4 Reasons to Automate Your Sales Commission Process

The sales commission process plays an important role in motivating sales teams and therefore drives top line revenue growth — arguably the most important metric organisations 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 equips 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 spreadsheets or sending emails to confirm commission statements, keeping reps laser focused on selling.

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 organisation’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.

3. Enhanced accuracy throughout the commission process

Replacing sales reps who leave your company is very costly. Miscalculating commission can quickly lead to unhappy sales reps, resulting in high rates of sales turnover. And did you know that nearly 90% of spreadsheets contain errors?

Think about the many formulas you’re using to manually calculate commissions and apply the fact that almost all 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.

4. Better access to critical data and insights

All the data you collect in your sales commission software creates an opportunity for further optimisation 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 organisations identify areas of growth and improvement.

Automating the commission process will benefit your entire organisation

It’s easy to think of automation as a tool to boost efficiency – but automating your sales commission process has benefits that extend far beyond just saving time. A dedicated incentive compensation management solution can have a transformative impact on your organisation, enabling you to make the most of your data while boosting productivity and trust. With a process as multifaceted and complex as commission management, your success is dependent on how well the tools you implement empower your employees to do their best work, consistently.