How to Convince Your Boss There's a Better Way to Track Sales Commissions

It’s a great time to keep salespeople like you happy. The slowing economy, workforce attrition, and ultra-competitive business environment are all creating headwinds for industry companies as they seek to boost revenues and protect profitability. As a sales professional, you’re likely motivated by many factors, but compensation is one of the most important. You may have a base salary you receive a monthly draw against, as well as variable compensation based on the deals you close. Alternatively, you may opt for a commission-only pay structure or work in industries that require it.

Use our customizable email template to convince your boss that your company needs CaptivateIQ, ending manual commission tracking at your organization forever! Scroll down to see the email and send it to your boss today!

Either way, you want to see your numbers to understand how many deals you’ve closed, the commission you’re about to earn, and what you need to reach the next level and your yearly plan. Meanwhile, your managers need the ability to drill down and perform analytics on your team’s performance. They can use real-time insights to provide targeted coaching, reward top performers like you, and improve workforce strategies. Since this is universally true, you would expect your sales commission tools to be simple to use: providing your team and managers with the visibility and insights you need to do your jobs. But is this the case? Unfortunately, the answer is usually a resounding no!

Your company probably uses spreadsheets to keep track of commissions, which provide static insights into performance and can be riddled with errors. Or your firm may use enterprise software that doesn’t provide the intuitive interface and up-to-date functionality that your company needs. As a result, you, your managers, and sales operations teams spend too much time on administrative work. Fortunately, there is an easy way to end the pain that your company is experiencing by adopting CaptivateIQ, a flexible commission management platform with a user-friendly interface and rich features and analytics.

Send This Email about CaptivateIQ to Your Boss Today!

To help your organization get started with CaptivateIQ, we’ve even designed an email you can send to your sales leader to motivate them to learn more about our commission management platform. Simply copy the text below to get started. 

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TO: Your Sales Leader’s Name

FROM: You

RE: A Case for CaptivateIQ 

Hey [Your Boss’s Name],

As you know, we’re tracking commissions using spreadsheets. But that doesn’t mean it’s efficient or accurate. Did you know that the average employee spends 5.3 hours a week waiting for help or recreating others’ work? That’s time we could spend selling and driving revenue. 

CaptivateIQ is a commission management platform that would streamline our current process, give everyone insight into team performance, and make it easy to manage disputes and commenting. Operations can reduce their workload – and avoid commission errors that hurt our morale. And sales team members can log in at any time to review their progress, which will help us achieve goal.

I wanted to share a blog with you, How to Convince Your Boss There's a Better Way to Track Sales Commissions, which provides a business case for CaptivateIQ. Let's make this happen!

‍

Thanks,

Your Name 

[End email]

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Here’s How to Banish Manual Commission Tracking Forever 

Here’s a five-point business case you can use to convince your boss that you need a better way to keep track of commissions – one that will improve sales productivity and performance. You can share how CaptivateIQ will benefit sales leadership, operations, and your team by:

1. Reducing non-value-added work:
   You’re likely tracking your sales numbers to understand and forecast your compensation. Meanwhile, your managers and sales operations teams are doing the same thing. That means that multiple individuals are maintaining their own copies of similar data, which isn’t an effective use of time. Yet, 70 percent of organizations still use spreadsheets to track commissions! One survey found that across industries, employees spend 5.3 hours a week waiting for help or recreating others’ work, which costs the average large U.S business $47 million in productivity losses each year. For you and your team, that means less time to research companies, find and call on buyers, work on sales strategies, and close deals. For your company, that means slower business momentum, lower revenues, and reduced profitability. Over time, that could erode your company’s competitive advantage.
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2. Decreasing commission errors due to automated processes:
   With spreadsheets, it’s easy to make errors. Sales operations professionals can accidentally enter the wrong data; create the wrong formulas or inadvertently alter them; and copy bad data and formulas across other spreadsheets, such as those for other team members. Fixing this mess obviously creates more work for everyone. Beyond extra work, commission errors can take a toll on your sales organization’s culture. Repeated accuracy issues can reduce your trust, cause you and your team members to jump ship, and even expose your organization to lawsuits. Oracle and IBM are just two of the companies that have experienced class-action lawsuits over underpaid or denied commissions to their sales representatives. Sales managers know that hiring and retaining top performers can be difficult. As a result, providing sales teams with a customizable, automated way to view their commission statements and reports in real-time helps keep workforce engagement high and avoid unnecessary attrition. You can log in daily to see how you’re doing and accurately forecast your payouts. And if you find an error, it’s simple to submit an inquiry in the app, get it corrected, and have the correct data automatically propagate in your pipeline.
   
   
3. Creating transparency about performance:
   You’d like to know your progress against plan and dividends and how you measure against your peers. You’d also like to know how your entire team is performing. Providing transparency about where your team is headed is critical to keeping each member happy. And happiness leads to better results. Some 81 percent of revenue-driving leaders who rate their teams as happy report annual sales increases. Your sales manager can use CaptivateIQ to share how your organization is achieving broader goals and targets. They can also use this data to recognize all-stars for special bonuses and identify individuals who may need special coaching. When compensation plans are complex or in the process of changing, providing transparency and clear information is especially important to allaying your team members’ concerns.
   
   
4. Motivating sales representatives to go the extra mile:
   Sales is getting more competitive. Your organization has probably undergone massive changes over the past two years, requiring your sales team to pivot to address new organizational priorities, communicate new policies and terms with customers, and work harder to close deals. Now, due to the pace of digital transformation, companies are moving even faster. Your sales manager can use CaptivateIQ to show you how not just to reach your target but to outperform your dream number. And when most of your team stretches to reach tougher goals, you can steal deals from competitors, grow your presence in key regions, and help your company become the leading choice of your customers.
   
   
5. Fostering healthy competition among representatives:
   ‍You’re probably friends with your team members – but you still want to beat them. Healthy competition helps everyone on your team to do their best, lifting individual and organizational results and helping you achieve team bonuses. CaptivateIQ’s data, which shows how your sales team is doing and how you map against top performers, can be intensely motivating to help you achieve more. Daniel Pink, the acclaimed business author of Drive, says that individuals are driven by more than money. They want to maximize autonomy, mastery, and purpose. CaptivateIQ enables you to review your performance any time, freeing you to do what you do best: sell. In addition, your sales manager can use CaptivateIQ data to help you and your team members set goals that are aligned with your purpose. Beyond money, that may mean that you can explore different industries and customer types or help your company launch new products. Or it could mean providing for your family, increasing travel funds, or achieving financial independence faster. When you’re actualizing your purpose, you’re more likely to thrive professionally – and desirous of staying at your company.
   

Conclusion

There are many reasons to convince your boss to adopt CaptivateIQ. The platform provides the visibility and analytics your team needs to stay focused and motivated, avoid busy work, gain deep insights into performance, and keep moving forward as an elite sales organization.

So, send that email today!