Experts in ICM: Saxton Archer on Making Comp Work for Reps & the Business

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 Saxton Archer, Director of Sales Compensation at SOCi, to hear how he’s scaled incentive comp programs across organizations of all sizes — from early-stage startups to global companies like Twilio and Stripe. With a career spent in the trenches of sales comp, Saxton brings a grounded, pragmatic lens to building trust with sellers, making the case for change, and staying agile in unpredictable markets.

In this conversation, Saxton shares hard-won lessons about using comp to drive alignment and motivation—and why trust and transparency matter more than ever in today’s landscape.

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You’ve worked with a wide range of comp programs. What’s the first thing you assess when stepping into a new organization?

Trust is  the foundation of everything. You can have the most strategically sound compensation plan in the world, but if your sellers don’t trust how their earnings are being calculated — or worse, if they’ve been burned by errors in the past — that plan won’t be effective.

When I join a new company, that’s the first thing I evaluate: Where are we on the trust spectrum? Do reps feel confident in the process? Do they believe they’re being paid accurately and fairly? If not, that’s where I start. Because until you rebuild that trust, nothing else will stick.

How do you go about rebuilding that trust?

You have to earn it through clarity, consistency, and communication. At SOCi, we moved from a largely manual, spreadsheet-driven comp process to a system that gave reps daily visibility into their earnings. That shift — just being able to log in and see where they stand — made a huge difference in morale and retention.

I also lean on internal ambassadors. Every org has a few voices that carry weight within the sales team, and I make a point to build relationships with those folks early and bring them into the process. We all know sales reps talk amongst each other, and you can use that to your advantage with these ambassadors. If you can gain their trust, they’ll do a lot of the work for you.

Comp often gets treated as a back-office function. How do you get leadership to see it as a strategic lever?

Start by framing it in their language. Compensation is usually one of the biggest line items in a company’s budget, so leaders are already paying attention, even if they don’t fully understand the process.

When I joined SOCi, I knew we needed a new tool. I didn’t start with features – I started with the cost of inefficiency. I documented how long it took to run each cycle manually, the risk of errors, the opportunity cost for my team. Then I built a clear case for how automation would reduce noise, increase accuracy, and help us scale. That’s what got buy-in from the CFO and CRO.

You also have to sell the vision by asking: “What will this unlock for the business? What better decisions can we make if we’re not stuck chasing down payouts?”

You’ve worked under finance, HR, and RevOps. How does your org placement shape your approach?

It definitely influences the conversation. In RevOps, comp is often seen as a growth tool — but sometimes the focus is too short-term. In HR or finance, the perspective is broader, but there can be a tendency to treat comp as something to optimize or contain, rather than evolve.

No matter where you sit, your job is to bridge that gap. You need to understand the business strategy, speak to outcomes, and present ideas that resonate with multiple stakeholders. And above all, you have to be confident in your perspective. I always say that we’re salespeople, too. We have to sell the value of comp as a strategic function.

What signals do you look for to evaluate whether a plan is working?

I look at three things: attainment, morale, and spend.

If attainment is lagging, we dig in — are quotas off? Is the plan misaligned? If morale is low, that tells me something’s broken in either the design or the perception of the plan. And if we’re overspending without seeing performance gains, we may need to simplify or tighten the structure.

Sometimes it’s not the plan itself — it’s how we’re communicating it. A lot of friction can be avoided just by helping people understand how they’re paid, what’s expected of them, and how the comp plan connects to the company’s goals.

And finally, what advice would you give to someone trying to advocate for a new tool or process?

Don’t wait until things are on fire. Document your current state, quantify the pain, and understand the cost of staying where you are. What could you be doing instead?

Also, build your internal network. If you don’t know how to navigate those conversations yet, reach out to someone who’s done it before. This community is incredibly supportive — and the more you learn to frame comp in strategic terms, the easier it gets to secure buy-in.

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