decision-making by leveraging these data analysis best practices.

Preparing for a Successful Compensation Planning Season

Starting the compensation planning process early allows time for thorough data analysis, feedback, and strategy for a finalized, well-structured plan ready to launch in the new year. Adopt our best practices for conducting data analysis to ensure your compensation plans are competitive, motivating, and aligned with business goals.

Book time with a QuotaPath team member to simplify your compensation planning process and reduce the headaches associated with managing it.

Long gone are the days of staying ahead of competitors using traditional sales tactics. The modern sales toolkit has a new and crucial element: sales intelligence. Used wisely, sales intelligence provides valuable insights for strategic planning and informed decision-making. 

Essentially, sales intelligence tools use various sources to gather and analyze data to gain a deeper understanding of the market. This leads to a more targeted and effective sales strategy that identifies high-potential leads and gives you a greater sense of customer behavior and preferences. 

The key benefits of implementing sales intelligence include:

• Enhanced Lead Generation: Sales teams can better identify and prioritize the most promising leads so that their efforts focus on opportunities with the highest potential. 

• Improved Understanding of Customers: Businesses develop a comprehensive view of their customers’ needs, preferences, and purchasing behaviors. Sales teams can then adapt their sales pitches and communications to suit. 

• Increased Efficiency: Automation and advanced analytics reduce the time and effort required to gather and analyze data. As such, sales teams can concentrate on building relationships and closing deals. 
  
• Strategic Decision-Making: Sales managers can use real-time data and insights to make informed decisions about resource allocation, market targeting, and sales strategies. This makes operations more effective and agile.

Implementing Effective Sales Techniques

For sales, and in particular B2B sales, the right sales techniques lead to stronger relationships and increased revenue. Sales intelligence makes it much easier for businesses to choose appropriate B2B sales techniques to target, engage, and convert business customers.

Aligning sales intelligence with proven sales strategies involves several key steps:

1. Data-Driven Prospecting: Sales intelligence tools can analyze vast amounts of data to identify prospects that fit the ideal customer profile. When identified, sales efforts can be focused on the leads that offer the most promise. 

2. Personalized Outreach: With insights gained from sales intelligence, sales teams can tailor their outreach to address the specific needs and pain points of each prospect. Prospects are more likely to engage and convert if communications are personal to them. According to McKinsey, 71% of customers expect personalization.

3. Informed Decision-Making: Sales intelligence provides real-time data. This means you can see current market trends, competitor activities, and customer behavior as it unfolds. With this information, you can then make decisions based on the current market. Additionally, incorporating asset management into your sales intelligence framework ensures all resources, including physical and digital assets, are tracked, optimized, and effectively utilized, enhancing overall decision-making capabilities and operational efficiency.

4. Efficient Resource Allocation: Sales managers can allocate resources more efficiently by understanding which leads are most likely to convert.

Sales Intelligence Components

Firmographics

• Ownership types (whether it’s private or public, for example).
• Industry.
• Number of employees.
• Number of locations.
• Annual revenue.

Psychographics

The psychographic profile of an account is all about their beliefs on what is emotionally or intellectually vital for them to make decisions. Understanding an account’s psychographics will allow you to uncover their motivations. It includes their:

• Style of decision-making.
• Concerns and needs around compliance.
• Risk tolerance.
• Financial decision-making and budgeting behavior.
• Culture.

Technographics

This is simply the technology used by an organization. When you know the systems (SEP, MAP, CRM, etc.), you know whether they would benefit from what you have to offer them, and you can target them accordingly.

Market Updates

The economy impacts spending for B2B companies. But, no matter the market conditions, there will always be updates on how companies are performing. You can use this information to your advantage by timing your solutions to meet companies’ needs as they arise.

Persona Maps

Persona maps help you track your influence and progress. It tells you who people are, their roles, and your engagement level with them. 

