Experts in ICM: Turning Insight Into Influence with Marc Street

In our Experts in ICM Series Q&A series, we’re sitting down with leaders from across the incentive compensation and sales performance management space to explore learnings, trends, and opportunities that exist for today’s ICM and SPM professionals.

We most recently spoke with Marc Street, Global Head of Sales Compensation at Stripe, to tap into his 15+ years of comp leadership experience across companies like Stripe and Thomson Reuters, and hear his insights on how comp teams can lead through uncertainty, secure buy-in for change, and evolve from tactical responders to trusted advisors.

In this conversation, Marc shares what it really takes to navigate comp during unpredictable times — building trust through transparency, advocating for automation, and influencing senior leadership with data-backed recommendations and cross-functional insight.

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You’ve led comp through a lot of market cycles. What makes our current state of unpredictability such a critical moment for teams managing incentive programs?

Uncertainty is a constant in corporate life, but in moments of real volatility — like we saw with COVID, and more recently with economic swings and global tariffs — sales compensation plays an outsized role. It impacts morale, retention, rep performance, and leadership decision-making all at once.

What I’ve learned is that the key isn’t to overreact, especially when things are changing hour to hour.

It’s about staying steady, over-communicating, and letting people know you’re watching the situation closely — and that you’ll respond if and when it matters. That alone builds trust.

We’ve used trigger-based reviews to stay ahead of potential issues. For example, we set thresholds for how certain cost changes might impact rep earnings, and if those thresholds are met, we act. But we’re transparent about those guidelines up front, so no one’s caught off guard or left wondering what’s going on.

How do you stay informed enough to make those judgment calls in the moment?

You can’t do it in a vacuum. I always say I’m on a “PR tour” — talking with senior leaders, frontline managers, reps, and peers in other orgs. That outreach gives me a much better read on where concerns are real versus reactive.

It’s also critical to connect with your external network. I pay attention to industry surveys, advisory group benchmarks, and conversations with partners like CaptivateIQ. If you’re only focused on your internal metrics, you’re missing half the picture.

You mentioned your experience spans finance, RevOps, and sales comp roles. How does your reporting line affect your ability to influence strategy?

It makes a big difference. When I’ve reported into RevOps, the sophistication around comp is often higher — but the focus can be narrower, more short-term and sales-centric. On the finance side, there’s more emphasis on long-term impact and company-wide cost controls, but sometimes less familiarity with comp mechanics. You have to tailor how you communicate based on those lenses.

The one constant is that you have to educate and influence. Sales comp means different things to different people — some see it as overhead, some see it as a growth lever. Your job is to clarify the value, not just of automation, but of strategic alignment. That’s how you earn your seat at the table.

We often see visibility come up as a key challenge for compensation teams. How do you ensure reps — and the business — have the transparency they need?

It starts with a single source of truth. All your data should flow from one place. The more systems and spreadsheets you’re juggling, the more chances for inconsistency and confusion.

We’ve also invested in making visibility proactive. We don’t wait for reps to ask how they’re tracking — we push that info to them. Frequent, accurate reporting keeps people engaged and reduces noise. It also frees up the team to focus on higher-impact work instead of answering the same commission questions over and over.

What’s your approach when you know a process or tool isn’t working, but leadership isn’t yet bought in?

Start small. Raise the concern, show you're tracking performance, and define specific stage gates. For example, in a past role, we flagged an implementation that wasn’t going well. We set a checkpoint: if we missed the next milestone, we’d either make a directional shift or pull the plug. That framework made it easier for leadership to engage constructively, without defensiveness.

You also need to speak the right language. Talk in terms of cost of errors, time spent firefighting, missed insights, and rep attrition. Everyone understands those. And above all, bring data and a recommendation. If you just point to a problem, you’ll get stuck. If you show up with a plan, you’re a partner.

Let’s talk automation. Why is it so hard to get that investment prioritized?

Incentive comp has historically been misunderstood. It gets lumped in with payroll or admin tools, when in reality it should be viewed as a performance system. The real ROI isn’t just error reduction — it’s the ability to iterate faster, answer “what if” questions, and build trust with the field.

But that case doesn’t sell itself. I’ve had success tying automation to outcomes leaders care about: retention, accuracy, forecast reliability, and rep engagement. I also emphasize opportunity cost. What else could my team be doing if we weren’t fixing manual issues? That tends to resonate.

What advice do you have for other comp leaders trying to make the leap from tactical to strategic?

First, know your data inside and out. Build your elevator pitch before you share a dashboard with any senior leader, then come to the conversation with a point of view and a clear takeaway.

Second, listen often and widely. Don’t wait for feedback to reach you through a support ticket – go out and ask. You can always preface it with, “I can’t promise any changes, but I want to understand what’s working and what’s not.” That openness builds credibility — and over time, it gives you the insight to lead change proactively, not just respond to noise.

If you’re interested in participating in one of the Multiplier Q&A features, reach out to us at multiplier@captivateiq.com.