Bold Penguin Success Story

Summary

As the world’s largest commercial insurance terminal, Bold Penguin realized traditional spreadsheets couldn’t keep up with their growing team and increasingly intricate comp plans. Bold Penguin quickly implemented Spiff to streamline their commission process and cut down on manual tasks. They also achieved a 90% adoption rate across their sales team within three months of onboarding. The clear, simplified commission process also meant a drop in inquiries and discrepancies for Bold Penguin’s payroll team.

Key Results

• Decreased time spent on commissions from 10 hours per pay cycle to less than 2 hours per pay cycle
• Decreased inquires and discrepancies by 80%
• Achieved a 90% adoption rate for sales team commission approvals without prompting each month

The Challenge

Spreadsheets were no longer a viable solution for Bold Penguin’s growing team.

Bold Penguin’s CFO Dan Gifford knew it was time to move on from spreadsheets. As the organization expanded, his team was spending 8-10 hours each pay cycle manually processing commissions, reviewing for accuracy, and handling questions and disputes from reps, who struggled to make sense of their compensation.

Gifford decided to overhaul Bold Penguin’s entire commission process to ensure efficiency, accuracy, and transparency— while saving his team invaluable hours in the process.

The Solution

Bold Penguin replaced spreadsheets with Spiff, a streamlined, cloud based transparent alternative, to mitigate manual tasks and keep their growing team in the loop.

Bold Penguin rapidly implemented Spiff’s commission software with the assistance of Spiff’s implementation team. Gifford was extremely involved in the process, which he described as “a mutual love affair” as the teams collaborated to ensure the solution was built properly. The two teams had the first iteration up and running quickly, despite the complexities in Bold Penguin’s comp plans.  “We were more complex than I thought we were,” said Gifford. “Your plans are always more complex when you put it down on paper. But Spiff helped us make sense of it all in terms of how to build out the plans in Spiff and decrease the chance for manual errors in the process.”

With self-management a priority from day one, Gifford and his team can now easily jump into the platform and tweak plans or customize statements for their reps.  As Bold Penguin’s growth accelerates, the ability to independently update plans or teams is a major advantage. However, the Spiff team is always on standby for additional support when Bold Penguin finds themselves requiring a major change or a brand new commission plan.

“I’ve had a lot of vendor relationships during my career. The approach and professionalism from the Spiff team is amazing. This is one of the best vendor relationships I’ve ever had. Their willingness to collaborate and their can-do attitude does not go unnoticed. Having people like that on your front line is invaluable. It’s like having a lifeline,” said Gifford.