Keep your teams focused on the right deals, with the right sales solutions, and help them unlock their earning potential.
Sales Planning VPs of Sales and Sales Ops Leaders Can Execute
Whether in the final stretch of a great year where you’re crushing all your goals, or a year where you took a step back, sales planning is a critical process for any sales leader. Though an important part of future success, many sales leaders find themselves in a difficult position because they missed a forecast or two, their sales targets for next year aren’t aligned with Finance’s, or they’re trying to balance short-term wins with sustained success long-term.
With Xactly’s sales commission management software, sales VPs and sales operations leaders can:
Collaborate more directly with Finance to work on compensation budgets and define appropriate targets and resources needed to have ample coverage for near and long term success.
- Empower leadership to design and monitor an agile go-to-market engine that adapts to workforce changes and market dynamics in real-time.
- Synchronize sales and revenue planning across the entire organization to drive alignment from initial demand creation to final revenue recognition.
- Utilize advanced sales planning software to identify achievable targets and ensure the organization is optimally staffed to hit its annual goals.
- Model plan changes before rollout, using data-driven simulations and "what-if" scenarios based on historical and current data to predict how new structures will affect rep behavior and company financials.
Supporting Sales Leaders Across the Revenue Lifecycle
Incentive Compensation Management
Tailor compensation plans to the activities and behaviors that accelerate revenue performance, no matter how unique the sales roles, and provide on-demand visibility into payouts for your team to keep them focused.
Incentive Design and Forecasting
Design ideal sales incentive plans by simulating different pay mixes, acceleration, performance distribution changes, and other factors that drive the behaviors to deliver desired outcomes for your business.
Territory and Quota Management
Streamline the assignments of territories (geographic, account-based, or otherwise) and quotas, keeping them motivated and focused with clear visibility into their quotas and territory potential.
Frequently Asked Questions
What tools help align sales incentives with company strategy and profitability?
Tools like Xactly Incent and Incentive Compensation Management (ICM) software are essential for alignment. These platforms allow leaders to design commission structures that reward profitable behaviors, such as high-margin deals or multi-year contracts, rather than just raw volume. By integrating AI-driven insights, companies can ensure their incentive plans directly support top-level corporate objectives.
What is a sales solution?
A sales solution is a comprehensive technology framework like the Xactly Intelligent Revenue Platform is designed to manage the entire sales lifecycle. It unifies sales planning, territory management, quota setting, and incentive compensation. The goal of a modern sales solution is to replace manual spreadsheets with data-driven automation to improve efficiency, accuracy, and revenue growth.
How do AI-driven forecasting models improve revenue predictability for B2B sales teams?
AI-driven forecasting models, such as Xactly Forecast, eliminate human bias by analyzing historical data, seller behavior, and real-time deal health. By identifying "at-risk" opportunities and highlighting "win-ready" deals, AI provides CROs with a "single pane of glass" view, allowing them to predict revenue outcomes with up to 99% accuracy and call their numbers with confidence.
How can sales leaders balance territories and quotas to reduce rep burnout?
Sales leaders use AI-powered territory and quota planning to ensure equitable distribution of opportunities. By applying the "Goldilocks Principle"—setting targets that are challenging but attainable—leaders prevent the frustration and turnover caused by unrealistic goals. Tools like Xactly Plan account for rep ramp times and historical territory potential to create a fair, balanced environment.
What metrics should CROs track to measure sales plan effectiveness?
To evaluate a sales plan, CROs should monitor four primary Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
- Forecast Accuracy: The variance between predicted and actual revenue.
- Quota Attainment: The percentage of the sales force hitting their targets.
- Coverage Ratio: The amount of pipeline available relative to the revenue goal.
- Rep Productivity: The average revenue generated per active head.
How quickly can we deploy Xactly for a 1,000-rep sales organization?
Xactly is built for enterprise-grade scalability, utilizing horizontally scalable engines to process millions of transactions. While traditional deployments for 1,000+ reps are strategic, Xactly’s new AI Agents and automated workflows significantly accelerate the implementation timeline. Many organizations see a 50-80% reduction in time spent on plan design and territory mapping compared to manual processes.
How can sales leaders coach more effectively using performance analytics?
Effective coaching shifts from "gut instinct" to data-driven strategy. By using performance analytics, managers can identify specific skill gaps such as early-stage pipeline stalling or low win rates on certain products and create personalized coaching plans. Real-time feedback loops ensure reps receive guidance while deals are still active, rather than in a post-quarter review.
What is required to support hybrid sales models across direct and self-serve?
Supporting a hybrid model requires a unified data source that can handle complex credit assignment and splits. As customers move between direct sales reps and self-serve e-commerce channels, the sales solution must automatically attribute revenue and calculate commissions accurately. This ensures no "shadow accounting" occurs and that reps are incentivized to support the customer journey regardless of the final touchpoint.
How do platforms support pay transparency and dispute resolution for sales?
Platforms like Xactly provide reps with near-real-time visibility into their earnings through mobile-accessible dashboards. By automating calculations with 99.8% accuracy, Xactly drastically reduces commission disputes. When questions do arise, built-in dispute resolution workflows allow reps and admins to communicate within the platform, maintaining a clear audit trail and fostering trust.
How can companies benchmark sales productivity using anonymized industry data?
Companies can use Xactly Benchmarking to compare their performance against 20+ years of proprietary, anonymized industry data. This allows sales operations to see how their pay mix, on-target earnings (OTE), and quota attainment compare to peers. Benchmarking helps leadership ensure their plans remain competitive to attract and retain top sales talent.
How can sales leaders forecast at rep, team, and enterprise levels?
Modern revenue intelligence tools allow for a hierarchical roll-up of data. Sales leaders can drill down into individual rep activity to see deal-level health, then roll that data up to team and regional performance, and finally to a global enterprise view. This "bottom-up" accuracy ensures that executive-level decisions are based on the actual reality of the sales floor.
