See how an automated sales compensation solutions empowers you to: lower administrative costs, reduce turnover, and boost sales transparency.

1. Iconixx // White Paper // 01
UNLEASH THE BEAST: The Real Argument
for Automated Compensation Solutions
UNLEASH THE BEAST
The Real Argument for Automated
Compensation Solutions

2. Iconixx // White Paper // 02
UNLEASH THE BEAST: The Real Argument
for Automated Compensation Solutions
Contents
Overview: Unleashing the Beast in Every Sales Professional
Lower Administrative Costs
Reduce Turnover
Boost Transparency
Next Steps: Investigate Automated Sales Compensation
03
04
06
07
09
UNLEASH THE BEAST

3. Iconixx // White Paper // 03
UNLEASH THE BEAST: The Real Argument
for Automated Compensation Solutions
Within every sales professional is a primal, quota-crushing
beast. It cannot abide the irritation of manual commission
reconciliations and other distractions as it tracks and captures its
prey. The sales beast cares only for the hunt.
The beastmaster, meanwhile, has no time for tedious
compensation routines or inferior, time-consuming tools like
spreadsheets. For a successful hunt, the beastmaster needs
to wipe out every possibility of sales downtime that trivial
administration and clunky processes may cause.
The beastmaster needs to unleash the beast. The beastmaster
needs automated sales compensation. Sales compensation
automation creates visibility, scalability, and simplicity. It solves
critical problems for everyone involved, including:
• Mitigating administrative costs
• Improving data accuracy
• Providing for system scalability
• Creating sales insight
• Driving higher morale
• Lowering sales team churn
• Being able to rapidly adapt to organizational
and market shifts
Overview: Unleashing the Beast in Every
Sales Professional

4. Iconixx // White Paper // 04
UNLEASH THE BEAST: The Real Argument
for Automated Compensation Solutions
Automated compensation solutions lower total administrative
costs immediately and substantially. Finance, management, and
operations resources are set free to contribute to additional
corporate initiatives.
By comparison, old-fashioned or traditional compensation
processes generally require you to import sales records into
a spreadsheet and manually manipulate the data, attributes,
compensation plans, and formulas. This methodology is
inherently time-consuming and error-prone. It also limits
efficiency and lacks scalability. Manual reporting requires days to
produce individual reports via spreadsheets for every pay period.
Meanwhile, the beast is losing ground in the hunt and getting
frustrated with the beastmaster.
Don’t just take our word for it. A report from the financial-
modeling firm Mazars Group reported 90 percent of business
spreadsheets contain at least one error. Each mistake on a
spreadsheet may equate to lost revenue or a disgruntled beast
on the sales team.
Now, see how an automated sales compensation solution
enables all of that by empowering the beastmaster to:
1. Lower administrative costs
2. Reduce turnover
3. Boost sales transparency
Lower Administrative Costs
Mazars Group
reported 90%
of business
spreadsheets contain
at least one error.

5. Iconixx // White Paper // 05
UNLEASH THE BEAST: The Real Argument
for Automated Compensation Solutions
Organizations leveraging spreadsheets to manage compensation
are inevitably producing errors and operating inefficiently.
Compensation management solutions are developed and
designed to eradicate human error and automate the payout
process, delivering immediate, measurable business results.
How do compensation management solutions remove
98 percent of manual time and errors?
Automation
• Data Importation
• Cleansing
• Calculations
• Amalgamation
Application
• Customer-specific Business Rules
• Hierarchies
• Exceptions
Tracking
• Effective Dating
• Auditability
Automated compensation management solutions enable
finance and HR professionals to spend less time managing the
sales beast and put more of their time, energy, and resources
into sales and analysis, morale and retention, and other areas
of specialization.

6. Iconixx // White Paper // 06
UNLEASH THE BEAST: The Real Argument
for Automated Compensation Solutions
Companies
that leverage
an automated
compensation
solution decrease
turnover measurably
when compared
with organizations
dependent upon
static spreadsheets.
According to a study published in the Journal of Organizational
Behavior, consistent turnover among high-performing employees
is directly linked to poor company performance. The loss of
strong employees — of the most effective sales beasts — is
painful for any organization in several ways. For example,
researchers found high turnover among high performers makes it
more difficult to recruit similarly talented individuals.
When sales executives have little or no transparency into their
compensation, particularly variable compensation, there is a
direct impact on trust, motivation, morale, and dedication to
their employer.
Companies that leverage an automated compensation solution
decrease turnover measurably when compared with organizations
that depend on static spreadsheets. Automated compensation
improves employee retention by increasing payout accuracy and
delivering individual transparency. This not only saves money in
the long run but boosts long-term performance by increasing the
stability and longevity of its most valued employees.
Recruitment efforts are always expensive, and that cost is
compounded by opportunity costs when a company needs to
replace a key sales executive or primary sales operations leader
who left unexpectedly. An unexpected loss also:
• Puts additional pressure on the remaining staff
and management
• Can negatively affect customer satisfaction
• Significantly diminishes an organization’s overall morale
Reduce Turnover