Intent Data

This is one of the critical aspects of sales intelligence because it tells you which companies are interested, what drives their interest, and the likelihood of them converting. This data comes from their web browsing. For example, it might include the topics they’re researching online, the webpages they’re visiting on your site even if they’re not form-filling, which of your campaigns they’ve seen, and whether they’ve read reviews on third-party sites.

Generating Quality Leads Using Sales Intelligence

Sales intelligence also transforms how businesses identify and engage potential clients. Sales teams can improve their ability to attract, qualify, and convert high-quality leads. Learning how to generate B2B leads effectively can be streamlined with the right sales intelligence tools. 

Strategies for Integrating Sales Intelligence into Lead Generation Processes

1. Identify Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP)

Use sales intelligence to analyze customer data and identify key characteristics of your best customers. Then, detailed ICPs can be created to guide the lead generation process. 

2. Target Prospecting

Use sales intelligence tools to identify prospects who match your ICPs. Focusing on high-potential leads increases the chances of conversion. 

3. Personalized Outreach

Leverage insights from sales intelligence to tailor outreach messages. Personalized communication that addresses prospects’ specific needs and pain points will be more likely to capture their attention and prompt a response. 

4. Behavioral Analysis

Use sales intelligence to analyze the online behavior and engagement patterns of prospects. Understanding their interactions with your website and content lets you learn about their interests and readiness to buy. 

5. Lead Scoring and Qualification 

Implement lead-scoring models that incorporate data from sales intelligence. Sales teams can prioritize leads that are most likely to convert by assigning scores for things like engagement, fit, and buying signals. 

6. Continuous Improvement

Review and refine your lead generation strategies regularly based on insights from sales intelligence. This will ensure that your tactics remain aligned with changing market conditions. 

The Benefits of Using Sales Intelligence for Targeting and Qualifying Leads

Enhanced Precision

Since sales intelligence provides detailed information about prospects, it means sales teams are more accurate with their lead targeting. This enhanced precision increases efficiency in the process and reduces wasted efforts. 

Increased Relevance

With access to comprehensive data, sales teams can craft highly relevant and personalized messages that resonate with prospects. This increases the likelihood of engagement and strengthens connections with potential customers. 

Improved Lead Quality

By focusing on leads that match ICPs closely, you can spend more time pursuing the ones that are more likely to convert. 

Shortened Sales Cycles

Targeting and engaging the right leads from the outset can shorten the sales cycle. This means sales teams spend less time on unqualified leads and more time nurturing high-potential prospects toward a successful close. 

Driving Demand Generation with Sales Intelligence

Demand generation, or creating awareness and interest in a company’s products or services, is crucial for a healthy sales pipeline. A robust demand gen strategy is key to attracting and nurturing potential customers until they are ready to purchase. 

How Sales Intelligence Supports Demand Generation Efforts:

1. It helps you identify target audiences. You can use sales intelligence tools to analyze data and pinpoint the characteristics of high-potential audiences. Your demand generation campaigns are directed toward the most relevant and receptive groups.

2. It enhances content relevance. Sales intelligence insights allow marketers to create content that resonates with the target audience’s interests and pain points. Relevant content is more likely to engage prospects and drive them down the sales funnel. 

3. It optimizes campaign performance. Sales intelligence data helps sales teams to identify what works and what doesn’t for each campaign. Monitoring and analyzing this data allows you to optimize campaigns according to what performs better.

4. Targeted outreach is better than ever before. With the level of detail provided by sales intelligence, sales teams can target their outreach and so demand generation activities are more effective.

Practical Tips for Using Sales Data to Boost Demand Generation  

Here are some practical tips:

1. Exploit Data for Segmentation

Sales intelligence can be used to segment your audience based on criteria like:

• Industry.
• Company size.
• Buying behavior.

Each segment can then be given tailored demand-generation strategies, yielding better engagement and conversion rates.

2. Create Targeted Content

Use sales intelligence to develop content that addresses the specific needs and challenges it has identified. Your content can include whitepapers, webinars, blog posts, or case studies–whatever best suits your target audience. 

