Why CloudComp is Quicker to Implement and Less Expensive than Salesforce Spiff

Salesforce users can experience significant savings in time and cost on sales commissions automation by opting to set up CloudComp Commission Anything themselves within Salesforce (or with expert assistance from Surfwriter), rather than purchasing Salesforce Spiff. Though Salesforce Spiff is a nice product with some attractive features, it entails much higher licensing expenses (nearly 2X the licensing costs of CloudComp), predictably longer timeframes to go-live and higher cost for professional services during implementation and future changes. 

Ease of Setup and Configuration
CloudComp Commission Anything offers a user-friendly interface and intuitive setup process that empowers Salesforce users, including administrators and business analysts, to configure commission structures and workflows without extensive technical expertise. With its drag-and-drop functionality and customizable templates, users can quickly define commission plans, rules, and calculations to meet their specific needs, reducing the time and resources required for setup.

Salesforce Native Integration
CloudComp Commission Anything is built natively on the Salesforce platform, providing seamless integration with Salesforce data and workflows. This eliminates the need for complex integrations or data synchronization processes, saving Salesforce users the cost and effort associated with third-party integrations and ensuring data accuracy and consistency.

Lower Licensing Costs
Salesforce Spiff, advertises a "Lowest Starting Price" for licensing fees that is nearly double the price of full-featured CloudComp licenses. CloudComp Commission Anything offers transparent pricing with no hidden costs or licensing fees. Salesforce users can leverage CloudComp Commission Anything within their existing Salesforce environment, eliminating the need for additional software purchases and reducing overall costs.

Self-Service Implementation
With CloudComp Commission Anything, Salesforce users have the flexibility to save money by implementing and configuring commission automation themselves, without the need for expensive consultants or professional services. CloudComp Commission Anything provides comprehensive documentation, tutorials, and training resources to guide users through the setup process, enabling them to take full ownership of commission management and customization.

Scalability and Flexibility
CloudComp Commission Anything is scalable to support organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to large enterprises, without compromising performance or functionality. Salesforce users can easily scale commission automation processes to accommodate growing sales teams and increasing sales volumes, allowing them to adapt to evolving business needs and requirements without incurring additional costs.

Dedicated Support
While CloudComp Commission Anything offers self-service implementation, Surfwriter also provides dedicated support to assist Salesforce users throughout their journey. Whether it's troubleshooting technical issues, sharing best practices, or seeking advice on commission management strategies, Salesforce users can leverage the support and expertise of Surfwriter and the CloudComp Commission Anything community to optimize their experience and drive success.

In summary, Salesforce users can save significant time and money and achieve a much lower total cost of ownership (TCO) by choosing CloudComp Commission Anything for sales commissions automation within Salesforce over Salesforce Spiff. With its ease of setup, native integration, transparent pricing, self-service implementation, scalability, and dedicated support from Surfwriter, CloudComp Commission Anything offers a cost-effective and efficient solution for Salesforce users seeking to streamline commission management processes and drive sales performance.

Contact Surfwriter for more information or a live demo
If you have questions about how CloudComp Commission Anything can eliminate your pain and difficulty with sales commissions processing while saving you significant time and money over Salesforce Spiff and the others, please contact us today at surfwriter.com/contact.

What are Commission Accelerators and Why You Should be Using Them

Commission accelerators are incentives or bonuses that are designed to motivate and reward sales representatives for achieving specific performance goals or milestones within a defined period. These accelerators typically offer increased commission rates or additional bonuses when sales reps surpass predetermined targets or quotas. Here's why you should consider using commission accelerators:

Motivate Sales Performance
Commission accelerators serve as powerful motivators to drive sales performance. By offering the opportunity to earn higher commissions or bonuses for exceeding targets, accelerators inspire sales reps to push themselves and strive for excellence.

Encourage Goal Achievement
Accelerators encourage sales reps to focus on achieving specific goals or objectives that are aligned with the organization's priorities. Whether it's increasing sales volume, acquiring new customers, or selling specific products or services, accelerators provide clear incentives for goal attainment.

Reward Exceptional Performance
Accelerators reward exceptional performance and recognize the efforts of top-performing sales reps. By offering increased commissions or bonuses for surpassing targets, accelerators incentivize sales reps to go above and beyond, driving continuous improvement and excellence.

Boost Sales Team Morale
Commission accelerators can boost morale and foster a competitive spirit within the sales team. When sales reps see their efforts rewarded with higher commissions or bonuses, it reinforces a sense of accomplishment and motivates them to continue striving for success.

