Selling Power's Sales Management Newsletter
When Excel Doesn’t Excel
A New Look at Sales Compensationby Heather Baldwin
In Selling Power's Sales Management Newsletter, Heather Baldwin shares the disappointing results of a recent survey of more than 200 sales and finance executives in the U.S. on the reality of managing sales commissions with Excel spreadsheets. "Theoretically, everyone recognizes the power of sales compensation to drive performance," says Bob Conlin, CMO at Centive, the leader in on-demand sales compensation management, "but in practice most companies fail to leverage sales compensation strategically to model and evaluate plan costs and effectiveness or to drive sales performance and revenue."
More and more organizations are taking note. Jeff Kaplan, managing director for THINKstrategies, a strategic consulting company that helps enterprises make better sourcing decisions, says Centive's success "is indicative of the growing interest in on-demand solutions. More organizations are viewing SaaS (software as a service) as a viable alternative to traditional legacy applications that can also produce greater business benefits." As a result, he adds, the market for on-demand sales compensation management is "heating up."
