Building a Culture of Partnership: A Q&A with Nicki StJohn of Gannett | USA TODAY Network
Faced with a fragmented compensation process across 130 sites, Gannett's finance team was stuck in a tactical rut. Nicki StJohn details how she centralized her team and leveraged a strong partnership with Xactly to boost accuracy, foster collaboration, and elevate her team's role from a “revenue prevention department" to a strategic partner within the business.
Q: Can you please introduce yourself and your role?
A: Nicki StJohn is an FP&A Manager at Gannett, the company behind the USA TODAY Network. She leads a team of analysts dedicated to taking on all of the company's sales compensation challenges.
Q: What do you love about sales compensation?
A: For Nicki, it all comes down to being a problem-solver. She loves that every day gives her a chance to find solutions, whether it's for one person's specific issue or a broader company challenge like driving more revenue. That constant hunt for a solution is what she truly enjoys about her work.
"I'm constantly just looking for solutions to problems and that's the thing I love about it."
Q: What are you proud of in your compensation career?
A: Nicki is most proud of completely changing the way people saw her team. When she started at Gannett, they were viewed as "just human calculators" or even the "revenue prevention department." She had a vision of them becoming true partners with HR and Sales—a concept she calls her "collaborative triangle." She says that after all this time, seeing that vision become a reality has been an amazing experience.
"I think of our team as kind of like a triangle; we're one corner, our HR is another corner, and then our sales team is the other corner, and we're really helping find a partnership."
Q: What do you love about your partnership with Xactly?
A: For Nicki and her team, the partnership with Xactly has been a game-changer. It allowed them to take a large, scattered group of analysts and consolidate them into one focused team, leading to an incredible jump in accuracy and consistency. But she feels it's more than just the technology; she sees Xactly as a true partner that builds tools to help them succeed. On top of that, she really respects the company's values and community involvement, making her proud of the partnership.
"The accuracy level that we've been able to have with Xactly has been so much better than what we had when we were working off individual calculators."
"The things that I’m seeing that Xactly’s doing in their communities... it's a company that I’d like to be associated with... That’s something that’s really important to me when I think about the people that I want to work with."
Q: What is something that sets Xactly apart from other companies?
A: Nicki's team came to Xactly from a world of messy Excel sheets, so for her, the power of integration is what really stands out. Seeing how smoothly tools like Salesforce and Xactly can work together has been an exciting part of the journey. She loves thinking about the future and sees it as a huge win to be able to give her sales leaders new tools and dashboards they can use themselves.
"Seeing how all those things [like Salesforce and Xactly] can work together has been really exciting."
Q: What new Xactly features or solutions are you most excited about?
A: When it comes to new features, Nicki is definitely most excited about the new and upcoming reporting tools. After seeing a preview at Xactly’s Upside conference, her mind started racing with ideas. She can't wait to build reports that are not just actionable, but also visually attractive and easy for her teams to use and understand.
Q: What piece of advice would you give to someone starting in your role?
A: Her biggest piece of advice for others is to get out there and network. She believes connecting with the community is incredibly helpful for solving problems, but more importantly, it helps people break out of their own bubble. As she explains, it's easy to get stuck in the "this is how we've always done it" mindset, and talking to others is the best way to find new ideas you might never have thought of alone.
Please note: The questions and answers above have been edited and condensed for clarity and reading ease. To hear Nicki StJohn tell her full story in her own words, with even more detail and context, be sure to watch the complete video interview.