Drive Revenue Growth
Accelerators can drive revenue growth by incentivizing sales reps to focus on activities and behaviors that directly contribute to increased sales. Whether it's upselling, cross-selling, or closing larger deals, accelerators encourage sales reps to maximize their efforts and drive revenue generation.

Attract and Retain Top Talent
Offering attractive commission accelerators can help attract top sales talent to your organization and retain existing high-performing sales reps. When sales reps see the potential to earn significant rewards for their efforts, they are more likely to stay motivated and committed to achieving success.

Align Sales Objectives
Commission accelerators can be used to align sales objectives with broader business goals and objectives. By tying accelerators to specific key performance indicators (KPIs) or strategic initiatives, organizations can ensure that sales efforts are focused on driving outcomes that contribute to overall success.

Overall, commission accelerators are a powerful tool for motivating, rewarding, and incentivizing sales reps to achieve exceptional performance, drive revenue growth, and align sales efforts with organizational objectives. By incorporating accelerators into your commission structure, you can inspire a culture of excellence, drive continuous improvement, and achieve greater success in sales.

Contact Surfwriter for more information
If you have questions about Commission Accelerators or you would like to see a live demo of how easy they are to set up and run with CloudComp Commission Anything in Salesforce, please feel free to contact us today at surfwriter.com/contact.

7 Reasons Why CloudComp is Your Best Choice For Sales Commissions Automation in Salesforce

CloudComp Commission Anything offers many advantages over other Salesforce native commission processing tools, making it a superior choice for businesses looking to streamline their commission management processes. 

Flexibility and Customization
CloudComp Commission Anything provides unparalleled flexibility and customization options, allowing businesses to tailor their commission structures to their specific needs. Users can define complex commission rules, tiers, and incentives easily, accommodating diverse sales team structures and compensation plans.

Scalability
As businesses grow and evolve, CloudComp Commission Anything scales effortlessly to accommodate increasing sales volumes and expanding sales teams. It can handle large volumes of data and transactions without compromising performance, ensuring seamless commission processing for businesses of all sizes.

Integration with Salesforce
CloudComp Commission Anything seamlessly integrates with Salesforce, leveraging the platform's robust capabilities to provide a unified sales and commission management solution. This integration eliminates the need for manual data entry and reconciliation, streamlining workflows and reducing the risk of errors.

Real-time Visibility and Reporting
CloudComp Commission Anything offers real-time visibility into sales performance and commission payouts, empowering sales managers and representatives with actionable insights. Users can access comprehensive reports and dashboards within Salesforce, enabling informed decision-making and performance tracking.

Automation and Efficiency
CloudComp Commission Anything automates manual commission processing tasks, saving time and resources for businesses. It automates commission calculations, approvals, and payouts, minimizing administrative overhead and ensuring accuracy and consistency in commission payments.

Compliance and Governance
CloudComp Commission Anything helps businesses maintain compliance with regulatory requirements and internal governance policies. It enforces rules and controls around commission calculations and payouts, reducing the risk of errors, disputes, and non-compliance.

Customer Support and Service
Surfwriter provides dedicated customer support and service to help businesses maximize the value of their CloudComp commission management solution. Our team of experts offers assistance with implementation, training, and ongoing support, ensuring a smooth and successful deployment.

Overall, CloudComp Commission Anything stands out as a superior Salesforce native commission processing tool due to its flexibility, scalability, integration capabilities, automation, and comprehensive support offerings. It empowers businesses to optimize their commission management processes, drive sales performance, and achieve their business objectives effectively.

Contact Surfwriter for more information
If you have questions about how CloudComp will work for you or to schedule a live demo, please feel free to contact us today at surfwriter.com/contact

Video: How is CloudComp Commission Anything Different?

You need to process sales commissions, but manual spreadsheets are too timeconsuming and error-prone. So you need to find an app or service to automate your commissions. But with so many choices out there today, how is CloudComp Commission Anything different than the others?

You need an app you can TRUST that won't introduce new security risks. CloudComp is 100% Salesforce native, uses Salesforce security and multi-factor authentication. Your sales data and commissions stay in your Salesforce org and nowhere else. No external websites, no 3rd party SaaS platforms, period. You can leverage your existing Salesforce investment, while avoiding the increased risk of transmitting your sensitive data outside. And unlike most of the others, CloudComp is made in the USA.

