As any CFO or RevOps leader will tell you, optimization is everything in incentive pay management today. That’s especially true if you’re managing commissions and other forms of incentive comp for an emerging to scaling company.
It’s no secret incentive comp is a major sales motivator. And while every organization out there hopes to boost sales’ productivity and motivation, if you don’t (yet) have the resources of a Fortune 500 company, maximizing team engagement with a streamlined commission software solution matters even more.
After all, you need every last rep to be meaningfully motivated to go the extra mile, chase revenue, and propel your business forward. And you also need reps and sales managers to have as much time as possible to do what they do best — namely, close deals — rather than toss time away on manual, process-geared tasks. Consider:
- In 2023, sales reps spent only 28% of their work week selling. Two-thirds of reps’ time was spent on “record keeping, broken processes, tool management, and tasks like data entry,” per Salesforce.
- Meanwhile, sales employees are some of the most disengaged workers today. Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2024 Report found sales workers to be one of three groups with the lowest engagement rates: just 12%, compared to the U.S. average of 33%.
- Incentive programs can boost performance by 25-44%, but only if “conducted in ways that address all issues related to performance and human motivation,” per the Incentive Research Foundation.
- One game changer for motivation? Transparency. 85% of workers say they’re most motivated when regularly updated on goals and challenges, and 55% of internal comms leaders say hyper-personalized updates have the greatest impact.
- Finally, automation isn’t just a buzzword. It’s where sales teams can drive process efficiency (and revenue) the most. Latitude 39’s automated incentive comp solution, for example, gives emerging companies an 85% gain in process efficiency.
It’s clear: For companies that need every sales hire and each sales action to count, an automated, transparent, and personalized incentive management solution is instrumental to boosting team motivation and revenue. That’s exactly where today’s innovative commission software technology comes into play.
Ready to dive into the ways commission software can help you efficiently and accurately manage incentive comp, drive performance, and build trust between sales and finance? We’ll explore some of the key problems solved and features offered by a strong sales commission software next. Then, we’ll walk you through some of the pros and cons of the best commission software options today, so you can choose a SaaS sales commission tool that meets your team’s needs.
In this article, find:
- What is commission software?
- What are the benefits of using commission software? What problems will it help me solve?
- Choosing the best commission software: Top options for 2024 (with pros and cons)
What is commission software or incentive compensation management (ICM)?
Commission software is designed to help you manage and automate the process of calculating, tracking, and distributing sales commissions. It streamlines the often complex, time-consuming, and hyper-manual aspects of commission management with a centralized platform where data can be input, processed, and tracked accurately. Removing the potential for human error, it builds trust between sales and RevOps teams and reduces instances of shadow tracking. A good sales compensation software solution also integrates with systems like CRMs and ERPs for more seamless data flow and efficiency.
Already sound like a no-brainer? You should know that the best commission software tools take an even more innovative, expansive approach. By looking for an incentive compensation SaaS tool, you can optimize all forms of variable comp at your organization, from recurring bonuses to complex, one-time payouts. That’ll benefit more than just your commissions-focused sales team.
Additionally, today’s best commission software platforms — like the SaaS solution from Latitude 39 — offer real-time data visibility, with centralized insights dashboard that’s always current and just a click away. That means every team member can see their sales commissions as they happen, giving reps immediate, transparent acknowledgment of their hard work and giving Ops the real-time insights needed to adapt to market shifts. It’s that kind of cross-org, transparent visibility where merging SaaS and incentive comp can make the biggest impact. We’ll explain more of what we mean by that next.
What are the benefits of using commission software? What problems can it help me solve?
By now, we think we’ve hammered in the impact sales comp software has on creating a more-motivated and engaged sales team. But there are other advantages to consider too, like:
- 100% accurate data: Automation guarantees precise comp calculations. No more human errors that are costly to fix and breed distrust between sales and finance. Just numbers you can count on. When you consider that, according to Gartner, as much as 3-5% of payroll expenses are overpayments for things like commission, more accurate data saves you money, plain and simple.
- Time savings: We know we’ve already mentioned it, but the time savings really are a big deal. For small and medium-sized teams, it means getting back all the hours you spend now on manually tracking incentive-tied performance data, calculating commissions, double-checking your math, and sharing the results. That alone makes commission management software worth it.
- Fairness and trust: An automated commission software makes sure incentive rules are consistently applied across your entire sales org. Trust us: HR will thank you for the boost in morale and for the time saved in addressing conflicts over compensation disparities.
- Flexibility and adaptability: Growth-stage orgs must quickly adapt to market changes, as well as to the introduction of new products and services. Automated systems let you easily adjust your comp structure to align with those changes, empowering your sales team to go after new opportunities without delay.
