Earlier this year our own Chris Cabrera shared 6 tips for selling sales compensation automation to your company execs.

If you’re still having trouble involving your company leaders on the right sales compensation solution, here are some statistics we like to flaunt:

1. Xactly’s customers shorten their sales cycles by an average of 36%, according to this Aberdeen report.

   Technology is our means to accomplish our aims. Always begin with the aim, before pitching the means. Find out what your CEO wants to achieve in 2013. Is it a 20% increase in sales performance without a significant increase in cost? This is possible.

2. With sales compensation, there are no hidden costs.

   ROI tends to be rapid. For many Xactly Express customers, like Clairmail, it pays for itself in a matter of months. Chris shared a simple ROI formula in the first part of this series and also recommended allowing for hidden costs. Say no if the solution doesn’t pay for itself in a year. And again, make sure you talk to several happy customers.

3. One CFO used to spend 80+ man hours on commissions with a spreadsheet.

   Now, he takes 10 minutes. Want accuracy? The provider of your sales compensation software should be able to tell you about multiple customers who have 99.99% calculations accuracy. (No joke. Check out TriNet’s story.)

   Imagine how much happier your reps will be when they’re paid accurately and on time. They’ll spend more time selling and less time haggling finance and operations. Clean automation cleans out the grumble. Transparency = trust.

As you enter a new year and a new cycle, think on this: What matters to your executive team? Looking back at past tools you’ve successfully pitched, what worked? What could you have done differently?