The 5 Best B2B Sales Compensation Tools

Here are the best 5 sales compensation software tools that you need to know about! Improve your sales performance easily & smoothly today.

Uvaro

Dec 21, 2022

Sales compensation software and tools aren't new. They've been around for probably as long as most sales reps have — but their look and feel has evolved quickly over the last few years as sales and marketing tech has evolved.

In decades past, an excel spreadsheet would be enough to track a sales rep's extra compensation. But nowadays, there is a bit more to it going on behind the scenes. In this article, we look to break down what sales compensation is in the first place to better understand which tools help with the various types of compensation plans available.

What is sales compensation?

Sales compensation is the simple yet extremely important art form of paying your sales team appropriately for their work. Firstly, in our opinion, it should always include a base salary. But it’s not uncommon for some sales-based roles to be commission only. However, the most common compensation plan is some kind of base with an added commission or bonus structure involved.

Sounds simple, right? Build a commission scheme that has clear financial rewards, and your sales staff will perform better? Well, not exactly. You need to plan your sales compensation to align with the sales role, match the company’s culture, and be motivating while clear. Finding a structure that genuinely motivates your staff can be something you may struggle with. And that’s a huge problem!

If your sales team isn’t feeling motivated — they probably aren’t reaching their potential.But there are amazing tools to help you find the best fit. However, before you choose a tool, you must understand the 3 types of common sales compensation plans.

The three main types of sales compensation plans

1 - Base salary plus commission

The base salary plus commission structure is the most common compensation structure and it gives employee’s financial security.

Furthermore, when you give your salespeople a base salary, it encourages them to undergo non-sales-related tasks (i.e., training new starters). What’s more, most businesses will be able to get a clearer understanding of their business costs with less variability in a business’s account.

2 - Base salary plus bonus compensation plan

If your sales reps tend to hit their pre-set targets, a base salary plus bonus compensation plan is a good option. This approach will provide your team with a strong level of predictability, and you’ll still motivate your sales reps to close more sales.

It’s also very easy for businesses to understand their outgoings because this type of sales compensation provides certainty. Nevertheless, you may prevent reps from feeling motivated to over-perform with a limited bonus. For many salespeople, unlimited commission works better.

3 - A commission-only plan

A commission-only plan can be incredibly effective with the right team, but it has many pitfalls. If employees fail to sell anything during the month, they won’t receive any salary that month. Which, of course, leads to genuine financial uncertainty for some salespeople.

However, some salespeople will love this model because it will motivate them and give them the freedom to earn as much as possible. Finally, your business would forgo many risks. Simply because when salespeople fail, you don’t have to pay your employees anything! Which doesn't support a healthy relationship between all involved parties.

Why effective sales compensation is so important

1 - Motivation

Motivation is the most important thing any salesperson needs. You’re going to face daily rejection when you work in sales. You’ll need strong motivation to overcome that rejection. Financial incentives motivate many employees because it enables them to build their future, but it doesn’t always motivate everyone.

A sales compensation package needs to cater to the motivations of the entire team. In 2017, 29 percent of people felt unmotivated at work. As such, companies should aim to motivate everyone! Not just 71 percent of the team.To do so, taking surveys or having friendly events might just do the trick. But that's just the easy way out.

2 - It helps to acknowledge the team’s performance

According to a Globoforce Employee Recognition Survey, 90 percent of employees feel value-based peer-to-peer acknowledgment helps them feel more content at work. Employees who feel more content in their workplace have higher levels of employee engagement.

Higher levels of employee engagement lead to greater performance. That’s why an effective sales compensation plan should make your staff feel valued.

3 - Compensation can create an atmosphere of healthy competition

Although teamwork is critical between your sales staff, creating healthy competition can add to the team culture. Moreover, healthy competition helps to bring the best out of individual sales staff. That said, recent research found that tiny awards, such as a free pizza for the best performer, can sometimes hurt performance and morale in the long run.

Instead, it’s better to encourage people to intrinsically compete with themselves, and sales leaders can do that by comparing their performance to the ‘benchmarked’ performance of someone at the same level.

The top 5 software to use for your sales compensation

Knowing all you know now, it is advisable to take advantage of these great tools that will add value to how you compensate your employees for the long run.

1 - Xactly

Xactly is an excellent sales compensation software that provides companies with 100 percent transparency to allow the sales team to track their commissions daily. After all, there’s nothing worse than waiting till the end of the week to see your commissions. You can even use this software to manage commission structures in real-time. Xactly excels at commission expense forecasting because of its easy-to-use dashboard using various forecasting models.

