Making the Case for Better Incentive Compensation Management

Many businesses are struggling to turn their incentive compensation programs into a strategic growth lever. 

In fact, compensation leaders are reporting issues with automation, efficiency, and accuracy — all of which can be significantly improved with the right innovative platform. Only 39% of companies have increased their use of automation to reduce costs this year, despite 61% believing automation would significantly improve their reporting and analytics capabilities. 

But, successful compensation leaders know that effective, fine-tuned incentive programs help drive growth.

• Nearly 60% of companies say they’re using incentives to advance high-priority business initiatives like customer acquisition and revenue acceleration. 
• Among those most confident in their compensation plans this year, 61% say incentives directly support customer acquisition and conversion goals.

The Challenge With Improving Incentive Compensation Programs: Executive Buy-in

One of the biggest blockers to improving incentive compensation? Getting executive buy-in. 

More than one-third of incentive compensation teams say they struggle to find an internal champion — making it the third most-common incentive compensation management (ICM) challenge in our 2025 State of ICM report.

Without leadership support, the path to better tools, streamlined processes, and measurable ROI stalls out.

Compensation leaders need to make a compelling business case for ICM software in order to garner executive buy-in and gain approvals for high-impact program improvements. 

We chatted with Saxton Archer, Director, Sales Compensation at SOCi, and Marc Street, Global Head of Sales Compensation at Stripe, for their tips on creating a successful business case for making improvements to a sales compensation program.

[BLOCKQUOTE
| Quote: We’re not only supporting salespeople, but we are sales people, too. So we need to be able to sell our goals and vision to our leaders effectively.
| Author: Saxton Archer
| Title: Director, Sales Compensation at SOCi
]

Here are their suggestions for successfully building a business case and fostering internal champion(s). 

How to Get Executive Buy-in for ICM Software Improvements

Define Your Primary Goals 

Before you jump into ROI and cost saving conversations, make sure to clearly define what you want to accomplish with your new software or improvements. Having a deep understanding of your goals and objectives will help ensure that you’re making the right selection.

Typically, we see primary objectives fall into one of two categories: 

• Cutting Costs. Many compensation and Go-to-Market (GTM) teams are implementing modern ICM solutions to reduce the total cost of ownership that comes with legacy systems, and the costly impact of human error with spreadsheets. Automating commission calculations with a more flexible and scalable solution saves compensation teams time and money.
• Increasing Revenue. Upgrading your ICM solution can help you free up room in your day to think more strategically, creating a more impactful incentive compensation program that more efficiently motivates reps to drive the business forward and delivering a higher return on incentives.

Identify Your Buying Committee and Key Stakeholders

Once you’re crystal clear on the specific challenges to address, improvements to make, and desired impact on the business, you need to identify your buying committee. In fact, 78% of companies will choose ICM improvements either as part of a committee or with input from key stakeholders. 

There are often several functions involved in incentive compensation management in one capacity or another, so it’s worth dedicating the time to truly understand the nuances of each department and their needs, including finance, revenue, RevOps, and HR. 

Be thoughtful about the folks you want weighing in on the purchase. The wrong mix of input can lead to challenges: 

• Late-stage derailment from a decision maker that should have been involved sooner. 
• Executives in the driver seat with not enough boots-on-the-ground interactions nor time available to choose the  most-effective solution. 
• Siloed teams purchasing software without understanding the needs of other departments. 

When HR, finance, operations, and sales all contribute to the process, the result is a more strategic and inclusive program — one that reflects company-wide goals rather than siloed metrics. This collaboration not only drives better alignment, but also improves employee trust in the fairness and relevance of the incentive structure.

It also makes sense: as more departments adopt incentive pay models, their voices need to be included in decision-making. A well-rounded process ensures that incentives are achievable, motivating, and tailored to the needs of a broader range of contributors.

Consider the Unique Perspectives of Your Buying Committee and Executive Leaders

Much of the process in garnering executive buy-in is in educating the executives on the ROI of ICM software. First, understand the background, experience, perspective, and preconceived notions your leadership has around sales compensation programs. Then, cater the documentation, business case, and education for that audience. 