You need a tool that has the flexibility to process YOUR SALES DATA according to YOUR RULES. Unlike some others, CloudComp processes sales commissions using data from any objects, in any currencies in Salesforce, supports configuring an incredibly wide array of rules right out-of-box and unlike most of the others, CloudComp has been reliably processing millions of records every day in Salesforce for over ten years while being continously extended and updated every year.

The only constant in business these days is change. We're all "building the airplane while we fly it". You can't afford to engage in a costly and time-consuming implementation when your compensation plans are likely to change again soon. Unlike some others, CloudComp wraps your compensation plans and rules in change management end-to-end. When you move a user to a new comp plan or sales team, CloudComp will run the old rules and new rules in parallel by date range.

You need a tool that your team can self-manage. Unlike the complex interfaces of the others, CloudComp's intuitive Salesforce-native interface empowers your team to configure and update compensation plans, onboard and offboard users themselves.

You need an app that won't require extra training and support for your sales reps. CloudComp is familiar and easy for your users becuase CloudComp is built into Salesforce. CloudComp quota attainment, earned commissions and payments are presented to your users in Salesforce reports and dashboards. A detailed CloudComp payment summary is only 2 clicks from the dashboard.

You need a comprehensive solution with a proven track record that's easy on your budget! At about half the cost, quicker to implement and easier to self-manage than others, CloudComp will save you time and money.

Contact Surfwriter today to schedule a live demo or follow the step-by-step instructions in the CloudComp Admin Guide to download CloudComp Commission Anything and set it up yourself.

How to Align Quotas with Sales KPIs

The basic purpose of Quotas is to measure sales performance to predefined targets. But to be effective, it is essential to accurately identify the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for each Sales Role. Quota Management cannot just be "one size fits all".

Establish Sales KPIs by Role

Sales key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics that help sales organizations measure their effectiveness and efficiency, with the overall goal of improving methodologies and processes to drive sales. 

For best results with Quota Management, it is essential that you identify appropriate KPIs for each Sales Role and create a mapping from your Sales and Activity data to your Quota Management in order to capture and measure performance to KPI effectively.

Different Types of Quotas by Organization and Role

To accurately measure of performance by KPI for each role within your sales organization, different types of Quotas must be established, based upon the type of product or service that your business offers and your particular sales processes. 

The most common types of Quotas are:

• Revenue quotas – the total revenue received from sales
• Volume quotas – often related to the volume of physical product sold
• Profit quotas – set in place to reduce excessive discounting
• Activity quotas – number of sales calls or sales activities undertaken

The relationship between Quotas, Tiers and Accelerators

Quotas enable establishing targets for performance, but Quota Attainment-based Tiers (Tiers) and Commission Accelerators provide a structure to motivate sales performance and to pay competitively for different levels of performance. The Multi-Tier Accelerator Model is widely accepted as a powerful tool to motivate sales performance.

Multi-Tier Quota Attainment-based Accelerator example

The Multi-Tier Accelerator model uses Quota Attainment percentages to increase commissions through a set of steps (Tiers), thereby providing Sales People increasing incentives that are sufficiently within reach to motivate additional effort to achieve each next Tier.

Pulling it all together for Revenue and Growth

For best impact on Revenue and Growth focus on the following guidelines:

• Accurately define Sales KPIs by Role 
• Align Quotas with Sales KPIs for each Role
• Set Quota Targets to be realistic and achievable for the majority of the team
• Establish Multi-Tier Accelerators to motivate sales performance and to pay competitively for different levels of performance

About CloudComp Quota Management for Salesforce

CloudComp Quota Management is built into our 100% Salesforce Native CloudComp Commission Anything App and you can evaluate the fully functional app free for 30 days.

Contact Surfwriter today to learn more about how we can help you do Quota Management and Multi-Tier Accelerators right in Salesforce or to see a demo of our CloudComp Commission Anything App in action.  Learn more at surfwriter.com/cloudcomp.

Escape From Manual Commissions Spreadsheets

If you're still processing sales commissions in manual spreadsheets, it's time for a change!

CloudComp Commission Anything processes your sales commissions calculations automatically using your existing Salesforce data.

Processing sales commissions via manual spreadsheets exposes you to a variety of issues including:

• Calculation errors
• Untimely results
• Poor visibility for sales reps
• Security / access control risks

When you run your sales commissions with CloudComp in Salesforce, you'll have: 

• Automated, precise calculations
• Commissions and quota attainment continuously updated automatically
• Visibility for sales reps in reports and dashboards, right inside of Salesforce where they work.
• Salesforce security and access controls

CloudComp is Certified 100% Salesforce Native. So your valuable customer sales data and your sales commissions will be processed in your Salesforce org and nowhere else. CloudComp uses the same Salesforce security and access controls that you trust to keep your data secure. So you can be sure that sales commissions are kept private between sales reps, even if your Opportunities are shared between reps in your Salesforce org.

