I chat with John Ristuccia, Vice President, Professional Services at sales ops firm Optymyze, on my daily tech podcast.

I want to find out more about how John and his team at Optymyze are revolutionizing sales operations with Sales Performance Management (SPM). But also how it combines data science, process automation, enterprise planning, and advanced analytics to enable clients to execute new sales strategies and effectively drive sales performance and sales force productivity.

John also discusses the digital transformation challenges he sees first hand working with large enterprise clients and how sales orgs can overcome them – whether inaccurate CRM data, manual processes, or unclear compensation policies that do little to motivate sales reps.

After over 650 episodes, this is the first time that I tackle the subject of Sales Performance Management and the role of technology in its success. Today I learn how SPM data from Optymyze’s solution addresses a key shortcoming on CRM – adoption.

I also begin to understand how one of the key reasons sales reps don’t update CRM every day is that they can’t see the impact this process has on their own personal bottom line. Instead, layering CRM and SFA with SPM – comprised largely of sales compensation data - gives sales reps insight into how much more money they could actually make if they act upon the insights derived from CRM/SFA.

The motivation is more tangible. For the C-Suite, SPM data also provides a much more accurate picture of corporate performance in real-time with the ability to course correct motivational compensation in real time and streamline payout processes which make forecasting more easily predictable.