3. Set up Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Your sales intelligence data can be used to identify high-value accounts. This can help you focus demand generation toward these areas, thus making your marketing efforts more effective.

4. Analyze and Iterate

Seek to analyze your demand generation performance campaigns using sales intelligence data. This means you can identify trends and make adjustments to improve outcomes.

Integrating Technology to Enhance Sales Intelligence

Modern technologies play an important role in maximizing sales intelligence effectiveness. Sales intelligence–and its capabilities–can be enhanced with various tools and platforms. Here are some considerations:

1. Voice Over IP Systems: Hosted VoIP systems can improve communication and collaboration within sales teams. With their advanced features like call analytics, CRM integration, and remote accessibility, VoIP systems are a useful tool for making the most of sales intelligence.
2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems: CRMs like Salesforce and Hubspot are foundational for managing customer interactions and data. Typically, these integrate with sales intelligence tools to provide a centralized platform where you can track leads, analyze customer behavior, and improve your sales strategies. 
3. Marketing Automation Platforms: Tools that automate marketing tasks like email campaigns, social media posting, and lead nurturing  (Marketo and Pardot, for example) can use your sales intelligence data to tailor your marketing efforts.
4. Data Analytics Tools: Platforms like Tableau and Power BI help you visualize your sales data. Visualizations make it easier to identify trends and insights. Their integration with sales intelligence systems help precision of real-time information and reports.
5. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning: AI-powered tools like Gong and Chorus analyze sales calls and interactions to provide insights on sales performance and customer sentiment. The ability of machine learning algorithms to predict sales trends means you also have recommended actions for improving outcomes.
6. Predictive Analytics Tools: Solutions like InsideSales.com use predictive analytics to forecast sales opportunities and identify the best leads to pursue. 

The Benefits of Integrating Modern Technologies with Sales Intelligence Tools

Transitioning from Legacy Systems to Modern Sales Intelligence Platforms

outdated systems can pose significant challenges for sales intelligence, including data silos, limited functionality, and inefficiency. Effective data migration from legacy systems is crucial for making the most of advanced sales intelligence platforms. 

1. Assess Current Systems: Evaluate your existing systems to understand their limitations and identify the requirements for a new sales intelligence platform.
   
2. Plan the Migration: Develop a migration plan that includes timelines, resources, and risk mitigation strategies. Make sure that data integrity is maintained throughout the process. 
   
3. Choose the Right Platform: Select a sales intelligence platform that meets your business needs and integrates well with other tools and systems in your tech stack.
   
4. Train Your Team: Provide training to ensure your sales team is proficient in using the new platform and understands how to make the best use of its features.
   
5. Monitor and Optimize” After the transition, continuously monitor the new system’s performance and make necessary adjustments to optimize it.

Leveraging Sales Intelligence to Boost Your Sales Productivity: Final Thoughts

Traditional sales tactics simply aren’t enough anymore if you want to stay ahead and fight off the competition. Using sales intelligence gives you a strategic advantage: it harnesses various data sources and helps you optimize your sales processes. 

Integrating advanced technologies can help your business to streamline its operations and improve relationships. Ultimately, it drives revenue growth. Being proactive in your use of sales intelligence means you remain agile and can respond to market trends. 

Getting on board with sales intelligence isn’t just about being efficient, however. It’s all about adapting to changes quickly, like shifts in the market or changes in customer needs. When organizations prioritize data-driven insights from sales intelligence, they position themselves as industry leaders, and they set the stage for sustainable growth.

Author Bio: Lucas Rossi, Growth Marketing Manager

Lucas Rossi is a Growth Marketing Manager at Dealfront, the go-to platform for giving sales and marketing teams the data to close deals in Europe. Rossi plays a key role in refining Dealfront’s data-driven approach to decision-making, leading to better lead quality and sales results.

