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Selling SCM Like CRM
TMCnet Contributing Editor
Xactly Corporation, an on-demand sales compensation management company, wants to take a page from salesforce.com's playbook in succeeding with online CRM.
New board member Cindy Padnos, director, Outlook Ventures, said she's excited to join the board of Xactly, since in her view "Xactly will be mainstreaming on-demand sales compensation management similar to how salesforce.com (News - Alert) popularized on-demand CRM."
Using spreadsheets to manage sales compensation is a legacy approach that predates the Internet, Padnos says, adding "why would companies want to be held back when there's an affordable, proven alternative product in Xactly Incent? It's going to be the 'next big thing' in CRM."
"You can see where you are and where you have to be while there's still time to do something about it," Cabrera told industry observer John Hazard last month. "What good does it do you to sell your heart out in June and get a commission in check in July … only to find out that it was your March that fell through? If you can see where you are at the end of March, you have time to make five more calls."
Xactly's rules-based and multitenant architecture allows vendors to manage separate compensation and sales models across sales staffs and channels, Hazard explains. "Partners can access results from anywhere and see real-time results. The application also allows partners to forecast sales results based on leads they enter themselves."
Cabrera defines his target audience as anyone running a CRM program: "Anyone running CRM almost definitely has a sales staff or channel," he told Hazard.
Xactly has announced that it has secured $8 million in Series B funding led by Outlook Ventures and Spinner Asset Management, LLC. In related news, the company also announced the appointment of Padnos to the Xactly board of directors.
Bay Partners and Rembrandt Ventures, the lead investors in Xactly's Series A round, along with other Series A investors, also participated in the Series B financing.
The new financing will be used to increase Xactly's sales and marketing initiatives, expand the service organization and accelerate market adoption of the company's leading on-demand sales compensation management product.
Christopher W. Cabrera, Xactly founder, president and CEO, said he believes "savvy mid-size businesses are rapidly moving to our on-demand approach to automate sales compensation. These entities are realizing increases in top-line revenue growth, seeing quick ROIs as a result of rapid deployments, which range from 24 hours to two weeks, and ensuring that they meet various regulatory requirements such as Sarbanes-Oxley."
Cabrera said he also sees companies "able to shape behavioral changes in their sales forces to sell more of the right products."
David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles please visit David Sims' columnist page.
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