Salesforce Acquires Spiff to Improve Compensation Planning

Salesforce is set to acquire incentive compensation management software Spiff.

The deal, announced Tuesday (Dec. 19), will make Spiff part of Salesforce’s Sales Cloud to improve the company’s sales performance management solutions.

“CROs and financial leaders know the importance of compensation in driving rep behavior. The challenge these leaders face is in how to align these compensation plans to desired outcomes — all while navigating data across siloed-point solutions,” Ketan Karkhanis, Sales Cloud’s general manager, said in a news release.

“Spiff connects what sellers want — transparent compensation — with what sales leaders want — compensation planning built into CRM [customer relationship management] that aligns behaviors to strategic outcomes,” he added.

The company said it has worked with Spiff for years, with more than 70% of Spiff customers using Sales Cloud. Spiff’s staff will join Salesforce upon closing of the sale, which is expected to occur in the first quarter of Salesforce’s fiscal year 2025. The company did not provide financial details.

PYMNTS examined the way companies are increasingly seeing the significance of demonstrating transparency in their compensation practices in an interview earlier this year with Milan Parikh, chief financial officer at Syndio, as part of “The One Thing” executive series.

“Businesses want to know, how do they show their commitment to the board, to their employees, to their shareholders, around maintaining fair and equitable compensation practices,” Parikh said.“Historically companies have had a limited choice as it relates to establishing a pay equity program, typically outsourcing the process to consultants, lawyers and third-party experts.”

However, what companies get in that scenario is often a “black box, static answer,” he added. “You get the answer, you fix the symptom, but you don’t get any insights and learnings.”

Parikh told PYMNTS that companies need to leverage technology and digital solutions that can provide ongoing insights to fix equity disparities.

“This is fundamentally the right thing to do, because a company’s greatest asset is its employee base, and companies should be focused on taking care of their employees,” he said. “And now, more and more companies are willing to approach pay equity through the lens of a tech stack.”

Salesforce’s new acquisition comes three weeks after the company expanded its partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The new agreement makes it easier for customers to manage their data across Salesforce and AWS, and incorporate the latest generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into their applications and workflows.