By Phil Kaszuba Head of Revenue & Bogdan Hancas, Head of Product
Recently, our team engaged in a thought-provoking conversation with a strategic partner, sparking a familiar yet always enlightening question:
“Why InfinitySPM?”
It’s a question we’ve heard before, but this time, brought us back to the core of why our team created InfinitySPM and the compelling story that shapes our approach.
Working closely with hundreds of companies, our team of sales performance experts has consistently encountered a fundamental issue: many Sales Performance Management (SPM) solutions focus primarily on sales while traditionally ignoring finance. This persistent gap has been like the proverbial elephant in the room—or in this case, the dance floor, where sales and finance are doing their own separate routines.
This recurring theme highlighted a critical issue with conventional SPM solutions. For over a decade, many solutions have effectively addressed sales needs but have neglected the crucial integration with finance. The question “Why InfinitySPM?” goes beyond listing features or benefits. It’s about our commitment to addressing this imbalance with a fresh approach, ensuring that sales and finance work together seamlessly rather than operating in isolation.
Unified Sales Planning: Bridging the Gap
Unified Sales Planning is the cornerstone of our approach. Think of it as the glue that brings the sales and finance teams together—like a pair of mismatched socks that somehow work in perfect harmony. Sales teams often chase aggressive targets while finance is busy managing budgets and risk, leading to the classic “speak different languages” situation.
Forrester’s research shows that organizations with unified sales and financial planning achieve 50% higher revenue growth compared to those with disconnected processes. This alignment isn’t just about making things run smoothly; it’s about setting the stage for sustained growth and success.
With such an enormous advantage at stake, why don’t more organizations manage to unify their sales and financial planning processes?
In many organizations the culprit is a lack of one or more of the following capabilities:
- truly integrated planning tools,
- persistent processes for continuous optimization, and
- a lack of alignment between incentives and results.
Our team recognized these gaps and aimed to bring these two teams together, ensuring they collaborate effectively.
Revenue Excellence: The Quest for Continuous Improvement
Revenue Excellence is all about fine-tuning strategies, optimizing pricing, and leveraging data analytics to stay ahead. Imagine it as the constant tweaking of a well-oiled machine—or the never-ending quest to make sure that the company’s revenue plan doesn’t turn into a bad joke. McKinsey found that companies investing in revenue management and analytics experience 20% more revenue growth than their peers.
Revenue Excellence isn’t a one-time achievement; it’s an ongoing process, much like the eternal struggle of making sure your best ideas don’t fall flat. It involves fostering a culture of continuous improvement where insights from sales inform financial strategies and vice versa. Our approach ensures that every aspect of the revenue strategy is in tip-top shape, reflecting our commitment to innovation and improvement.
Optimized Incentives: Aligning Rewards with Results
Finally, there’s Optimized Incentives. Picture this as the high-five or applause that follows a job well done—when everyone’s efforts are recognized, and no one is left feeling like they’ve been forgotten in the corner. Forrester’s research shows that well-structured incentive plans can boost sales productivity by 25%.
Creating effective incentives requires a balancing act between what motivates the sales team and what’s financially feasible, kind of like trying to satisfy both a gourmet chef and a budget-conscious diner at the same restaurant. It’s a challenge that perfectly encapsulates our approach to aligning individual motivations with organizational goals, ensuring that everyone is on the same page (or at least in the same book).
The Continuous Loop: Harmony in Action
The magic of Unified Sales Planning, Revenue Excellence, and Optimized Incentives lies in their interconnected loop. These elements are not standalone concepts but parts of an endless cycle of alignment, improvement, and motivation.
Our infinity loop logo symbolizes this unending cycle of growth and adaptation, reflecting the perpetual interaction between sales and finance.
Despite the natural struggles—those moments when sales and finance might as well be from different planets—this loop ensures that both teams are continuously aligned and working towards shared goals. It’s this harmony that transforms occasional friction into a powerful force for driving revenue growth.
In answering the question “Why InfinitySPM?”, we emphasize our commitment to addressing the real challenges faced by sales and finance teams. Our team of experts, having worked with hundreds of companies, came together to create a solution that integrates sales and finance seamlessly. The continuous loop we champion ensures that despite any friction, sales and finance work together harmoniously, driving growth and achieving success.