A commission policy creates alignment and transparency throughout the planning and implementation of a sales compensation plan. This agreement helps reps understand how and when they earn commissions, creates buy-in, and increases motivation driving organizational goal achievement.

A sales commission agreement includes key elements such as the details of the sales compensation plan, commission payment terms, sales targets and commissions, dispute resolution procedures, and legal considerations. This agreement serves as a handy reference to keep employers and employees on the same page while preventing and minimizing commission disputes.

For instance, a rep can check to see how and when they actually earn the commissions and will be paid on that big deal they just closed. Or perhaps a rep is leaving the company, and the agreement clearly defines which deals the company must pay them for and by what date.

In both cases, a detailed commission payment agreement helps the employee and employer successfully navigate these situations without discord.

These are often text-heavy documents requiring rep sign-off. Lucky for you, we’ve got a downloadable commission payment agreement template.

Download the Commission Payment Agreement Template

Understanding Key Elements

A comprehensive commission payment agreement should include the following key elements: 

• Parties Involved: Clearly define the employer and employee parties to the agreement.
• Effective Date and Term: Specify the agreement’s start and end dates, including provisions for renewal or termination.
• On-target Earnings (OTE): The amount of money a rep can expect to earn if they hit 100% of the quota. This is often expressed as an annual figure and designates the base salary and commission amounts.
• Quota: State-specific goals the sales rep must achieve during a defined period to earn a commission. (Read: How to Set a Sales Quota)
• Commission Structure: Outline the base commission rate, commission tiers, accelerators, or other compensation components.
• Commission Payout Schedule: Detail the frequency of commission payments, such as monthly or quarterly, and any applicable payment terms.
• Sales Metrics: Clearly define the sales metrics used to calculate commissions, such as revenue, units sold, and customer acquisition cost.
• Payment Calculation Methodology: Specify the formulas and calculations used to determine commission amounts.
• Draw Against Commission: If applicable, outline the commission draw policy, including repayment terms and interest charges.
• Contests and Bonuses: Include provisions for additional incentives or bonuses, if applicable.
• Confidentiality and Non-Compete Clauses: Protect proprietary information and ensure employee loyalty post-termination.
• Dispute Resolution: Outline the dispute resolution process related to commission calculations or payments.
• Governing Law and Jurisdiction: Specify the legal framework governing the agreement.
• Signatures: Include sections for both the employer and employee to sign and date the agreement.

By including these essential elements, you can create a legally sound and comprehensive commission payment agreement that protects the interests of both the employer and the employee.

Use QuotaPath to collect signatures

Learn about Plan Verification, a feature in QuotaPath that distributes and collects commission payment agreement signatures.

Learn More

Step-by-Step Guide

Here’s how to draft a commission agreement from scratch. These steps guide you through crafting an effective commission policy for your organization.

By following these steps, you can create a commission agreement that is both comprehensive and user-friendly.

Customizing Your Commission Payment Agreement

One size does not fit all regarding an employee commission agreement. So it’s essential to customize your commission agreement template to reflect the organization’s unique characteristics, business, and role. Here are key considerations as you customize each agreement.

• Tailor the agreement to each role that shares the same title. For example, A senior account executive should have a different agreement than a junior account executive.
• Include, define, and update each agreement for every component within the comp plan such as accelerators, commission rates according to services, and different products.
• If your sales team operates in different geographic regions, consider including territory-specific adjustments to the commission plan.
• Clawbacks may vary by role or team; make sure to update this accordingly.
• Outline the dispute resolution process.
• Explain how to pay for time not worked or leaves of absence is addressed. For instance, the details of a quota relief policy should be included as you customize commission agreement.
• Detail how commissions are handled at the termination of employment. For example, timing of pay and rules determining payment such as cash received from the customer.

Customize each commission payment agreement for your organization, industry, and role until each relevant issue is addressed. This will increase transparency and prevent misunderstandings and potential compensation disputes.

