In 2024, Salesforce acquired Spiff for the hefty price tag of $419 million. If you’ve ever worked in sales you know that commissions – and incentive programs – are everything, so it comes as no surprise that Salesforce decided to purchase a platform that helps sellers keep track of their commissions more easily.
Originally founded in 2017, Spiff allows businesses to design and implement incentive compensation plans that will ultimately pay out and reward the sales teams. Sellers can see their estimated commissions in real-time inside the platform, which also offers native integrations for common enterprise CRM, ERP, HRIS, payroll platforms, and more.
For many big corporations, complex commission incentive plans are often the norm where a seller might get paid a certain percentage on new products being sold and a different amount on say, a renewal. From special bonuses for new customers to one-off incentives for specific products, keeping track of these numbers across hundreds or even thousands of sellers is a tedious task.
And this process of rewarding commissions has to be completely accurate and transparent or your sales team will be, to say the least, very unhappy with you.
With 90% of top-performing companies using incentive programs to reward their sales team, companies that lack an effective incentive compensation program may face challenges with sales performance that directly impact revenue. Let’s take a closer look at how Spiff works and some of the biggest benefits Spiff can provide for your sales team and ultimately, your bottom line.
Salesforce Spiff is an add-on for Sales Cloud customers and is currently priced at $75 per user per month. The biggest benefit of Salesforce Spiff for businesses is that it provides a low-code commission builder where commission plans can be built out and scaled instead of relying on complicated Excel spreadsheets. Spiff makes building financial models easier and less painful with hundreds of pre-built commission models to choose from.
Spiff allows sales users to see their estimated and realized commissions in real-time on both dashboards and inside the mobile app and even on Opportunity or Quote pages within Salesforce, making it easy for sellers to track progress while on the go. Sales users can even build out various quotes and see the impact on their targets and incentives inside the platform.
Beyond compensation management, Salesforce Spiff equips sales operations teams with the ability to efficiently manage territories, teams, quotas, and versioned commission plans. It also enables the creation of custom commission rules, product-specific incentives, and payout structures that align compensation directly with sales performance.
Spiff bridges the gap between what sellers value — transparent compensation — and what sales leaders need — CRM-integrated compensation planning that drives strategic alignment and desired behaviors.
Salesforce Spiff is designed to transform how sales teams approach incentive compensation. With a rich set of features and functionality, Spiff empowers organizations to drive performance, transparency, and efficiency among their sales teams and sales leaders. Key features of Salesforce Spiff include:
Enable your sellers to see the bigger picture with data-driven incentive estimates earlier in the sales process. By prioritizing deals that maximize revenue or that achieve more complex goals, sellers and managers can focus on what truly matters.
The Commission Estimator lives on the Salesforce Opportunity or Quote page in the form of a Lightning component, and provides an estimated commission for the seller along with a projection of how this individual sale can impact quotas. If you want your sales teams to be motivated by their compensation structure, there is no better way to achieve that motivation.
Provide your sellers with real-time visibility into their commission statements, goal progress, and potential earnings. Provide your sellers with real-time visibility into their commission statements, goal progress, and potential earnings from a comprehensive period-to-period view. With Spiff’s commission tracing functionality, any calculation questions can be resolved instantly, fostering transparency and trust. With Spiff, sales leaders can align organizational goals with seller motivations to create a performance-driven culture.
Simplify the design and management of incentive compensation plans with Spiff. Its flexibility allows you to make real-time adjustments, regardless of team structure or complexity. Securely update plans with detailed audit logs and leverage expert guidance to ensure your plans meet business needs.
Gain detailed insights into potential earnings and performance metrics with Spiff’s intuitive dashboards. Whether for admins, managers, or sales reps, these real-time reports enable strategic planning and performance tracking over multiple timeframes — from monthly to annual reviews. Sales leaders and users can also manage questions, comments, and disputes from within the mobile app.
With Salesforce Spiff, businesses can ensure that they’re compliant with ASC 606 and IFRS 15 through Spiff’s automated, audit-ready expense reports. Its user-friendly interface simplifies the management of exceptions, fringe benefits, and varied commission types.
Sell smarter by bringing your teams, Sales Cloud data, automation, and AI directly into Slack. With Slack Sales Elevate, an add-on for Slack that integrates with Sales Cloud, your team can access opportunities, accounts, and metrics within the same space where conversations happen — driving productivity and collaboration.
Take advantage of Salesforce’s Sales AI tools like Einstein and Agentforce to automate and optimize sales activities. For example, your business could use a Salesforce Spiff Assistant, a conversational AI assistant, to quickly and easily gain insights into sales plans, rules, and calculations. From lead scoring to sales forecasting, Salesforce AI and automation tools help your team focus on high-value tasks, uncover new opportunities, and make data-driven decisions to enhance performance.
Salesforce Spiff stands out as a game-changer for sales teams and businesses across industries where 64% of organizations report correct quota setting as a major hurdle for their sales compensation programs. Here are the top five benefits that make it an indispensable tool for your sales teams:
Spiff provides sellers with seamless access to their commission data, keeping them motivated and focused. Whether they’re in the office, working remotely, or on the go, reps can easily track their earnings in real-time and stay connected to their goals.
Administrators benefit from a user-friendly interface that allows them to design and manage compensation plans with ease. Even for the most intricate of setups, Spiff ensures that admins can maintain control without relying on complex external systems.
Salesforce Spiff’s powerful capabilities enable the real-time calculation of commissions as deals close. This instant feedback ensures accuracy and transparency, boosting confidence for both sellers and sales leaders.
With Salesforce Spiff, every team can design plans, calculations, reports, and rep statements tailored to their needs. This adaptability supports diverse workflows and ensures every aspect of the compensation process aligns with your business’s objectives.
No matter how intricate your commission structure is, Spiff handles them effortlessly. From multi-tiered incentives to versioned plans, its robust functionality ensures your compensation strategy keeps pace with your organization’s growth.
Salesforce Spiff empowers sales teams to work smarter, stay motivated, and achieve more, making it an essential component of any modern sales strategy.
Implementing Salesforce Spiff can transform your sales operations and create trust among your sales teams, but getting the most out of this robust tool requires expert guidance. As a Salesforce Summit Partner, we specialize in helping businesses across industries seamlessly integrate Salesforce Spiff into their Salesforce ecosystem to drive performance and transparency.
Our team of Salesforce Spiff consultants ensures that every aspect of your incentive compensation plan — territories, quotas, team structures, and reporting — is optimized for your business needs. Whether you're designing new commission plans or fine-tuning existing ones, Kelley Austin provides the expertise to make your implementation successful.
By partnering with us, you’ll gain access to:
Let Kelley Austin help you leverage Salesforce Spiff to empower your sales teams, improve transparency, and achieve your revenue goals.
Salesforce Spiff is more than just a compensation management tool — it’s a strategic solution that aligns sales incentives with organizational goals — driving motivation and performance. From empowering sales reps with real-time insights to enabling leaders to design and manage complex commission plans, Spiff bridges the gap between transparency and strategy.
As incentive programs continue to be a critical component of sales performance, adopting tools like Salesforce Spiff ensures your team stays motivated and your processes remain efficient. With its user-friendly interface, advanced analytics, and integration capabilities, Salesforce Spiff is a must-have for businesses aiming to optimize their sales compensation strategy.
Ready to take your incentive compensation program to the next level? Contact Kelley Austin today to explore how Salesforce Spiff can be a game-changer for your organization.
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