Sales commissions and incentive compensation
Asked as “sales commission management platform”, and as “incentive compensation management tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B software company. 51 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, six models each.
01The standing
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all six models, for a mid-market B2B software company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
Show the five products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Recommended versus criticized
Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.
Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
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04
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06
07
08
09
10
11
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13Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Everstage25%
Everstage25%02CaptivateIQ24%
CaptivateIQ24%03Qobra18%
Qobra18%04Commissionly14%
Commissionly14%05Sales Cookie8%
Sales Cookie8%06QuotaPath4%
QuotaPath4%07Performio4%
Performio4%08Visdum2%
Visdum2%09Salesforce Spiff0%
Salesforce Spiff0%10Centify0%
Centify0%11Xactly Incent0%
Xactly Incent0%12Varicent0%
Varicent0%13Xactly0%
Xactly0%02What they warned about
A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Salesforce Spiff23%
11 of 47 labels negative · 8 of 6 models · 2 hard negative
“Salesforce used as a commission engine is specifically called out as a poor fit for complex commission calculation” Perplexity Sonar, negative prompt
CaptivateIQ18%
10 of 57 labels negative · 7 of 6 models · 4 hard negative
“**Avoid enterprise platforms** like Xactly, SAP Commissions, CaptivateIQ” Perplexity Sonar, budget prompt
Xactly59%
13 of 22 labels negative · 7 of 6 models · 2 hard negative
“High Caution**... **Best avoided by**: Mid-market companies, teams without dedicated compensation analysts” Kimi K2, negative prompt
SAP Commissions71%
5 of 7 labels negative · 5 of 6 models · 2 hard negative
“**Best avoided by**: Non-SAP shops, smaller organizations, teams wanting quick implementation” Kimi K2, negative prompt
03What they cite
Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: four of the six in this edition.
Sites the answers cite
23 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 4 of 6 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 199 links across 67 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page. The other 2 models searched through a gateway that returned no source list on this edition.
vendor site · Qobra11 answers · 25 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Everstage11 answers · 23 citations · 3 models
vendor site · CaptivateIQ10 answers · 17 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Visdum7 answers · 11 citations · 3 models
vendor site · Guideflow7 answers · 9 citations · 2 models
6 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
6 answers · 6 citations · 2 models
vendor site · QuotaPath5 answers · 8 citations · 2 models
vendor site · Forma.ai5 answers · 7 citations · 2 models
5 answers · 5 citations · 3 models
4 answers · 4 citations · 2 models
4 answers · 4 citations · 3 models
Pages the answers cite
The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.
9 answers · 2 models
8 answers · 2 models
6 answers · 2 models
6 answers · 2 models
4 answers · 1 model
4 answers · 3 models
4 answers · 2 models
4 answers · 2 models
4 answers · 2 models
4 answers · 1 model
04How they answered
Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best sales commission management platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which incentive compensation management tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top sales commission management platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best sales commission management platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating a sales commission management platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which sales commission management platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Opus 5no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Claude Opus 4.8no first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
GPT-6 Astrano first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
GPT-5.6 Solno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.1 Prono first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Perplexity Sonar Prono first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choiceno first choicenothing named
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against
05The record
One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Zero rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
| Prompt | Model | Version string | Time (UTC) | Searched | Sources | Latency |
|---|
Normalization in this category
Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.
Category-scoped readings
Salesforce read as Salesforce Spiff
Unresolved, counted raw
Access Commissions
AppExchange "Lite" Apps
Commissions.com
CompLogix
Google Sheets + Add-ons
Google Sheets / Microsoft Excel
Google Sheets/Airtable Free Tier
Javelin Sales Compensation
Kellney Group / Varicent (now part of Pectel)
Microsoft Dynamics/D365 Compensation
Oracle
Paylocity
SAP SFIM
Salesforce Revenue Cloud / CPQ (Native)
Vedain
Veeva CRM Commission Management
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.