Furthermore, Xactly’s commission expense accounting and revenue recognition software ensures compliance with the latest ASC 606/IFRS 15 standards. The software features dynamic true-ups, an expansive reporting library, full and modified retrospective approaches, and integrated workflow and process management tools to ensure commission expense compliance. If a company is looking for a genuinely in-depth understanding of incentive management, Xactly’s commission management solution is hard to beat.

After 184 reviews on Gartner.com, Xactly has an impressive 4.5-star rating out of 5. Users heap praise on the easy-to-use product and how the sales compensation software provides 100 percent transparency to the sales team. Prices start at around $60 per month. That’s a relatively low cost for excellent software!

2 - QuotaPath

QuotaPath is a sales compensation software that enables you to automate your commissions under one single dashboard. What’s more, the software helps businesses forecast commissions in real-time, surface insights in a simple manner, and completely customize their compensation plans.

QuotaPath allows you to ditch the error-prone spreadsheets and forget about the stresses of managing commission. The easy-to-use software enables sales leaders to track their team’s progress daily, and reps will never question how much they earned.

QuotaPath has superb reviews on g2.com. After 144 reviews, the software has a solid 4.8-star rating. That includes over 101 5-star reviews from people praising the seamless software. The company is very transparent in its pricing structure. The most popular option is the $324 team software, which is currently on offer at 10 percent off. They offer tiered pricing and annual contracts, but you’ll have to request a quote.

3 - SAP

SAP Commissions is an excellent sales compensation software tool because it gives your sales representatives quotas and territories based on data instead of a gut feeling. The software enables you to set your business up for success by analyzing historical trends mixed with sales representatives’ activity on deals.

Most importantly, SAP Commissions (formerly named CallidusCloud Commissions) can manage your entire incentive commission structure. The designers built the software to make commission management easy, fast, and accurate. Therefore, businesses can focus on other areas of daily performance. The main features of SAP commissions include settlements of compensation disputes, changing sales behaviors, and integration to backend systems.

SAP Commissions has a solid 4 out of 5-star review on g2.com, and a 4.6 out of 5-star review on Capterra. Various users praise the increased transparency and the ability to eliminate errors with ease. SAP commissions only offer a price upon request. You’ll then be able to negotiate the best price for your business and needs.

4 - CentSoft

CentSoft is brilliant at helping companies with their commission structures. The sales compensation software is a cloud-based solution that automates the invoice management procedure, allowing companies to spend more time and resources on important daily tasks. What’s more, the software uses AI to streamline and improve the work with coding.

Furthermore, CentSoft uses CATS Sales Performance Management to keep businesses on target with quota and target management, goal setting, modeling, business intelligence, workflow process automation, and data integration. By using all these features, the software can manage incentive compensation with ease.

CentSoft has some great reviews for its CATS Sales Performance Management product. The software has a rating of 4.3 on Capterra and users praise the software as excellent for small companies. You schedule a demo to see how the software can make your business more productive. The price is $0.99 per invoice, but they offer business and enterprise pricing. That allows you to get a better deal with a one-time set-up fee.

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5 - Oracle

Oracle is one of the most famous sales compensation software options on the market, and for a good reason. The sales compensation software allows companies to calculate complete and accurate compensation through a single suite with structured data. Moreover, it enables companies to handle highly complex compensation plans, calculation rules, and hierarchical roll-up rules.

Better still, Oracle enables companies to keep their sales data up-to-date. As a result, this prevents shadow accounting because it allows complete compensation visibility via the quoting process. Of course, all businesses sometimes have disputes with employees. Yet, this software will reduce the likelihood of any disputes by providing complete compensation visibility.

Oracle provides the incentive compensation software as part of the Oracle E-Business Suite package. The price of the incentive compensation package is $750 for the license and an extra $165 for the software update license and support. Oracle’s E-business suite software has a good review of 3.7 stars out of 5 from 206 reviews on g2.com.

Learn how to use cutting edge sales tools now

Learning new sales software can be daunting, for various reasons. However, that’s why sales boot camps like Uvaro are an excellent choice for you if you want to upskill & add value to your career.

Together with our professional career coaches, we can guide & support you as you learn how to use tools like the ones mentioned above with ease. No matter where you are in your career, Uvaro can help you improve! So, if you want to excel in your business or start your career in tech sales, check out our available courses.

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