Automating Incentive Compensation Management to Support Rapid Growth
With its eye on scalability, SalesLoft selects and implements a new ICM platform
SalesLoft, provider of the #1 sales engagement platform, was growing, and it was growing fast. In just 12 months, the sales team doubled in size, spurred by ongoing product improvements and market growth that were driving customer demand.
Industry: High Tech
Challenge:
The accelerated rate of growth, in both revenue and sales headcount, created some challenges around sales compensation, which was manually calculated on a spreadsheet, managed by one individual on the finance team. This was not a sustainable strategy because it could not be scaled up as SalesLoft continued to expand its sales team, especially as management wanted the ability to handle more complex calculations as new sales roles were added.
The individual managing the sales compensation process posed a potential risk as a single point of failure, and due to the manual nature of the process, it took a lot of time for that person to handle all commission calculations, exceptions, and adjustments for the entire sales organization. On the flipside, the sales team felt the repercussions of the manual process as they, at times, faced delays with commission payments and adjustments. They also were prone to shadow accounting as a way of ensuring the accuracy of their payments, which took time away from their primary role of selling. Additionally, the inability to quickly and easily run reports was problematic for the sales organization and inhibited them from making datadriven decisions.
The manual spreadsheet environment lacked efficiency, accuracy, visibility, and scalability. Looking toward the future, SalesLoft knew things had to change to support its growth.
Solution:
SalesLoft chose Xactly as its new incentive compensation management (ICM) and data integration platform as several people from the sales team had previous experience with Xactly and felt confident in the platform meeting their needs. After vetting its options, SalesLoft then selected OpenSymmetry as its implementation partner. OpenSymmetry went to work, configuring all data feeds for automated loading into Xactly Incentâ˘, the ICM platform, using the Xactly Connect⢠data integration interface. This included critical bookings and opportunities data from Salesforce, SalesLoftâs CRM tool.
Additionally, OpenSymmetry worked with SalesLoft to identify and customize out-of-the-box reports using standard functionality available within Xactly Incent. This would give end users the quick and easy access to reports that they needed as well as access to a real-time sales dashboard.
Result:
During the first post-implementation payroll cycle, SalesLoft ran their old manual process concurrently with the new automated process. During the second post-implementation payroll cycle, it ran the process independently on the new platform. Both payroll cycles were smooth and without error. SalesLoft continues to enjoy the efficiency and accuracy made possible by automation of their incentive compensation process. And they are now set up to scale as their organization continues to grow.
Additionally, sales reps have been taking notice of the benefits of the new platform. Jason Moore, VP of Global Sales Operations at SalesLoft, shares: âSalespeople donât often say much when things are going right, but I got stopped in the hallway the other day by one of the sales leaders, and he said, âThank you for putting in Xactly, itâs really helping out a lot.ââ
As SalesLoftâs growth continues, it will add new people and teams to the sales organization. With Xactly Incent and Xactly Connect in place, they have the ability to efficiently write new sales compensation plans for them and easily add them to the existing incentive compensation management system.
If you are interested in learning more about OpenSymmetryâs Deployment Services and Data Integration Strategy & Services, please visit opensymmetry.com/services/deploy.
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ABOUT SALESLOFT
SalesLoft is the #1 sales engagement platform, helping sales organizations deliver a better sales experience for their customers. More than 2,000 customers use the companyâs category-leading sales engagement platform to engage in more relevant, authentic, and sincere ways, including Facebook, MuleSoft, Square, WeWork, and Zoom. SalesLoft has more than 375 employees and was recognized as the #1 best place to work in Atlanta for the second year in a row. The company was also named the 7th Fastest-Growing Technology Company in North America by Deloitte and recently hailed by The New York Times as a start-up that âmay be the next unicorn⌠on a path to a $1B valuation.â
For more information on SalesLoft and how to deliver a better sales experience, visit salesloft.com.
“OpenSymmetry understood the business and what we were trying to do. The project ran smoothly, and even after we implemented, there was never an issue of getting a quick response to our questions. Very customer friendly.”
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About Us
OpenSymmetry enables clients to achieve greater operational efficiency and get better sales results. We are a global consulting company specializing in the planning, implementation, and optimization of industry leading technology suppliers of sales performance management solutions.
