How Fullstory Built a More Strategic Incentives Program with CaptivateIQ

After struggling with a cumbersome commission process, Fullstory’s finance team transitioned from manual spreadsheets to CaptivateIQ’s flexible, automated solution. With CaptivateIQ, the Fullstory team saves time, reduces calculation errors, and provides sales reps with real-time visibility into their payouts. As a result, the Fullstory team saw:

Two full days per month saved on commission-related tasks
Reduction in errors with automated calculations
Boosted seller trust and motivation with real-time visibility into commission data‍
Strategic alignment between incentives and business objectives based on real-time insights

The Heroes

Fullstory is a behavioral data company that helps businesses understand and improve their customer experience through deep analytics and insights. With a sales team spread across the country, Fullstory needed a flexible solution to manage their complex sales compensation plans.

Industry: Behavioral Data Analytics
Location: Distributed Team
Employees: 400+
Switched from: Manual, spreadsheet-based system

At the helm of Fullstory's commission program are Dan Johnson, Senior Sales Compensation Manager and Victoria Pennick, Head of FP&A. Dan and Victoria play critical roles in managing Fullstory's commission process, ensuring accurate and timely payouts to their commissionable sales reps. Their expertise and dedication are instrumental to streamline compensation operations and enhance transparency for the team.

The Challenge: A Manual, Inefficient Process

Fullstory's rapid growth and complex sales compensation plans exposed the limitations of their existing manual, spreadsheet-based system. Managing commissions in a large, complex Google Sheet was not only inefficient, it increased the risk of human errors, posing significant challenges for the finance team and sales organization.

[QUOTE
| quote: Before CaptivateIQ, it was incredibly time-consuming for the finance team to update our spreadsheets every month with many hours spent reconciling our data to ensure it was accurate.
| name: Victoria P.
| title: Head of FP&A
| image: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e20acf46e0215232a00fa2f/67a4f28bb236719d9b8f5492_Victoria%20P..png
|]

The struggles with this process only continued to add up as the team grew, resulting in:

Formula errors: The manual process was prone to formula errors, which could lead to incorrect commission payouts and erode trust.
Lack of visibility for reps: Sales reps lacked real-time visibility into their commissions, which decreased motivation and reduced overall revenue.
Time-consuming updates: The finance team spent hours each pay period updating their spreadsheet, leaving less room for strategic analysis and plan optimization.

Determined to address these challenges, Fullstory decided to look for a solution as part of their effort to systematize and automate internal processes.

The Solution: A Flexible & Familiar Solution

Fullstory conducted a thorough evaluation process, considering various solutions in the SPM market. Ultimately, CaptivateIQ stood out because of its ability to cater to Fullstory's specific needs. The team appreciated CaptivateIQ's Excel-like syntax, which allowed them to handle setup and build in-house. The intuitive, no-code interface and customizable features for the reps were also significant factors in their decision.

[QUOTE
| quote: CaptivateIQ has the most user-friendly experience out of all the commission software solutions we reviewed. It’s intuitive, transparent, and easy to use.
| name: Dan J.
| title: Senior Sales Compensation Manager
| image: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e20acf46e0215232a00fa2f/67a4f278ea8ca90d0114368c_Dan%20J..png
|]

By partnering with CaptivateIQ, the Fullstory team was able to leverage several critical features that transformed their commission processes:

Support for Commission Plan Complexity

‍CaptivateIQ's flexibility allowed Fullstory to quickly and easily design and modify commission plans. This was crucial to accommodate their rapidly growing sales team and evolving compensation structures.

Automated Processes

‍CaptivateIQ automated the entire commission process from data collection to final payouts, which slashed the time spent on manual updates from days to hours, and minimized the risk of human error.

What-if Earnings Calculator

‍Before CaptivateIQ, Fullstory's reps struggled to understand the math behind their commissions earnings, making it difficult to see how each deal impacted their compensation. The What-if Earnings Calculator solved this problem by providing reps with an interactive tool to test different payout scenarios. Now, however, reps can quickly input parameters about potential deals and receive real-time insights into their potential earnings. This transparency and clarity helps them understand how different factors impact their commissions, improving motivation, financial planning, and activity prioritization.

[QUOTE
| quote: The What-If tool has been a game-changer. Our managers use it during calls with their AEs to show them the impact of deals on their commission in real-time.
| name: Dan J.
| title: Senior Sales Compensation Manager
| image: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e20acf46e0215232a00fa2f/67a4f278ea8ca90d0114368c_Dan%20J..png
|]

Advanced Reporting and Analysis

‍CaptivateIQ’s advanced reporting capabilities give Fullstory a bird’s eye view into sales performance, enabling them to proactively optimize compensation plans in real time. This comprehensive reporting system transforms raw commission data into actionable intelligence, allowing Fullstory to report on essential metrics such as cost of commissions, time-to-payroll, and quota attainment.

With a no-code calculation engine and powerful visualization tools, Fullstory can easily identify trends and make data-driven decisions. Customizable dashboards tailored to business priorities provide real-time access to important analytics, helping the team track performance, measure ROI, and identify growth opportunities, and the ability to share dashboards with stakeholders makes it easy to distribute key insights.

[QUOTE
| quote: We now have access to valuable insights that help us optimize our compensation plans. The ability to build and customize dashboards has not only improved our processes but also given our finance team the data they need to proactively manage and adjust plans to align with our business goals.
| name: Dan J.
| title: Senior Sales Compensation Manager
| image: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e20acf46e0215232a00fa2f/67a4f278ea8ca90d0114368c_Dan%20J..png
|]

The Results: Time Savings, Increased Accuracy, and Greater Transparency

CaptivateIQ brought about significant improvements in Fullstory's commission processes:

Two full days per month saved on commission-related tasks: Automated and streamlined processes allow the finance team to reclaim valuable time previously spent on manual updates and corrections.
Reduction in errors: Automated calculations reduce the risk of human errors, ensuring that commissions are accurate and reliable.
Boosted Seller Trust & Motivation: Sales reps now have real-time access to their commission data, enabling them to see how their deals impact their earnings instantly.
Strategic Alignment Between Incentives and Business Objectives: Customizable commission plans and real-time insights makes it easy to keep a finger on the pulse of the sales org and adjust incentives to match company goals.

[QUOTE
| quote: We’re now able to accomplish all commission-related tasks in significantly less time. This frees us up to modify and adjust commission plans to keep up with company goals.
| name: Dan J.
| title: Senior Sales Compensation Manager
| image: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e20acf46e0215232a00fa2f/67925ce166bb3a427f6ee8d6_Ashleigh%20D..png
|]

With CaptivateIQ, Fullstory’s finance team now has an intuitive and transparent solution for managing commission operations.

Looking Forward: Continuous Improvement

Fullstory is committed to continuous improvement in their sales compensation processes. With CaptivateIQ, they are now well-equipped to handle future challenges and scale finance operations as the business grows.

[QUOTE
| quote: We made a goal at the beginning of the year to get a better handle on our commission processes. I’m proud to say that we’ve been successful, and CaptivateIQ is a big part of that. We're going into next year much more confident.
| name: Dan J.
| title: Senior Sales Compensation Manager
| image: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5e20acf46e0215232a00fa2f/67925ce166bb3a427f6ee8d6_Ashleigh%20D..png
|]