The Metric System Is Broken, Sales Metric That Is...
Measuring the success of sales reps. Sales reps should be measured based on the quality of the opportunities they bring to the table, not the KPI’s they log into a computer.
Measuring success is always challenging for sales leaders. You could fill a library with all the sales books written about how to manage and measure your sales team, and many of them contain really great ideas on what metrics to use, what tools to use for tracking said metrics, and how to interpret the numbers.
Typical tracking revolves around these metrics:
Revenue - One of the most basic and telling numbers, and really, the only one that matters at the end of the day.
Outreach Activities - This is usually made up of a subset of indicators including calls, emails, meetings, proposals or quotes sent, number of engaged prospects, companies contacted - any activity that generates new leads or moves people through the pipeline.
Bookings - These are commitments given by the customer prior to a formal contract signing or purchase order. These commitments can be in the form of a written document with conceptual agreements, terms, and conditions, an email, or in the good old days, a handshake.
There is one metric that I personally think gets overlooked because it’s difficult to quantify. It doesn’t always provide the hard numbers that accountants like to fawn over, nor does it provide the C-level with a measurable KPI like a call or an email. So what am I talking about? I’m talking about Qualified Opportunities.
Qualified Opportunities are a significantly more accurate representation of sales efforts, especially over the typical KPIs. Qualified Opportunities are defined as a sales prospect that has a defined need or problem that aligns with the product or solution your company provides, and has met an ideal criteria set (market type, employee count, revenue, geographic location, funding stage, or other stats that put them at the center of your target market).
Measuring the quality of your opportunities can help to paint a more complete picture of the efforts of your sales team. It’s an indication that the right types of calls, meetings, and other outreach are being done, and that your pipeline is being filled with quality, not meaningless quantity.