My Day Job. Xactly. More or Less.

Photo Courtesy - Tanita Jha

A doctor.
A pilot.
A teacher.
An actor.
A fireman.
A waitress.
An animal trainer.
A cook.
A commissions analyst.
A commissions analyst...
....what the heck is that?

It's a Common Reaction...
I get that a lot.
I used to get that with my last career as well.
Few people knew what a "copywriter" did. 

Lifting the Curtain...
Sales people are paid commissions on sales.
The job of the Commissions Analyst is to figure out what to pay each sales person based on several different pieces of information.

The Different Pieces That Have To Be Put Together Are...
The salesperson's rate.
The salesperson's sales target.
The salesperson's geographic territory and accounts.
The salesperson's sales achievement.
The rules of the commission plan about who is eligible for commissions and when they get paid.
When commissions need to be taken back or reduced.
When credit for a sale has to be split between two or more people.
Who else should get credit for the salesperson's sales (The Sales Manager, a Customer Service Rep, Other Sales Support Staff).

Why it's often a hairball...
The rules of the  plan could be complicated. And usually are.
Often, there are different plans for different sales teams within the company.
Multiple territories, accounts, crediting rules, rates and targets can make it all quite complex.
And for every rule, there are so many exceptions to the rule.

Adventures in Excel...
Companies across America rely largely or entirely on Microsoft Excel to capture correct commission payments for their salespeople.
While, it is technically viable to get the job done with Excel (and I should know because it's my stock-in-trade), it is an unwieldy process, fraught with the risk of error.
And Excel Spreadsheets are not an ideal way to communicate with salespeople to let them know what they have been paid on.
Neither are they an ideal way to communicate with Sales Managers about how their teams are doing.

Change is in the Air (and has been for some time)...
However, over the past decade, several dedicated Commission Software Programs have come on the market - in response to the ever-increasing complexity  and challenges of managing sales commissions.
Tailor-made for the Sales Commissions Process, these programs are pure plays - designed to be used to model, analyze and pay commissions exclusively.

The Top Excel Challengers...
The leading products in this space are Xactly Incent, Callidus True Comp, Varicent & Merced. 

The Excel Caterpillar becomes an Xactly Butterfly...
I am on my way to transitioning from an Excel Commissions Analyst to an Xactly Commissions Analyst.
Over the past 6 months, I enrolled in and completed the Xactly Incent Admin Course, the Xactly Date Effectivity Course and the Xactly Document Management Course.
Hopefully, I will soon be able to put the knowledge gleaned from these courses to work.
I have signed on as a contractor with Solution Partners, an Xactly Implementations Company in Los Gatos, California and it looks promising.
I am open to other contract opportunities as well.

Xactly is Cloud Computing for Commissions...
It is a multi-tenant on-demand cloud-based application.  Quite the opposite of the client-server systems in use today.
If that sounds terribly technical, this analogy might explain it...

Xactly is to Commissions Administration what Netflix is to Video Rentals
Which means it could put the Hollywood Video Stores of the Commissions Processing Industry out of business. And there are a few.

That's My Day Job...
I hope I've shone a little bit of light on what I do. You can get an even better idea of what's involved if you visit the Xactly website.

Candid Postscript:  Several months ago, I had to abandon a long-held job in Commissions Administration.  When you do something like that, you feel one or all of 3 things: 1) A failure  2) A weirdo 3) An irresponsible person.  Through my meditations, I have come to accept myself and be compassionate with myself about taking that step.  I hope if you are ever in a situation where your actions make you feel like a failure, a weirdo or an irresponsible person, you will be compassionate about yourself as well.  My Meditations, My Return to My Christian Roots, This Blog....none of this may have happened if not for this time-out from a job.

Postscript 2:  The one-time upfront costs for Xactly are 1)implementation 2)data management services if needed, and 3)training. After that, you pay by user by month, exactly like a Netflix subscription.

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