How can you measure the effectiveness of your sales team? What should you measure? How important is it that you measure it? I guess the answers are mostly, "Not sure", "Not sure" and "Very"! And although the second might be more specific, are the specifics quoted the right ones?
A survey of Sales Directors in 2008 showed 'measuring sales team effectiveness' to be their number two priority, which seems to justify my claim of 'very' as the third answer. So what was their number one priority?
That was 'increasing revenue' which possibly implies a disconnection between sales and marketing as 'increasing gross profits' would have been mine!
But coming back to measuring the effectiveness of the overall sales function, we need to consider whether working harder or smarter is the better strategy. On top of this we need to decide whether sales is an art or a science.
What areas and functions may be easiest to measure and then improve?
How can you measure the effectiveness of your sales team? What should you measure? How important is it that you measure it?
Sales is an art, and not a science
Unsurprisingly, the general opinion is that smarter is better than harder. The expression 'busy fools' came up quite a lot, apparently. Also we need to recognise that sales is an art, and not a science, as things that work once may not work every time when repeated. But having said that, sales is a highly 'teachable' art, where practitioners get better with practice, and where coached and mentored practice is more effective than unsupervised repetition.
This leads on to the idea that there is no single 'magic pill' that will cure all ills. Smarter will mean making smaller improvements across many areas, so what are the easiest for the Sales Manager or Sales Director to measure and then positively influence?
Lead Generation
This is essentially a Marketing activity, so the sales team shouldn't be being asked to do it all. But neither should their performance be judged acceptable if they do none of it, and recognise that when they do so they will be wearing their 'marketing' hat!
In generating leads, the emphasis must be on quality rather than sheer quantity. There must be better, earlier filtering of 'no hopers' and 'time wasters', with self-disqualification being particularly effective. Marketing have a big responsibility not to attract rubbish in the first place! The Marketing function should also be providing all who wear a 'marketing hat' with one or two simple differentiator/qualifier questions to further eliminate, at the time of first contact, those who will waste valuable resources.
Sales is a highly 'teachable' art. Practitioners get better with practice. Coached and mentored practice is more effective than unsupervised repetition.
Background Research
When following up a sales lead, before first human contact, there is a lot that can be done to research the prospect and thus colour the form of the response. The internet provides a wealth of free information and a lot more at very moderate cost. This is an insignificant investment when compared to the time and effort wasted on enquiry follow-ups that should have been seen as hopeless from the start. Therefore it is a crime not to make use of it.
The sales team can be given simple, efficient tools to access this information, and be motivated to do so. The lead generating function could even do this for them and supply the results with the lead.
Qualify and Prioritise
This continues the theme of the first two points. If you're going to lose, lose early! Don't waste time on no-hopers. Unsurprisingly (but not always commonly seen) weeding out a list before you start working on it will improve your conversion ratio! Qualification should become a habit.
These thoughts apply too when following up a lead. Building a relationship, building rapport and trust, and getting commitments at every step is in itself a filtering process.
When following up a sales lead, research the prospect. This is an insignificant investment compared to time wasted on no hopers.
Cross-Sell and Up-Sell
This should be a 'no brainer' but is it always thus? Getting people to buy more is one of the only three ways of growing sales, gross profits and your business, so again it should be a habit, shouldn't it?
Oddly enough, this appears to be more of a problem in businesses with large product ranges. It is reported that product training doesn't seem to be as effective as you might imagine, but I could find no information on how well the training was constructed or delivered! Most effective is the sharing of what works. So many internal sales meetings seem to focus on what went wrong, and skim over what went right! The balance should be the other way round, but never lose sight of the fact that one size doesn't fit all. The answer is to adapt and adopt, test and measure.
Get More From Existing Customers
I won't even bother with the cliché! Suffice it to say that Account Planning and regular communication is a good idea, but don't plan for planning's sake. Only do it if, and only do it in a way that, you can demonstrate it is helping. Despite the cliché, you need to have a balance between first time and repeat business, and you should keep this balance under review.
Many internal sales meetings seem to focus on what went wrong, and skim over what went right! The balance should be the other way round
Calling all UK-based businesses. Discover how to get your FREE Sales and Marketing coaching taster call.
