Xactly CEO Christopher W. Cabrera Reveals Secrets to Increasing Revenues through the Power of Motivation in Game the Plan
SAN JOSE, Calif. – February 4, 2014 – U.S. businesses spend more than $800 billion dollars annually on sales compensation. It’s usually one of the biggest line items on any company’s books, yet it is also one of the most mismanaged – resulting in a loss in both potential and profits. Incentive programs, when structured strategically, have the ability to fuel better employee performance and engagement, leading to higher sales and greater organizational efficiency. Industry expert Christopher W. Cabrera urges sales and finance leaders to take a transformative new approach to incentives in his new book, Game the Plan: Every Sales Rep’s Dream, Every CFO’s Nightmare.
Cabrera, the founder, president and CEO of incentive compensation leader Xactly®, proposes that businesses create incentive compensation plans with the expectation that their teams will “game” them to find the most lucrative means to earn their badges, bonuses, checks and SPIFs. This idea turns traditional incentive compensation thinking on its head. Cabrera explains how this approach to compensation planning actually inspires better performance, keeps sales reps hungry and is a win-win for sales and finance alike.
“The ideas in Game the Plan resonate for me both as a business executive and a former pro football player. As evidenced in my own life, the possibility of winning the Super Bowl, was enough incentive for me to give all I could by cutting off part of my little finger,” said Ronnie Lott, NFL Hall of Famer. “The right incentives are powerful motivators and Game the Plan explains these ideas brilliantly.”
With decades of experience as both a former sales executive and the head of Xactly, Cabrera has experienced the power of incentives to align behaviors with corporate objectives and positively impact bottom-line results. However, a key issue most companies face lies in plan design and execution. In Game the Plan, Cabrera provides specific advice on how to tap into the science of motivation, using three kinds of data to fine-tune incentive strategies and unleash the full power of incentives.
“Chris and his team have designed a tool that creates more engaged employees, drives the right behavior and helps organizations meet their goals,” said Steve Cakebread, former CFO, salesforce.com. “I’ve seen his principles work first hand over my own career.”
Game the Plan introduces a revolutionary approach to creating effective incentive compensation plans that allow sales and finance teams to work towards a common goal. The book dives into the tools and strategies needed to create a transparent, accurate, and e?cient sales culture, effectively bridging the gap between sales and ?nance leaders. This collaboration is largely possible through newly mined empirical information on compensation, available for the first time in history through the collection and analysis of sales data from hundreds of Xactly customers. The combination of academic, anecdotal, and empirical information provides a common ground for sales and finance to build more profitable incentive strategies.
“Compensation plans can make or break employee morale and customer satisfaction. Chris Cabrera not only knows all that, but in this book, for the first time, he shows you how to build those plans. They work for employees and drive business with customers. So start reading the book. You'll be really glad you did,” said Paul Greenberg, author, CRM at the Speed of Light, 4th Edition.
Additionally, Cabrera explains how businesses can leverage incentives to boost productivity and pro?ts across every job function in each department and tap into the unique motivations of each employee.
“For years, sales and finance executives have told me how fearful they are of their sales reps taking advantage of their compensation programs. When in actuality, the mentality to ‘game the plan’ is exactly the motivation that reps need to exceed their goals,” said Cabrera. “I wrote Game the Plan to completely change the way companies think about and approach sales compensation plans – from a mandatory cost center to a strategic revenue generator. By harnessing the science of motivation and incorporating game mechanics, companies can create better comp plans that entice reps to maximize their pay, while increasing corporate profitability and customer satisfaction.”
Game the Plan can be purchased online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon, and will be available on iBooks on the App Store soon.
Additional Resources • Game the Plan • Xactly Corporation • Follow Xactly on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, the Xactly Blog and Xactly Insights Thought Leadership site • #GamethePlan is here! Learn how to grow profits with new #salescomp book from @XactlyCorp’s @Incentivizer: http://ow.ly/teNLj
About Xactly Corporation With Xactly, companies of all sizes and industries can unleash the motivational power of their incentive compensation programs to inspire better employee performance and business results. Xactly’s secure, cloud-based incentive compensation and performance management solutions enable emerging businesses to Fortune 500s to easily design, manage and optimize incentive programs that save time, cut costs, reduce risk and align employee behaviors with corporate goals.
As evidence of Xactly’s continuous innovation and exceptional customer-centric culture, the Wall Street Journal twice named Xactly to its “Next Big Thing” list; Great Place to Work featured Xactly as one of the top 25 small workplaces in the nation in FORTUNE Magazine; CRM magazine named Xactly the Market Leader in Incentive Management by for the past five consecutive years; and Salesforce.com customers voted Xactly the best sales compensation management solution in the Salesforce AppExchange Customer Choice Awards. To learn how you can incent right and achieve more with Xactly, visit https://www.xactlycorp.com/ or call 1-866-GO-XACTLY (469-2285).
# # #
© 2005-2014
Xactly Corporation. All rights reserved. Xactly, Xactly Incent, Xactly Incent Pro, Xactly Objectives, Xactly Insights, Xactly Express and “Incent right.” are trademarks or registered trademarks of Xactly Corporation. Joan Touchstone Blanc & Otus Public Relations Tel: 415-856-5110 Email: jtouchstone@blancandotus.com