Comments on: Makana Motivator for Free!

By: Julien Dionne

Julien Dionne — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:24:00 +0000

I reviewed the Makana Motivator in August. This may provide a bit more insight into what Motivator is about:

http://compensationexpert.blogspot.com/2008/04/sales-compensation-planning-made-easy.html

By: Julien Dionne

Julien Dionne — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:23:00 +0000

Hi Nigel,

Thanks for the question... here is what I think.

Unlike Callidus Plan Communicator, Makana Motivator only creates plan templates. It does not have functionality to distribute and get approval (at least it did not in the version I have seen a few months ago).

I have never seen Plan Communicator before and I don't know if it provides the same level of guidance as Motivator does. Someone new to sales comp would be able to use Motivator to quickly create plans following best practices and a step-by-step approach.

Also, I don't think that Motivator offers TrueTarget functionalities (mapping behaviors to actions, and corporate objectives).

Motivator is a standalone application and does not require SalesForce.com. It also does not require an SPM solution.

I would say Motivator probably (generally) caters for smaller businesses (less than 200 payees), with limited experience in Sales Performance Management, and with no incentive compensation solution.

By: Nigel Walsh

Nigel Walsh — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 06:41:00 +0000

Julien, in your view - how does something like this fit into the wider enterprise incentive world, how could the game plan feed into any of the tools out there for processing comp. Looks like it could be a mashup of our TrueTarget and PlanCommunicator??

By: Arthur Gehring

Arthur Gehring — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 17:22:00 +0000

Why is Makana Solutions giving away Motivator for free?

You are all probably wondering why we would do this? Well it has to do with our company mission of helping companies get more value out of their sales comp investment. And also one of the most common pitfalls our sales compensation experts see is starting the process too late. We recognize the many hats you wear in your roles – so the Get a GamePlan program is designed to provide you some incentive and guidance on how to get started earlier – read more...