- Better collaboration: The best automated systems, like Latitude 39’s, integrate instantly and seamlessly with leading CRMs, payroll, and bookkeeping systems. With a centralized platform for sharing information and insights, that’ll help facilitate collaboration between sales, marketing, and customer support.
- Improved reporting and analytics: Data today is everything. Even still, too few sales teams have accessible, current performance data they can trust: Just 24% of sales managers told Gartner they could accurately calculate their total variable comp. With sales compensation software’s advantage of a single source of truth, sales will be better able to identify trends, customer preferences, and upsell and cross-sell opportunities.
For all these reasons, it only makes sense that companies utilizing an incentive program with accurate rewards report a 79% success rate in achieving their goals, with 85% of workers feeling more motivated to do their best work. But with the dozens of software options on the market today, knowing which Saas sales commission solution can get you those accurate rewards may feel overwhelming.
Knowing a need for simplicity is the name of the game here — after all, that’s likely why you’re looking into SaaS tools in the first place! — we’ll unpack some of today’s top software options for you in the next section.
Choosing the best commission software: 7 top options for 2024
By now, we’ve pretty sufficiently explored the ways a well-chosen commission software can enhance the accuracy, efficiency, and efficacy of your incentive comp program. It’s time to look at some of the top commission management software options available and the specific features they can offer your team, starting with the benefits of real-time, accessible data provided by a tool like Latitude 39’s.
1. Latitude 39’s Incentive Comp Management Solution
Latitude 39’s revolutionary SaaS solution is focused on ease-of-use, rapid implementation, and self maintainability for SMB clients.
Pros:
- 100% accurate, real-time data — visible to all who need it: Sales reps will always know where to go to gauge their performance and see an accurate, auto-updated account of what they’ve earned, motivating them to go earn more.
- Date filtering: As big a deal as Latitude 39’s real-time data is, date filters also let you draw patterns and comparisons across past windows of time. No more digging through spreadsheets. With milestones all recorded neatly under each rep’s profile, you’ve got a comprehensive performance record at your fingertips. (A bonus? This helps HR simplify compliance efforts and maintain a clear audit trail, too.)
- Ease of use, built for business users: No need to train your team on yet another complex technical tool. Latitude 39’s solution mimics the spreadsheets you already use while giving you 10x more ease of use than manual processes, making adoption for finance, HR, and Ops teams a breeze.
- World-class customer support — just like you provide to your own clients as a small- to medium-sized business.
- Effortless integrations. With both DIY data imports and instant integrations with leading CRMs like Salesforce, Hubspot and ConnectWise you can ensure a smooth transition and immediate impact. Latitude 39 also provides one of the only 100% Salesforce natively developed application featured on the Salesforce’s Appexchange.
- Affordable: These advantages don’t have to cost a fortune. Latitude 39 lets you unlock the power of automation for just $39 a month per seat. (FYI, we also offer a free 30-day trial!)
Cons:
- Not built for large enterprises. Latitude 39’s SaaS tool specializes in the needs of small- to medium-sized businesses. When the benefits of an automated commission software help you grow beyond that realm, you’ll need to find an enterprise solution. (Luckily, our partners at Xactly will be ready and waiting!)
2. Spiff
Recently acquired by Salesforce, Spiff is designed for high-growth and enterprise organizations and can scale to any complexity and volume.
Pros:
- Powered by a CRM you’re already using: While Spiff does offer integrations with other CRMs, if you’re already using Salesforce, it may be worth comparing the cost of Spiff and related Salesforce-branded products.
- In-app comments and mobile access: Real-time commenting and notifications within the platform are useful for answering questions and settling comp disputes, and mobile access also adds ease.
- Commission estimator: Spiff’s tool shows users what they’ve earned to-date, then uses AI to let them forecast what their overall commissions could be. (There aren’t yet reviews indicating how accurate the new AI feature is.)
- Built-in features like ASC 606 Reporting allow for self-service commission expensing.
Cons:
- No date filtering: Despite Spiff’s advantage of real-time data and future commission projections, not being able to filter between windows of time to analyze past performance is a drawback.
- Pricier at $75/month per user, billed annually. That’s without the add-on for connection to external systems ($250 connector/month) and premium customer support (30% of net price). Spiff also doesn’t offer a free trial or freemium version.
3. Performio
With robust API integrations and easily configurable dashboards, Performio is a component-based ICM solution for enterprises.
Pros:
- Scalable solution with the ability to run anywhere from dozens of transactions in a pay period to millions of transactions daily while managing up to 30,000 commission-based agents.
- Compliance capabilities: You can build and calculate compliance plans from within the platform, and Performio’s dashboard also offers audit capabilities and governance checks before a commission achieves verified status.
- Advanced reporting and analytics engineered to suit enterprises’ needs.
Cons:
- Requires more technical knowledge than other tools, and deployment can be time consuming. Users have also commented on Performio’s limited training resources and platform complexity.
