Apttus Launches Incentive Compensation Management Tool

Apttus, a provider of configure-price-quote (CPQ) applications, has bolstered its product suite with its Incentive Compensation Management (ICM) solution, which aims to help sales managers design and carry out strategic incentive programs—incorporating commissions, bonuses, and contests—that align the behaviors and motivations of their reps with company-wide goals.

According to Apttus, incentive management is a growing concern for enterprise-level companies. The vendor cites data that illustrates, among other things, that almost half of all sales incentive programs (48 percent) don’t yield their intended outcomes. Apttus found that 90 percent of companies wanted to make changes to their plans in 2017, but had limited insight into what changes they should make and how effective those changes would be. Eighty-seven percent of companies are not using prepackaged technologies to help them automate their plans and are instead relying instead on cumbersome home-grown solutions or error-prone spreadsheets.

Apttus’s ICM tool aims to address these challenges, and to help organizations achieve quick results, by combining elements of behavioral economics with sales incentives to help companies maximize the value of their revenue operations.

“What we realized, after having conversations with CIOs, heads of sales, and sales ops people, is that the best time to impact the outcome of a deal is the first time you present pricing to that customer,” explains Kamal Ahluwalia, Apttus's chief revenue officer. “Before the pricing is presented, there is an opportunity to let the salesperson know: This is the money you’ll make on this transaction. So whatever you’re putting in that proposal, based on the pricing and the discounts you’re going to give, it will tell you right there, this is your take.” With its machine learning algorithms and intelligent agent capabilities, Apttus’s software can process data from past transactions to perform segment analysis, upsell/cross-sell analysis, and propensity-to-buy analysis “that can not only tell what you’re going to make, but also make recommendations on what else you can be doing with that particular proposal.”  

For instance, end users can see, within the system, the added percentage or dollar amount they can gain on a deal if they add premium support, an additional product, or ask for a longer contract. “For a lot of mid- to large-[sized] companies, the solution portfolio is now so vast that most people can only carry so many things in their head,” Ahluwalia says. “So having the system and machine learning drive a lot of these recommendations and next steps is where we are going with this whole thing.”

Apttus CEO Kirk Krappe said in a statement that the solution aimed to help "enterprises across industries...perform at the highest possible level":

“Sales Compensation and incentive programs are among the most critical processes in any company, and work hand-in-hand with every component of Quote-to-Cash. Apttus’ Incentive Compensation Management solution was built from the ground up to create a smooth experience for managing sales compensation and immediate results for all of our customers. We’re working with enterprises across industries to drive behaviors and ensure their entire company is motivated to perform at the highest possible level. As the unquestioned leader in Quote-to-Cash innovation, we are proud to continue driving our industry forward."

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