SUCCESS STORY
EdgePetrol automates commissions; switches to 0% payout errors
One stop for all your EdgePetrol is a real-time pricing intelligence software that helps retailers optimize fuel prices.
SUCCESS STORY
One stop for all your EdgePetrol is a real-time pricing intelligence software that helps retailers optimize fuel prices.
CRO EdgePetrol
EdgePetrol is a real-time pricing intelligence software for fuel retailers active. They're active across 2 continents and 4 currencies with commissions to all revenue teams: sales development, sales, and customer success.
EdgePetrol had a manual commission process on spreadsheets with repeated errors. In order to continue growing at scale, they needed an all-encompassing solution.
With ElevateHQ, EdgePetrol was able to automate the entire commission process for the revenue team - reducing commission payout error rate to 0%.
Like most early-stage revenue teams, EdgePetrol was managing its commissions over excel spreadsheets.
The process was tedious. Sales and CS folks would punch their deals inside the spreadsheet, and complex formulas would determine their commission payout.
“Here’s the thing, sales folks are not great admins usually. They hate it, or at least I did. We hate updating CRMs or any admin task for that matter. This resistance to administration is risking thousands of $ because you are just not inclined to update your deals in the commission spreadsheet with care.”
A mistake in the formula meant that EdgePetrol payouts were not consistent with what the reps were expecting.
Not just that, other details like accurate deal info, the right values to the right deals and currency differences between Pound Sterling and USD were not factored in
“We do commissions quarterly and all I can describe it is that it is my least favourite meeting of the quarter - and I attend a lot of meetings”
What added to the nightmare was that the sheet wasn’t integrated with Hubspot, their CRM. There was no way to easily map the deals reps punched in the sheet vs info in the CRM.
“We had a sheet, and reps would add deals to the sheet as and when they’d do them…and then I was doing checks each month…make sure deals were correct…first I would and then Dan (VP Sales) would…it was a three prong approving method…first rep would approve, then I would approve it, then Dan would approve it…data sources were not connected and it was all manual entry…delayed data…formula manipulation, a hot mess”“The first quarter we did it, the formula was wrong. It was wrong from our side. The reps weren’t happy.”
To their credit, the revenue team at EdgePetrol took the payout in their stride. They cracked a few jokes about it here and there but largely, they were patient with the firm as they started evaluating if automating their commissions would save them from future misses.
“An email from Elevate popped up in my inbox on the same evening when we realized our payouts were messy.”
Mark was always inclined to recruit an early-stage firm for automating commissions. EdgePetrol has a complex commission plan and he rightly expected white-glove implementation support.
“We needed collaboration, ours is a complex plan, and we knew we’d need a team who would like to grow with us”
“For a small company to feel like an important customer is hard. We knew that ElevateHQ’s team was authentic. We knew that you had customers who were paying ElevateHQ more than what we were. Yet I chose y’all because you were better at making us feel important.”
From designing their complex commission rules to setting up an automated approval workflow, ElevateHQ mapped the commission process end to end inside the software.
These processes were deployed both for Sales as well as Customer Support. ElevateHQ’s Rule Engine automated the complexities layered in both these plans. Today, both teams have access to real-time numbers at the click of a button. Currency differences between GBP and USD are also factored into these calculations.
The multi-pronged approval mechanism over emails is now replaced by in-app ticketing, which saves reps from tedious back and forth. They reclaim this time to qualify, pitch, and close their primary job.
Reps could now see how much they would make as commissions overall as well as at the deal level. They could slice and dice commission values and break down the last dollar to the deals associated with them.
A real-time sync with Hubspot also meant that they would not need to worry about the accuracy of data.
“Compensation is incredibly important to revenue teams. We don’t want them to worry about whether it is going to be correct or not. We want them happy and focused on their work, wanting to put in that extra effort that might be required to hit quota. The last thing we want is for them pissed off that we’ve made yet another payment blunder.”
A real-time sync with Hubspot also meant that they would not need to worry about the accuracy of data.
“Commission is there to motivate and drive behaviour. The best reps plan their efforts around their commissions and targets. They then plan their lives around their commission checks. Having a high-quality structure and a high quality system like ElevateHQ is a huge part of having high-quality reps.”
Prestige and purpose are driven by ElevateHQ leaderboards. A continuously refreshing leaderboard keeps reps driven. The spirit of sales competition remains ignited because reps are refreshing their screens if they are close to hitting their commission goals.
Mark tells us that there is another benefit that he realized after he recruited ElevateHQ - the sales culture and employer brand shine through.
“When I onboard people we tell them we use ElevateHQ…you start with trust. They feel things are in place and processes are organized.”
“They onboard, connect their Hubspot to Elevate and bang! The commission structure is already in there.”
