The Challenge
Before implementing Everstage, Notion faced significant challenges with their sales commission management process. As a rapidly growing SaaS company, Notion needed a commission system that could match their pace of growth and innovation.
The company's commission process was entirely manual, pieced together through spreadsheets that required constant updates and oversight. Brian, who leads Global Sales Compensation at Notion, found himself spending countless hours on tedious calculations, fielding endless questions from sales representatives, and manually validating and distributing compensation plans one by one. This approach wasn't just inefficient; it was unsustainable for a company experiencing rapid expansion.
For his team, managing commissions felt like a downstream afterthought, a necessary but thankless task that consumed resources without providing strategic value. As Notion's sales team continued to grow, the limitations of the manual approach became increasingly apparent. The organization needed a foundation that could scale with their ambitions—a solution that would provide transparency, reduce administrative burden, and give RevOps genuine control over the commission process.
The Solution
Building the Right Foundation Through Partnership
When evaluating incentive compensation management solutions, Notion had plenty of options to choose from. While many platforms could technically handle basic commission calculations, Everstage stood out for a critical reason- partnership. The Everstage team understood that Notion needed more than just software, they needed a partner who could grow alongside them and support their unique scaling challenges.
Crystal Commission Forecasting
Beyond basic commission tracking, Everstage's Crystal feature unlocked new capabilities for both individual contributors and managers. Sales representatives could now forecast their potential earnings and understand the upside available to them throughout the quarter. This gamification element provided clarity on what additional effort could yield, encouraging reps to push harder toward their goals with full visibility into their trustable attainment.
AI-Driven Intelligence and Automation
When compared to the other vendors in the space, Everstage emerged as a leader in AI capabilities. Its assistive agents would reduce repetitive work, streamline data management, and make everyday tasks effortless while the prescriptive agents would provide recommendations, insights, and automated actions that drive better decision-making. This will further enhance the existing automation and transparency benefits, helping Notion continue to scale globally with even greater efficiency.
The Results
Achieving Scale without the Administrative Burden
This dramatic reduction in repetitive administrative work through automation allowed the compensation team to focus on strategic initiatives rather than tactical execution. Brian was able to scale the commission management function from 80 payees to 350 payees while maintaining a lean team structure. This 4x growth in complexity was managed without proportional increases in headcount.
Excitement Among the Sales Teams
The sales team's response to Everstage was overwhelmingly positive. Instant commission updates fundamentally changed how sales reps engaged with their compensation, transforming it from a backward-looking reconciliation to a forward-looking motivator.
The excitement was palpable during the implementation. Brian recalls representatives expressing genuine enthusiasm about finally having the ability to track their progress in real time, understand their quota attainment, and see the direct connection between their efforts and compensation.
Reduction in Queries
The platform's commission trace feature provided complete transparency into how commissions are calculated, addressing one of the most significant pain points from the manual system. Sales representatives gained access to their commission data as opportunities progressed, allowing them to understand exactly where they stood against their quotas throughout the quarter and not just at the end.
Insights for Leadership
Everstage transformed how leadership viewed commissions data while giving RevOps the control it needed. Leadership could now make informed decisions based on current data, identify trends as they emerged, and adjust strategies mid-quarter rather than waiting for post-mortem analysis.
In particular, Notion's global head of sales got real-time visibility into regional performance, team attainment, and commission payout projections- enabling proactive interventions rather than reactive adjustments, giving the teams real-time insights needed to perform at their best. They could see where teams were trending, identify performance gaps early, and provide targeted coaching before the quarter ended.