CONSIDERATIONS WHEN REPLACING YOUR SPM TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION
Understanding the challenges companies face when migrating Sales Performance Management (SPM) technology solutions can be a significant undertaking. This paper is designed to provide high-level guidance to stakeholders who carry this responsibility. As OpenSymmetry has helped many companies evaluate and effectively migrate to new technology solutions, we are sharing seven key areas that we find critical to completing this kind of effort.
1. CURRENT STATE ASSESSMENT & FUTURE STATE PLANNING
A critical initial step before migrating to a new SPM solution is understanding how well your current program is performing across people, processes, and technology. From there you can devise a future state vision for how your SPM program should operate. By understanding both current state gaps and what your future state needs look like, you can effectively begin defining requirements while also clearly articulating success criteria. Itâs important to recognize that your previous or initial SPM implementation may not have gathered all necessary processes/requirements, so itâs vital to take a fresh, holistic view in this first step.
2. DATA INTEGRATION
One of the most complex and time-consuming requirements is determining how to best leverage current source data feeds to support the new platform. Within the context of your current state assessment and future state planning, the team should review what their reporting, analytics, and any future state compensation elements needs are to ensure a meaningful inventory of data requirements are defined. SPM solutions vary in terms of how data is gathered, translated, and uploaded into the system. Some solution applications may have a standardized format requiring additional configuration, whereas others may have the ability of data field mapping, which provides additional flexibility. The ability to own the data translation from your source systems to the SPM platform is key. Another focus point is to ensure that you evaluate all manual feeds to incorporate automation, as well as any additional error validation processes.
3. HISTORICAL DATA
Migrating historical data is an often-overlooked requirement when moving from one SPM platform to another. To keep costs down and minimize complexity, clients may want to ID only the data that is needed to ensure ongoing management of comp (e.g. payment history) and then transfer detail-level data into data storage to be referenced at a future date. It is important to consider what historical data is needed for the new system for reference on future payments
4. PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
Each SPM solution may require users to interact with the system in different ways. This area may need additional attention, especially as it has the potential to improve processes currently employed to manage sales compensation. Understanding the impact a new system will have on current processes, as well as those who manage the processes, is critical to ensuring a successful launch and ongoing management of core processes. As an example, two of the leading solutions in the market have very different expectations regarding the skills users need to possess to effectively maintain compensation plans and reports and, in some cases, execute the day-to-day activities. Defining expectations of your staff related to the new technology, prior to the project, will ideally give your organization the necessary time to introduce training that ensures effective ongoing management of the program.
5. WORKFLOW
SPM solutions vary widely in their ability to support automated workflow. As a result, there are significant challenges for sales compensation teams related to an SPM migration. Capabilities can range from templates to existing documentation, levels of routing, and even implementation of a stopgap for a payee to accept plan documentation prior to payout. Within the context of your future state definition, capturing and defining areas where automated workflows can be leveraged is a necessary part of the core requirements. Before a new system is deployed, it is important to map these processes out to drive user adoption, leverage the SPM system as an auditable repository, and minimize email management.
6. REPORTING & ANALYTICS
It is critical to develop a holistic vision of information distribution to the various stakeholders and tools used to deliver this content (i.e. static pages vs. dashboards). Similar to workflows, different vendors have various capabilities related to reporting for the end users. Assessing these capabilities against your business requirements is imperative to the success of the roll-out. For example, some vendors require more robust configurations in the system (e.g. crediting logic) to enable specific analytics capabilities, while some solutions, architected specifically for reporting and analytics, have much more robust capabilities. Another area for consideration is the use of the vendorâs reporting solution against your in-house technology stack. Some solutions make it easy to port data into new environments, which could be a consideration in helping to keep the number of reporting tools requiring management to a minimum.
7. DEPLOYMENT
The implementation of a new solution should be designed to minimize the impact on payees and managers. One of the most critical aspects of your effort is assessing how all stakeholders will be impacted and how to mitigate any disruption. It is important to identify upcoming changes for your sales organization, administrators, and other internal partners with a plan in place to offer the steps needed to ensure the best chances for solution adoption.
The first step when considering a new SPM platform is an assessment of your current program and the development of a future state vision. OpenSymmetry offers a no-cost workshop to help you gain an understanding of how your current SPM program performs against your needs and industry best practices, as well as a readout on current solutions in the market.
Leveraging the OpenSymmetry assessment methodology and knowledge of the leading SPM providers, you will be equipped with:
⢠A current state analysis scorecard
⢠The framework for a business case to support change
⢠Contemporary intel on the SPM market and SPM vendor capabilities
⢠High-level deployment and license cost estimates