LeapComp - Sales Performance Management Blog

Last November, I briefly talked about the newly released Makana Motivator Pro. Motivator Pro is an on-demand Sales Performance Management application which like Motivator Express helps with the design of compensation plans, but which also offers new payment and reporting modules. Unlike most SPM solutions, Motivator Pro is a self-serve solution (no additional implementation costs) designed for companies with a sales force with less than 100 payees.

I reviewed the planning features of Motivator (now called Motivator Express) already, so I will focus on reviewing the features that are new with Motivator Pro in this post.

Once logged in the administration interface, it is easy to see at a glance how to get started. We see 4 items in the top menu; Home, Planning, Payment, and Setup. The dashboard consists of 3 options; Take the Tour, Launch Plan Wizard, and Join Your Peers.

Planning
Creating a new plan using the step-by-step wizard is simple and straightforward. First, you select a category of positions which Motivator calls a job role. This will be the title of the plan document.

Step number 2 consists of specifying the target pay at 100% and the base salary. As with Motivator Express, some planning tips are provided during the configuration. Similarly, goals are defined in step 3 and goal payments are defined in step 4.

The design of the plans is very similar to how planning was performed in Makana Motivator Express. A green star in their top left corner indicates if the plans are in “production”.

Building the organization and hierarchy is done through the “Build Your Org” tab. Payee information can be uploaded, or created via the user interface.

Cost modeling is also straightforward. Projected payout is based on a percentage of historical attainment. and attainment assumptions can be changed globally, at the participant level, and even for each goal for an individual Projections are automatically rolled up to show total sales and incentive costs.

Many useful graphs can show information such as the quota attainment distribution.

Payment
The “Your Plans” tab in the Payment section displays all the plans currently designed. Each of the plan sections can be expanded to display more information (Measures, Formulas, and Payouts). The dates for which a plan is effective is displayed at the bottom of the plan. Once the plans are designed and ready to be used, it’s time to visit the “Assign Credit” tab and to import the orders. This is done via a simple file upload and the credits are automatically assigned based on the rules created during the planning phase. With another click, you can calculate the incentive payments for those credit assignments

Once payments are calculated, reports are automatically generated. These reports can be downloaded in an Excel or PDF format.

A web portal will also be available by the end of January, where payees will login and view their personal performance, their team’s performance, their ranking, and detailed reports on a dashboard.

The “Pro” in Motivator is a great addition which will benefit existing and new Makana customers alike. The main question, I was hoping to answer as a result of the demo was, is that solution really simple and intuitive enough for self-service. I think I can safely answer that yes it is, but it will take a bit of practice if the administrator is new to the comp world. However, the wizard and the online help, as well as the detailed “tips” displayed throughout the configuration should make it very quick to learn. Priced at $29 per month per payee with no implementation fee, this could be the right solution to finally replace those inaccurate spreadsheets and ineffective compensation plans.

For more information, click here to take a quick tour.