This guest blog was written by our friend at QuotaPath, Chief of Staff and Interim Head of Sales Graham Collins.
For a team fueled by data, a poorly maintained CRM can pose significant challenges for RevOps teams.
Dirty data can lead to inaccurate forecasts, inefficient processes, and lost productivity.
And, in some cases, it can derail deals entirely.
That’s because if reps leave out important next steps, the probability of closing, new contacts, notes, and any communication threads, they put the deal at risk. Maybe the rep misses a follow-up task or missteps during the negotiation process. Without the deal stage updated correctly, perhaps the rep spends time on deals less likely to close while neglecting those with the highest percentages.
To us, those all seem like mission-critical reasons for maintaining CRM hygiene.
For reps, however, it’s a bit harder to coach them to care.
Sales enablement, reminders, coaching, and setting dedicated CRM update times can help, but we have an even better solution.
Show them the potential earnings tied to every opportunity in their pipeline.
We’re not saying to hold commissions if a rep doesn’t keep HubSpot updated — that’d be a sure way to upset your reps. Rather, we suggest calculating the forecasted commissions for each potential sale to give the reps a clear incentive to keep their data clean.
If you’re like, “Graham, that sounds like a ton of additional work,” you’d be correct. Unless you tie in a sales compensation management software like QuotaPath to automate commission tracking and show forecasted earnings directly in HubSpot.
Why Add Commissions to HubSpot
By making potential earnings visible in your CRM, you give your reps a tangible and direct incentive to maintain CRM hygiene. This motivates them to keep better pulses on deals and do what is necessary to move the opp toward closed/won.
Plus, by using a tool like QuotaPath that directly integrates with HubSpot, you’ll give your reps visibility into their attainment progress. So, in the case of a rep wanting to know how close they are to earning commissions paid at a higher rate or how near they are to surpassing quota, you can direct them to HubSpot for an at-a-glance view. This marks another motivational benefit because when reps can see that the next deal pushes them to a higher commission rate, you bet that they’ll do as much as they can to close it.
To promote CRM hygiene even further, we recommend implementing a deal-scoring system that only reveals the forecasted commissions once a deal moves to a designated stage in HubSpot. This encourages your reps to make regular updates to “unlock” their earnings amount.
One thing to note is if the rep wins the deal without updating the CRM beforehand, the rep collects their commission. We would never suggest withholding earnings because they didn’t update HubSpot!
But, displaying the amount they’d make off a deal should it close once a deal reaches a set stage will motivate them to keep HubSpot accurate.
How to Add Commissions in HubSpot
Now for executing.
The most effective (and efficient) way to do this is to enlist the help of sales compensation software.
QuotaPath, for instance, syncs directly with HubSpot and other CRMs to offer real-time views into commissions, forecasted earnings, and attainment performance. If the data in HubSpot is accurate, then the data in QuotaPath will reflect accordingly. This promotes CRM hygiene.
“When I’m reviewing commissions in QuotaPath, I’m not checking to see if they’re right in QuotaPath, I’m checking to see if the deals and fields in HubSpot are correct,” said Katie Cooper, Muck Rack, Senior Business Manager, Business and Data Operations.
We’ve even had customers tell us they noticed better CRM management from their team after integrating with QuotaPath.
CRM Hygiene Best Practices
Commission visibility is a great way to promote CRM hygiene, but it’s not the only way. Below are a few additional best practices.
- Coach reps to dedicate time each week to update their CRM. Maybe it’s 15 minutes at the close of the day or 30 minutes on Friday mornings.
- Design a checklist for reps to follow when entering data that includes: updated contacted information, sales activities, next steps, follow-up reminders, deal status, call notes, etc.
- Host weekly office hours with reps to address CRM questions or offer training
Now, please raise your glass as your team thrives on improved data accuracy.
About QuotaPath
QuotaPath partners with Finance, RevOps, and Sales teams to manage sales compensation more efficiently. With a library of free resources to inform compensation plan design and strategy and an automated commission tracking system, QuotaPath aligns teams, saves time, and increases earnings accuracy.
Sign up for a free trial, sync your CRM, build your comp plan, or use one of our free adjustable templates and invite team members to track commissions before even chatting with a member of our team. Want to chat with our team instead? Schedule time to learn more.
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