Common Mistakes in Commission Payment Agreements

These common errors violate the top commission agreement best practices. Ensuring you don’t commit any of these mistakes increases the effectiveness of your sales commission agreement.

Lack of Alignment with Business Goals: Failing to define how the commission plan supports overall company objectives clearly.

Overly Complex Structures: Creating commission plans that are difficult to understand and calculate, leading to confusion and frustration among sales reps.

Ignoring Sales Team Input: This involves neglecting to involve sales reps in the development process, resulting in a plan that doesn’t motivate or resonate with the team.

Insufficiently Defined Metrics: Using vague or ambiguous sales metrics to calculate commissions, leading to disputes and inconsistencies.

Ignoring Market Competitiveness: Failing to research industry standards and benchmark compensation plans against competitors.

Neglecting Legal Review: Overlooking the importance of legal counsel to ensure compliance with labor laws and regulations.

Lack of Flexibility: Creating a rigid commission plan that cannot adapt to changing market conditions or business priorities.

Ignoring the Role of Technology: Failing to leverage commission software to automate calculations, track performance, and improve efficiency.

Insufficient Communication: Poorly communicating the commission plan to the sales team, leading to misunderstandings and demotivation.

Neglecting Ongoing Evaluation: Failing to regularly review and update the commission plan to ensure it remains effective and aligned with business goals.

Avoiding these common commission payment agreement errors will improve your understanding of sales compensation plans and help you achieve your objectives.

Automating Commission Payments

Protect your business with commission agreements. These documents clearly explain all the elements, rules, and legal considerations of the sales compensation plan, preventing and minimizing disputes. You can create your commission payment agreement from scratch or customize our free template download then automate the sign-off process with QuotaPath.

See how QuotaPath provides team-wide visibility into the black box of sales commissions. Then build alignment between RevOps, Finance, and Sales when using sales compensation as a driver of your key business metrics. Schedule time with a QuotaPath team member or start a free trial today.

Q4 is the final sprint in the annual sales race.

To keep energy and motivation up across their teams, some leaders drop a spiff or kicker. At the same time, other leaders use the final quarter to test possible long-term changes to the following year’s compensation plan.

Regardless of your direction, it’s a good practice to closely monitor key metrics that can inform your compensation strategy and maximize performance throughout Q4.

Below, we highlight which metrics to keep an eye on and offer sales compensation adjustments to help steer your team back on track should it be necessary.

How to Motivate Sales Teams

Revenue leaders reported “failure to motivate reps” as their most challenging issue with comp plans.

Read More

Key Metrics to Watch

First, to determine if you should adapt your compensation plan, start by focusing on these critical performance metrics:

• Pipeline Velocity: Track how quickly deals move through the sales pipeline. A slowdown might indicate challenges in lead generation or qualification.
• Win Rate: Monitor the percentage of deals closed compared to opportunities created. A declining win rate could signal sales process or product positioning issues.
• Average Deal Size: Analyze the average value of closed deals. If this metric is decreasing, adjusting incentives to prioritize larger deals might be necessary.
• Sales Cycle Length: Track the time it takes to close deals. Increasing sales cycle length could indicate challenges in overcoming objections or securing approvals.
• Quota Attainment: Assess individual and team performance against quotas to identify underperforming areas.
• Sales Rep Productivity: Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) like calls, emails, and demos to gauge overall efficiency.
• Product Mix: Analyze sales distribution across different product lines or services. This can help identify opportunities for targeted incentives.

By closely monitoring these metrics, you can identify trends and patterns that indicate the need for compensation plan adjustments.

Data-Driven Compensation Adjustments

Once you’ve analyzed the key metrics and identified areas for improvement, it’s time to implement targeted compensation adjustments. 

