The sales commission process plays an important role in motivating sales teams and therefore drives top line revenue growth— arguably the most important metric organizations track. But manually calculating commissions leaves room for human error, distrust, and unhappy sales reps, not to mention the limits it puts on a company’s ability to scale and grow.
If this sounds anything like your current commission tracking process, it’s time to introduce you to sales commission software, a category of software that automates even the most complex commission processes. There are many benefits to implementing sales commission software, but we’re going to focus on the four most important.
1. Improved visibility into the sales commission process
The use of sales commission software ensures access to real-time commission data for sales reps, leaders, and executives. Having this data readily available motivates arms reps with the information they need to focus their efforts on closing the right deals without worrying about inaccuracies or incomplete data. Sales managers can also motivate their teams based on metrics like quota attainment, commission earned, and more!
With sales commission software, finance and RevOps teams can also spend less time manually compiling and distributing end of month commission statements since the data is available in real-time.
Aside from the obvious benefits of increased motivation and less manual reporting, leading commission tracking tools also provide transparency into the actual calculations behind the numbers. This means reps trust their statement because they can see how their pay is calculated with just one click. No more chasing down formulas in an Excel sheet or sending emails to confirm commission statements, keeping reps laser focused on selling.
Recommended reading: How to Foster Transparency in Sales: A Guide for Sales Ops.
2. Increased productivity across sales, finance, and RevOps teams
Manual labor leaves room for human error, not to mention the amount of time it takes to calculate commission manually. Human error causes distrust in the company and leadership teams, resulting in sales reps wasting important time double checking their numbers. This also leads to a significant decrease in productivity. Sales commission software removes human error from the sales commission process and enables sales teams to focus on selling.
Manual commission management also limits an organization’s scalability and growth. Think about it this way: If you’re using a spreadsheet to manage commission, every time you restructure your sales team, make territory changes, or revamp how commission is calculated, you have to start from scratch. By using a commission tracking tool, those changes are handled with just a few clicks. This means your growth isn’t limited by your inability to scale commissions.
Automating the process saves a lot of time, which is a huge advantage, especially for growing companies. With an automated process, employees are freed up to focus on other critical areas of the business.
Recommended reading: The Ultimate Sales Performance Checklist
3. Enhanced accuracy throughout the commission process
Did you know that it costs $115k to replace a sales rep (source)? Miscalculating commission leads to unhappy sales reps, resulting in high rates of sales turnover. This is a leading cause of financial loss for organizations. Did you also know that 80% of Excel spreadsheets contain errors (source)? Think about the many formulas you’re using to manually calculate commissions in Excel and apply the fact that 80% of spreadsheets contain errors. That’s a lot of frustration, wasted time, and financial loss for the entire company.
Automating sales commission keeps reps happy and lessens the chance of them leaving the company. It also creates less friction between the sales and finance departments.
Recommended reading: A Pocket Guide to Preventing Commission Nightmares
4. Better access to critical data and insights
All the data you collect in your sales commission software creates an opportunity for further optimization of your sales process. Sales commission software doesn’t just calculate commissions, it also provides insights into your sales team and their process. Visibility into sales data helps organizations identify areas of growth and improvement.
Recommended reading: Data Visualization: Putting the Design in Comp Plan Design
About Spiff
Spiff is a leading sales compensation software that automates commission calculations and motivates teams to drive top-line growth. With a combination of an intuitive UI, real-time visibility, and seamless integrations into current systems, Spiff is the first choice among high-growth businesses. The platform enables finance and sales operations teams to self-manage complex incentive compensation plans and provides transparency for sales teams. See Spiff in action!
