Not long ago, the phone rang in Luis Gonzalez’s office. The caller, who was from a cannabis company, found SalesScoreKeeper through a bit of internet research and was interested in Gonzalez’s sales commission processing tools. The prospect quickly rattled off what was needed from the platform.
“We can do all of that,” Gonzalez replied, to which the prospect uttered, “Yes, we know you can.”
Thus, it seems that good news, on occasion, can travel faster than bad. While Gonzalez admits that the SalesScoreKeeper portfolio can be a valued source for sales compensation, reporting and motivation solutions across a multitude of industries, it was conceived and designed around the office technology dealership space.
Gonzalez has spent his entire career in the segment, having owned MOS Imaging Systems in Florida for more than 20 years before he sold it to Sharp. He then spent five years with the OEM, ascending to the role of senior vice president before developing the vision for a cloud-based software that would enable dealers to abandon clunky and problematic spreadsheets. But this isn’t merely software; SalesScoreKeeper’s portfolio is really designed around creating efficiencies and automation in the workplace.
Laying Foundation
“I’d developed a number of relationships through my dealership, but once I became an SVP for Sharp, I traveled the country and visited dealers constantly,” he noted. “The concept was always in the back of my mind. I got to see how other dealers handled commissions and reporting. When I went down the road of developing SalesScoreKeeper, I spoke to a handful of dealers and industry consultants to ask them what they thought. To a person, they felt it was a great idea, but no one believed it could be done because of the complexity.”
Gonzalez knew he could assemble a crackerjack team to make his vision a reality. In addition to the dealership, he had also sold Sharp a software development company that was eventually disbanded several months after Gonzalez departed. He reassembled a team consisting of developers, controllers, project managers and business systems analysts—all boasting a wealth of industry-based knowledge and expertise. In about a year, Gonzalez was ready to onboard his first client.
Nearly nine years later, SalesScoreKeeper’s client roster has grown to include a who’s who of industry heavyweights. Still, Gonzalez believes the Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based company could triple its current customer registry and still have ample room for growth.
Even with the pandemic, the company has been firing on all cylinders. In 2019, the company enjoyed a quick start and a strong finish, and the first quarter of 2020 saw SalesScoreKeeper “crushing the numbers,” according to Gonzalez. The firm added integrations with Salesforce and a number of major ERPs—FORZA, Compass and AgentDealer, among others. Word of mouth has led to exponential growth.
“The best is yet to come for us,” he said. “Even though what we do is built around commissions, what we really do is create efficiencies and automations in the workplace. We do a lot of sales reporting and some things with leasing, but that just scratches the surface. Our clients are super happy with the product, and we’ve had zero falloff during the pandemic because it’s allowed them to work from home and continue being efficient.
“Many of our prospects are looking to do more with less. We simplify the process, which is quite complex because it’s unstructured. It’s usually done in spreadsheets, where there’s no database behind it, and that is cumbersome and bulky to work with. Our tools streamline that and create efficiencies that help people work smarter, better and faster.”
SalesScoreKeeper’s product arsenal consists of three main tools:
ScoreKeeper—This is the primary sales commission tool, which takes data from an ERP, CPQ or CRM, for example, and creates a commission record. The software provides commission functions including multi-level quota tracking, a ramp quota tool, draw tracking and commission change tracking with notifications. Its reporting function provides accurate, real-time information on all sales reps, teams, transactions and commissions.
This platform wasn’t developed inside of a bubble; we’ve been out in the field, learning what our clients need. That’s enabled us to deliver a successful product.
– Luis Gonzalez, SalesScoreKeeper
To facilitate commission payouts, ScoreKeeper offers breakdowns for transaction-level payouts, transaction splits, a commission adjustment tool, bonus override payouts and recurring commission processing. The tool also allows users to track and manage commissions for promotions and contests.
ScoreKeeper also brings business process automation to commission management, automating tedious manual tasks while eliminating human error and increasing operational efficiency. The tool is customized to calculate commissions according to the dealer’s comp plan, regardless of its complexity.
ScoreSheets—An add-on to ScoreKeeper, ScoreSheets is a robust, flexible and dynamic reporting tool. It handles the entire workflow of sales reporting, from data collection to data processing and delivery, without manual intervention. Users can create a stack ranking or create any report type of their choosing with filtering and sorting capabilities. ScoreSheets gleans the data from ScoreKeeper, and once the reports are set up at the onset, the system automatically generates the reports and delivers them based upon a chosen frequency.
ScoreBoard—Having worked with Sharp, Gonzalez was well versed with its AV solutions. He saw the value in offering a dynamic board that tracks the performance of sales reps and showcases them in a bullpen-type setting on a monitor. The tool is designed to “recognize the best and motivate the rest” via a scoreboard concept that socializes the sales performance of individual reps and teams within an organization.
The ScoreBoard provides dynamic content that can contain a news ticker, Twitter feed and various company information. But the heart of the ScoreBoard is sales rep performance information, which is displayed via a player card system—much like the statistical information shown on the back of a baseball card. ScoreKeeper feeds the data into ScoreBoard, which can create power (stack) rankings, and Gonzalez’s team is adding different wrinkles to what can be displayed. Reps, like athletes, feed off the competitive nature of their work, and showcasing performance motivates them to either continue performing at a higher level or to raise their game.
Net-New Solution
It’s not so much that Gonzalez has built a better mousetrap; rather, he has created a solution that, at least in the office dealer space, did not really exist. Feedback has been critical for Gonzalez and Co. to massage and adjust the product offering.
“Our competitor is the spreadsheet: 99% of the clients we’ve obtained were handling commissions that way,” he said. “That’s an easy competitor to defeat, because spreadsheets are error prone and fragmented, with no database behind it.
“We have incredible data for our clients. We do a fantastic job on all different types of quotas, and we can pay out on recurring commissions, which is becoming a big shift for MPS and MNS. I’m proud to say we have been client-driven to solve solutions. This platform wasn’t developed inside of a bubble; we’ve been out in the field, learning what our clients need. That’s enabled us to deliver a successful product.”
In addition to growth within the dealer channel, Gonzalez someday hopes to make use of the mounds and mounds of data at the company’s fingertips to help benefit clients. For now, most of his efforts have been funneled into helping set up his clients with the toolsets (“The last six months I’ve worked harder than ever,” he observed), although he has leveraged data internally for bigger clients, such as the Sharp Business Systems direct operations.
SalesScoreKeeper is also ramping up its marketing efforts. Word of mouth/positive referrals have enabled the company to develop a strong base, but Gonzalez believes he’s just scratching the surface. He hopes to increase visibility to augment show exposure at events such as ITEX and Sharp conferences.
The message behind the value offered by SalesScoreKeeper resonates now perhaps more than ever, as dealers look to get more granular information when making difficult decisions regarding staffing. “It goes back to everyone needing to learn how to automate,” Gonzalez said. “Some of our clients have told us they need to become more efficient, because they’re anticipating lower sales and profits down the road. That’s become very important during this time.”
Looking ahead, Gonzalez wants to strengthen and expand the integrations between ERPs and SalesScoreKeeper, and he isn’t ruling out the possibility of mobile-type products in the future. ScoreBoard could be expanded to tap into ERPs for technician or company information.
About 5% of clients are outside the office dealer realm; a company specializing in wheelchairs was recently onboarded, but Gonzalez’s heart and determination are geared toward the industry to which he’s dedicated his life.
“We realize our industry has been very good to us, and I believe it will provide us a future with limitless potential,” he said.