Consider the following strategies:

• Accelerators: Introduce short-term incentives for closing deals within a specific timeframe or exceeding sales quotas. A comp plan with an accelerator is a great way to reward overperformance so your reps keep pushing upon hitting their targets.
• Quota Relief: Provide temporary relief for underperforming reps to help them regain momentum. (Here are some other Q4 spiff examples)
• Commission Rate Adjustments: If you’re focused on gross revenue retention, building profitability, or entering a new customer segment, consider increasing commission rates for specific product lines, customer segments, or deal sizes to drive desired sales behaviors.
• Contests and Gamification: Create a sense of competition and reward top performers with additional incentives.
• Spot Bonuses: Offer one-time bonuses for exceptional performance or closing large deals.

Remember, the goal is to motivate your sales team while maintaining a balanced and sustainable compensation plan. However, any adjustment you make comes with a risk—more on these below. 

Risks Associated with Q4 Compensation Adjustments

While Q4 compensation adjustments can be powerful tools in supporting sales performance management, it’s essential to be aware of potential risks:

• Unintended Consequences: Short-term incentives can sometimes lead to behaviors that negatively impact long-term goals, such as neglecting pipeline development or focusing solely on high-commission deals.
• Increased Costs: Generous accelerators, quota relief, or commission rate adjustments can significantly impact the overall compensation budget.
  • Run some initial pressure tests to avoid risking extreme payouts. (You can use QuotaPath to test and predict compensation costs.)
• Decreased Base Pay Value: Overreliance on short-term incentives can diminish the perceived value of base salary and long-term career opportunities.
• Inequity: If not managed carefully, adjustments can create disparities among sales reps, leading to demotivation and turnover.
• Dependency: Excessive use of short-term incentives can create a dependency culture, making it difficult to sustain sales performance without constant motivation.
• Administrative Burden: Implementing and managing complex compensation plans can increase administrative overhead and errors.

By carefully considering these risks and implementing appropriate safeguards, organizations can maximize the benefits of Q4 compensation adjustments while minimizing potential drawbacks.

​​Mitigating Risks in Q4 Compensation Adjustments

To mitigate the risks above, we recommend the following:

• Clearly communicate the goals and expectations of the adjustment program to the sales team. This helps to prevent misunderstandings and ensure that the desired behaviors are achieved.
• Establish clear and measurable performance metrics to determine eligibility for incentives and evaluate the program’s overall effectiveness.
• Set a clear budget for Q4 compensation adjustments and allocate funds strategically to avoid overspending.
• Balance short-term incentives with long-term goals by incorporating metrics that measure pipeline development and customer satisfaction.
• Ensure that compensation adjustments are applied consistently and fairly across the sales team to prevent morale issues.
• Continuously monitor the impact of compensation adjustments and make necessary modifications to optimize results.
• Consider implementing adjustments in phases to assess their effectiveness before making larger commitments.
•  Provide additional training and support to help sales reps achieve their goals and maximize the impact of compensation incentives.

Leveraging QuotaPath for Optimal Results

Lastly, consider utilizing a sales performance management platform like QuotaPath to effectively implement and manage compensation adjustments. 

Our platform provides real-time data and analytics to help you make informed decisions. 

With QuotaPath, you can:

• Track key performance indicators and identify trends
• Model different compensation scenarios to assess their impact
• Automate commission calculations and payouts
• Provide sales reps with real-time insights into their performance
• Identify what compensation lever is successful (and what’s not)
• Align comp plans to drive business outcomes
• Adapt and adjust plans when needed

By leveraging QuotaPath, you can streamline the compensation adjustment process and ensure accurate and timely payouts.

Conclusion

Q4 is a critical time to optimize your sales team’s performance. By closely monitoring key metrics and making data-driven compensation adjustments, you can increase motivation, improve sales results, and achieve your revenue goals. QuotaPath can be a valuable tool in this process, providing the insights and automation needed to maximize the impact of your compensation plan.

Are you ready to supercharge your Q4 sales with strategic compensation adjustments? Contact QuotaPath today to learn more about how our platform can help you achieve your goals.

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.