7. Iconixx // White Paper // 07
UNLEASH THE BEAST: The Real Argument
for Automated Compensation Solutions
Iconixx has found that the opportunity cost associated with
a lost salesperson can account for approximately 50 percent
of that individual’s quota for up to two quarters. In addition,
the company must spend significant amounts for recruitment,
onboarding, and ramp-up costs to replace that top performer
(training, nonrefundable draws or guarantees, and similar costs).
When the Center for American Progress aggregated findings of
11 studies on retention, it found that the turnover costs equaled
about one-fifth of the former worker’s salary. Rather than incurring
this type of unnecessary operating expense, businesses should
proactively work to retain their employees — especially the high
performers who contribute to a culture of success.
Transparency is key
to a happy sales
force, and happy
salespeople are more
likely to stay at a
company over the
long term and be
true top-performing,
quota-slaying beasts.
Transparency is key to a happy sales force, and happy
salespeople are more likely to stay at a company over the
long term and be true top-performing, quota-slaying beasts.
Salespeople who have a firm grasp of their organization’s
compensation plans and their personal progress feel more
engaged in the workplace. Unfortunately, spreadsheet-based
systems used in large organizations create confusion and
increase the number of errors. The results: increased stress and
dissatisfaction within sales teams.
In addition, the high probability for errors is just part of the
problem. Spreadsheet-based systems that require employees
to manually enter sales data are also ripe for misuse and risk. As
several studies and compensation automation vendors note, a
majority of organizations have one person in charge of monitoring
commission records and data — for the whole organization.
Boost Transparency

8. Iconixx // White Paper // 08
UNLEASH THE BEAST: The Real Argument
for Automated Compensation Solutions
This individual — the beastmaster — cannot conduct adequate
audits on all of the required forms. Plus, any audits they do
complete require time that could be more profitably spent in
other areas. With today’s modern compensation management
solutions, data entry is automated. Any number of employees can
be enabled to run and audit the system. Accuracy, accountability,
dispute resolution, and traceability are all enhanced.
With Iconixx, for example, sales executives get increased visibility
and transparency into their commissions and their data through
dashboards, as well as commission reports. This allows individual
employees to monitor their performance against their unique
plan and goals. They can immediately inquire about potential
discrepancies. Unlike using a spreadsheet, which simply gives
employees a general sense of their progress toward a goal, an
automated compensation solution provides interactive guidance
for salespeople — motivating and driving those who desire to
achieve and exceed their quotas.
Salespeople may also leverage a “what if” calculator. Delivered
by Iconixx, this effective tool uses opportunity data to let people
determine their possible commissions and bonuses. This supports
sales professionals to determine how much a customer or sale
may mean to them and what steps they’ll need to take to reach
their goals and manage their pipelines. The Iconixx tool improves
planning at the individual level, so employees may better manage
their sales cycle, thus boosting overall sales substantially.

9. Iconixx // White Paper // 09
UNLEASH THE BEAST: The Real Argument
for Automated Compensation Solutions
If any company wants to unleash the quota-crushing beast that
lies at the heart of every great salesperson, it needs a modern
compensation management solution that has four vital features:
1. Automation
2. Data transparency
3. Plan flexibility
4. Proven accuracy
Automation. Good sales compensation plans are
straightforward, fair, and simple for everyone involved. But
even the best plans can become difficult to maintain with
manual systems (like spreadsheets) when scaled to meet the
needs of larger sales teams. Iconixx automates the design and
administration of sales compensation plans to eliminate the
manual burden of calculating sales commissions in a group
sales environment.
Because Iconixx eliminates the potential for errors and misuse,
it also significantly reduces the number of disputes over
compensation. Managers and sales operations are able to
focus more on evaluation and strategy to reach sales goals
and improve their processes. The efficiency gains, meanwhile,
translate into worthwhile cost savings for the company.
Next Steps: Investigate an Automated
Compensation Solution

10. Iconixx // White Paper // 010
UNLEASH THE BEAST: The Real Argument
for Automated Compensation Solutions
Transparency. Even straightforward sales compensation plans
can create mistrust among the sales ranks when they are not
clearly understood by all stakeholders in the process. Iconixx
makes sales compensation transparent by empowering all
participants in the commission process with real-time visibility
into the factors that impact payments. When commission
payouts are predictable and dependable, everyone in the sales
ecosystem is motivated to focus on the work that truly matters.
Flexibility. Sales compensation plans are like snowflakes — no
two are the same. The right compensation plan for your company
probably even differs from salesperson to salesperson. Variable
compensation plans combined with complex calculation and
approval processes can lead to wasted time and money. Iconixx
is flexible enough to automate even the most complex and
varied sales compensation plans, leaving more time for the
business of selling.
Accuracy. A single mistake in sales compensation (no matter
how minor or innocent) can erode confidence in management.
Salespeople are most effective when they can focus on their
work knowing that the company always has their back on payday.
Iconixx helps sales compensation plan administrators avoid
mistakes of all sizes and types, resulting in a focused, trusting,
and loyal sales force.
Call an Iconixx sales executive today to discuss your
business case and define the ROI for activating
Iconixx sales compensation automation in your
organization. Start increasing revenue and saving
time and money as soon as the next budget quarter.

11. Iconixx // White Paper // 011
UNLEASH THE BEAST: The Real Argument
for Automated Compensation Solutions
3420 Executive Center Drive, Suite 250
Austin, TX 78731
877-ICONIXX
1-877-426-6499
www.iconixx.com
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http://www.compensationxl.com/compensationplanningbusinesscase.html
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