“The reality is that sales compensation means different things to different people. You’ll encounter — especially in regards to leadership — a very broad spectrum of sophistication when it comes to leveraging incentive compensation,” explains Marc. “For some people, it’s just a nuisance payout, and for others it's a strategic driver of results. For a lot of people, it’s somewhere in between.” 

He continues, “You need to figure out who your stakeholders are and what they know in terms of sales compensation levers. When you think about how you get this prioritized, you need to hit the parts they know about and you also need to educate them. When sales compensation was managed by RevOps, for example, I noticed sales compensation sophistication was higher, but their interest in a certain outcome was also higher. They were looking at it from the sales lens, and not the bigger, corporate lens.”

 “Similarly, I’ve reported to finance, HR, sales ops, and RevOps in my career,” shares Saxton. “Within the sales ops and RevOps organization, it’s easier to have those conversations. They’re more aware of how incentive compensation affects the sales organization itself. It does get a little more difficult when you report to the HR or finance organizations. HR, especially, is very driven on optimizing what you currently have.”

Conduct a Comprehensive Cost Analysis 

Naturally, cost savings will play a huge role in your conversations with your executives, be sure to really uncover the total cost analysis in order to have a successful conversation. 

“I think cost savings is an obvious one here. That’s going to be your theme to get their attention, but there’s a lot more to it than just the amount of money you’re paying for a tool,” says Saxton. “There’s the cost savings related to the time and effort it takes to run manual processes. If I'm in an excel sheet, building those models and managing them takes time and can be very difficult. It’s not scalable. Helping leadership understand that automating these processes and making them scalable for the future is super important and has a cost savings attached to it.”

“It’s not just savings in the traditional sense, like resourcing. It’s also savings in terms of litigation, wasted time, frustration, cost of attrition,” shares Marc. “There are so many reasons that make the ROI of improving sales compensation so high. They have to be pointed out, and usually if you point them out well, people will be in favor of it. Nobody wants to be told that the sales person feels cheated. We’re one of those jobs where no news is good news. Getting a better system helps reduce that noise.”

Don’t Be Afraid of the Politics 

In any given organization, politics will likely have an impact on the ultimate decision. Be comfortable with building a strong, data-backed business case and rallying the influential leaders that will make the decision. 

Every organization has competing priorities. It’s important to understand where sales compensation fits within the entire organization to help you with garnering support. 

“We get this idea that [compensation leaders are] in a silo and people don’t think about sales compensation, but they do, especially when it comes to finance and budgeting,” says Saxton. 

“Politics is a massive piece of this. Competing against other priorities for spend, emotional time, brain space—all of that,” shares Marc. “Another aspect is how much noise is this generating up the other lines that you’re not involved in.” 

Lean on Your Relationships and Network 

Make sure you’re building a relationship with your leadership team. You don’t want the first time they hear from you to be when you ask for something. Have regular check-ins and tight feedback loops so that your leaders aren’t surprised when you start to build the business case for ICM software. 
Finally, ask for help within your network. Make friends in your industry. Attend CaptivateIQ webinars. Join industry groups. Build those connections, so that when you have questions, your network can share their own learnings and best practices. 

“When it comes to getting a seat at the table, you need to have a good relationship with your leaders, and, as a sales compensation professional, you should always be facilitating those relationships within your role,” says Saxton. “Not to mention I’ve always relied on my community and my network, especially when I didn't know how to [build a business case, for example]. I highly recommend building that network and reaching out to others who have done it before.”

Conclusion

Securing executive buy-in for ICM program improvements isn’t just about numbers — it’s about influence, alignment, and storytelling. By clearly defining your goals, building the right stakeholder coalition, and tailoring your message to resonate with leadership priorities, compensation professionals can turn ICM from an operational burden into a strategic advantage. With the right approach and the right partners, you’ll not only gain the support you need, you’ll help drive real, measurable growth for the business.

‍

If you found this article helpful, you may also like our guide on How to Make a Business Case for an Incentive Compensation Management upgrade or our webinar, “2025 State of Incentive Compensation Management.”