By this point, you know what a sales KPI is.
(Still not sure? Go read this article right now).
Understanding sales KPIs is the easy part. The hard part is effectively putting them into action to increase sales performance on your team.
That’s why three experts sat down with us during our Modern Sales Leader Roadshow event in Chicago to discuss how they build KPI strategies that accelerate sales wins.
In the session, we heard from:
- Alex Stepien, President of Cappex.com (@astep313)
- Michael Cox, Vice President of Fleetmatics (@coxmichaelk)
- Chuck Loeher, VP of Outside Sales for G/O Digital (@godigitalmktg)
Following are the highlights. Take a look, and then download the full session for the rest of their value-packed advice.
15 Sales KPI Strategy Tips From 3 Experts
- “Sales metrics have to align with the executive team’s approach. If your sales organization is reporting in subscribers or closing, but your executive team is talking about total contract value, then you have a misalignment there.” – Michael Cox, Vice President of Fleetmatics
- “The definition [of KPIs] is extremely important. When I joined [at G/O Digital], if you asked someone what a conversation was, it could be everything from ‘I sent them a smoke signal’ to ‘I got an email response’ to ‘I sent them a LinkedIn request and someone accepted it.’” – Chuck Loeher, VP of Outside Sales for G/O Digital
- “Being a Salesforce-heavy shop, we’re inundated with data, with KPIs, with sub-KPIs and otherwise. And it’s really just a matter of marrying the art with the science in terms of making sure you’re in touch with what’s going on on the ground, whether it’s a ride along, or listening to a call or a call recording — staying in touch with what’s happening in terms of those conversations.” – Alex Stepien, President of Cappex.com
- “We looked [at the data] and said, a phone call that lasts over four minutes almost uniformly — through regression analysis — leads to a demo appointment scheduled. It’s a pre-indicator, but the correlation was so high that it became a meaningful KPI.” – Michael Cox, Vice President of Fleetmatics
- “While, at the end of the day there may be these big rocks that are not going to fundamentally change, one thing we definitely focus on doing is simplifying what the individual is looking to drive, because if everything’s important, nothing’s important to them.” – Alex Stepien, President of Cappex.com
- “When I can say ‘We scheduled this many demos on this day,’ and I know three weeks from now, it’s going to yield this many deals with this many subscribers — that’s when I’ll think our KPIs are pretty well aligned, and we’re measuring the right things.“ – Michael Cox, Vice President of Fleetmatics
- “[KPIs in the onboarding process] allow you to be much more profitable as an organization, because think about that cost of turnover in all organizations. If it’s going to happen, let’s have it be earlier. And if a tool can help you identify these people 30-60 days earlier, that amounts to millions of dollars in revenue.” – Chuck Loeher, VP of Outside Sales for G/O Digital
- “At least, with these leading indicators… I know that [reps are] putting in the effort. And if you’re putting in the effort, the math is there. You will have some success and we can build those calls into conversations.” – Michael Cox, Vice President of Fleetmatics
- “[Onboarding KPIs] bring clarity to new reps, who obviously are coming in to a new environment, new manager, new process, new product, etc. to really understand ‘Ok, I’m on the path to ramp successfully, and if I follow these leading indicators, I’m going to develop the right skills, right habits to be successful.’ ” – Alex Stepien, President of Cappex.com
- “When we put a contest out there, and when we put visibility out there, reps will do what you pay them for. And now we’ve made it easy to see where they are, and we’re seeing the behaviors follow.” – Michael Cox, Vice President of Fleetmatics
- “It’s our jobs, as sales leaders, to let people know how they’re doing every single day.” – Chuck Loeher, VP of Outside Sales for G/O Digital
- “We understand how much we’re [putting] in the cash register every time we pick up the phone, and we can translate that into a commission percentage. So if we’re talking in an individual conversation with a rep, and we’re focused on calls, for instance. To put it in quantifiable terms that looks like $7 in your pocket every time you pick up the phone. And you’re behind 30 calls a week, that’s $200 a week you could be earning.” – Alex Stepien, President of Cappex.com
- “That’s the problem with commission structures, of course, is that you’re really rewarding the outcomes, as opposed to the behaviors.” – Alex Stepien, President of Cappex.com
- “We compare our KPIs in three ways: month against prior month… month against the same month one year prior…month against prior year’s average. As we just finished February, we’re looking at February versus January. We’re looking at February of 2015, and we’re looking at 2015 average month within each KPI segment and team.” – Michael Cox, Vice President of Fleetmatics
- “You get so inundated with these things that after a while it just becomes white noise, and so I think you need something on a day-to-day basis to let you know how you’re progressing.” – Chuck Loeher, VP of Outside Sales for G/O Digital