- Pricing only available on request which, for SMB businesses, often isn’t a good sign.
- Limited self-serve abilities: Since Performio is SQL based, users must reach out to its implementation team to enact plan changes, including minor ones. Some customers have commented on needing to follow up with their Performio contact to see changes implemented.
4. QCommission
Running on Microsoft technology, for many users, QCommission’s main advantage is its industry-specific abilities.
Pros:
- You can use it as a standalone or integrated tool: Operate QCommission as its own product or integrate it with spreadsheets, QuickBooks®, MicroSoft Dynamics, Sage, SalesForce.com, SugarCRM, and other systems, depending on what your organization uses.
- Industry-specific templates for insurance, real estate, finance, direct selling, and more can help factor in for the unique commission requirements of those industries.
- Flexible calculation rules include the ability to factor in for multiple commission types, like flat, tiered, and split commissions, as well as for differing commission criteria, like customer type.
Cons:
- Limited self-serve options: When encountering errors or when needing to modify plans, users have commented on being forced to reach out to customer service.
- Pricing structure: With costs based on the number of your users and the complexity of your commission plans, fees and add-on costs for advanced features can add up quickly.
- Less intuitive to use: Multiple users have commented on QCommission being at times difficult to use, especially for those not already familiar with traditional sales commission software.
5. Commissionly.io
Commissionly is a cloud-based software tailored to small- to medium-sized businesses that need basic commission software features.
Pros:
- Predictive forecasting: For being a more pared-down SMB tool, Commissionly does offer sales forecasting capabilities, ideal for small businesses who want the help of tech to back their revenue projections,
- User-friendly, with basic customizations: Easily auto-generate flat or tiered commission plans and set sales targets for your teams. Customizable dashboards can make for better data comprehension, too.
- Quick set-up: Commissionly’s cloud-based nature helps with rapid deployment, and integrations with popular CRM systems make for easy adoption, too.
Cons:
- Limited commission calculations and reporting: Because Commissionly.io is mainly a sales CRM, you’ll need to integrate additional tools for things like in-depth reporting.
- Scalability: Commissionly.io is best suited to small businesses only, and by the mid-sized business level, more complex commission plans and larger datasets may be an issue.
- Non-transparent pricing: Commissionly.io used to offer standardized, transparent pricing and has since removed that info from their site, showing the potential for cost increases without the software’s features having changed.
6. ElevateHQ
Marketed to pharma, SaaS, and financial services organizations especially, ElevateHQ offers basic commission software features at a low price point.
Pros:
- Quick onboarding: Per ElevateHQ’s site, it takes less than four weeks to fully deploy with all integrations in place and commission plans set up.
- Modern, easy-to-use interface: The software’s intuitive sales incentive plan designer helps simplify things like custom CRM fields and complex commission workflows with multiple conditions.
- Payout simulator & testing: You can implement tests and run simulation experiments with what-if models to analyze the impact of different commission plans before deploying them. The platform also makes recommendations on your spiffs using historical data and forecasts.
Cons:
- Higher costs for many features: While ElevateHQ’s basic packages are transparently, affordably priced at $30-35/user per month, many features, customizations, integrations (including with Salesforce), and premium support are all locked behind a “custom pricing” wall. Unless you plan to use only the pared-back version, costs can quickly add up.
- Data timeliness: Multiple user testimonies have spoken to lags in data updating, particularly for large file loads.
7. Xactly Incent
Xactly is the commission software market’s most comprehensive, extensible, efficient, and accurate solution for enterprises, used by leading businesses with complex incentive compensation management needs.
Pros:
- Advanced analytics, data visualization, & reporting: You can’t beat Xactly for advanced, enterprise-ready analytics, with features like predictive modeling, forecasting, and trend analysis. The Xactly Insights platform equips you with big data benchmarking, and a commissions sandbox lets you use historical data to experiment with goals and outcomes.
- An industry-leading calculation engine capable of handling billions of monthly transactions with speed and precision.
- No need to switch between systems: With extensive integrations and built-in features like document management, you’ll find integrated support for quoting, contracts, and e-signatures without leaving the platform.
Cons:
- Complex for small teams: A major system that comes with maintenance and support requirements, Xactly Incent is built for enterprises and not for SMBs that need a simple, press-play solution.
- Costs: Since Xactly Incent is, again, designed for large-scale enterprises with highly complex incentive comp management needs, its price points are in keeping with that.
For a simple-yet-powerful SaaS solution built with the features and usability today’s SMB business leaders require, go with Latitude 39.
With two products — SimplyComp and Express for Salesforce — designed for business users, Latitude 39 is the go-to provider of SMB incentive comp management software today. Explore solutions and unlock your 30-day free trial below:
Leave a Reply