Contact Surfwriter today to learn more about how we can help you do commissions right in Salesforce or to see a demo of our CloudComp Commission Anything App in action. 

5 Mistakes to Avoid in Sales Commissions Management

Whether you're updating your compensation plans in your existing cloud-based system or implementing a new sales commissions management application; for best results, avoid these five common mistakes that (otherwise) smart people often make in sales commissions management projects. 

1. Definitions of Sales Data not Documented 

Most sales organizations these days are maintaining their sales data in Salesforce or other similar cloud-based SFA systems, and of course, they have their compensation plans documented, but have you every noticed that documentation of the specific sales data in Salesforce or other SFA is totally missing from almost all compensation plan documents today? In my experience, very few organizations are maintaining a technical document to define the sales data that constitutes the basis for quotas and commissions. Hard to believe, given the business-critical nature of the sales data and the huge amount of money expended on sales commissions, right? 

To avoid this all-to-common pitfall, create and maintain organizational documentation of the sales data (API names of objects, fields, etc) that constitutes the basis for quotas and sales commissions with sufficient detail that a Salesforce (or other system) report can be created from the description. For example. if there are different commission rates for "New Logo" vs "Renewal", document the API names of the fields and values that map to those rules in the compensation plan. Create non-controversial reports that represent the basis for quota and commissions and socialize them throughout the sales organization. 

2. Overly Complicated Compensation Plans 

All too often we find that very few people in a sales organization actually understand the commission rules well enough to communicate them and demonstrate the math. This creates tremendous friction at multiple levels of the organization. Salespeople cannot be incentivized by formulas or math equations that they don't understand, Sales Operations has difficulty reconciling the results generated by automated systems and new changes in rules or rates are difficult to implement due to the sheer complexity of the rules. In short, the disadvantages clearly outweigh the advantages. 

To avoid this mistake, just apply the old KISS principal. Keep it Simple Salespeople! Reps can only be incentivized by what they can easily understand. If almost nobody in the sales organization knows how to do the math for the commissions you're doing it wrong. Just saying... : ) 

3. Complex Work-arounds for Discounts and Variable Margins 

We've seen a wide array of bizarre commission formulas over the years that were intended to deal with the reality that margins often differ between sales deals. These often seemed to frustrate both Sales Ops and Sales people not to mention the inflexibility and cumbersome technical overhead they create. 

In my experience, the best way to handle variable sales commissions for sales channels where discounting is a factor, is to commission on sales margins rather than gross sales. Yes, this means that you need to establish the ability to maintain data on costs in your SFA, but in my view, this is a worthwhile effort that will enhance your business intelligence and render a variety of welcome benefits above and beyond sales commissions management. 

4. Insufficient or Untimely Visibility of Results 

Poor visibility comes in a variety of forms, including non-timely results, lack of granularity, difficulty with reconciliation, hidden math equations etc. The bottom line is this: If you want your salesperson to be incentivized by sales commissions, she needs to be able to see and understand her results in a timely manner. She needs the ability to reconcile the results herself and feel confident that her commissions are accurate. 

So, if you haven't gotten out of manual spreadsheets into and automated sales commissions management system yet, or you're in a system that isn't rendering timely visibility of quota attainment and commissions for your team, it's time to make your move. 

5. Compensation Plans Misaligned with Desired Performance 

To put it in plain english: Some sales organizations have bad compensation plans. We could give these bad comp plans the benefit of the doubt and say they've been outgrown by their organizations... But really, some just seem to have never been a particularly good idea to begin with... I've seen some comp plans that I figured must have started out their life as a few notes scrawled on a cocktail napkin by a VP in Cabo San Lucas after 3 pitchers of Margaritas 10 years ago... Then they got stretched, morphed, extended and subverted by teams of otherwise well-meaning Executives and Sales Ops folks and somehow never got thrown in the proverbial recycle bin out of some kind of organizational inertia.  If your organization has compensation plans like these, it's time to move on and make a fresh start! Compensation plans and systems should be designed for a win-win of organization and sales people featuring timely visibility of results driven by rules that are easy to understand, goals that are both reasonably attainable and in alignment with the objectives of the organization. It really is that simple.

Contact Surfwriter today to learn more about how we can help you do commissions right in Salesforce or to see a demo of our CloudComp Commission Anything App in action.