This is part of our series covering the best of Dreamforce 2016. Click here to read more.
Last month, hundreds of sales leaders packed into a crowded conference hall to hear these six experts talk about sales metrics at Dreamforce 2016:
- Derek Grant, VP of Sales, SalesLoft (@derekgrant)
- Janet Jansen, Director of High-Velocity Sales, Paycor (@janetpjansen)
- Jason Jordan, Partner, Vantage Point Performance (@JasonRJordan)
- Doug Mantelli, Senior Vice President, Sales Development, Jackson National Life Distributors (@JacksonNational)
- Bob Marsh, CEO, LevelEleven (@bobmarsh5)
This session was full of so much valuable information that we had to share some of our favorite highlights. (You can watch the full broadcast here: “Making Sure ‘Metrics-Drive Sales’ Means More New Business.”)
5 sales leaders explain the best ways to use sales metrics
- “We think that if we give sales managers more data, they’ll make better decisions. The more complete the information is, the better they’ll manage. And it’s the exact opposite.” – Jason Jordan, Partner, Vantage Point Performance
- “So often, I find that these metrics that are determined for the sales team, the finance team figures them out in a conference room, puts them in a spreadsheet [and says] ‘Here’s what our plan’s going to be for next year, and here are the metrics we need to hit.’ And that’s where it stays.” – Bob Marsh, CEO, LevelEleven
- “We studied sales metrics and boiled it down to 300. And we just asked the question, ‘How manageable is this stuff?’ Right? Cause we’re asking the sales team to manage their sales forces, and what we found is that all the data falls into three levels of manageability.” – Jason Jordan, Partner, Vantage Point Performance
- “Business results are things like revenue growth [and] quota attainment. This is all the stuff we want. Not manageable. Right? If we could manage revenue, we’d have all the revenue we wanted.” – Jason Jordan, Partner, Vantage Point Performance
- “We label things like win rate as a sales objective. That’s what we want to do, and we do that in the service of getting more revenue.” – Jason Jordan, Partner, Vantage Point Performance
- “Get your salespeople thinking about what [they should be] focused on every day. [It’s] not burying it in a spreadsheet somewhere that they have to go open and decipher, not sticking it in a report that no one goes and looks at and has to figure out what it means — getting it right in their face every day. And salespeople tend to be thankful to have a guide in front of them that reminds them when they’re wasting their time.” – Bob Marsh, CEO, LevelEleven
- “Only 17 percent of the stuff we found people were collecting and reporting in their measurements was [sales activities]. Eighty-three percent is things they want to accomplish and things they want to ultimately get. And it just reinforces the message that activity management is so important.” – Jason Jordan, Partner, Vantage Point Performance
- “If you can just make it [performance data] visible, people will work to those numbers because they know how they’re tracking against them.” – Derek Grant, VP of Sales, SalesLoft
- “[Visible metrics] keep them focused on those very high-value activities. High velocity is about putting the warmest leads in front of the sellers so that they can then run the sales process … There’s just so much noise in the seller’s head all the time. And I don’t mean physical noise, but mental noise. Putting [the metrics] in front of them just allows them to consistently look at what those important high-value activities are.” – Janet Jansen, Director -of High Velocity Sales, Paycor
- “There’s so much complexity in sales … In the research that we’ve done, what we’ve seen is that if you can simplify it for the salespeople, they’re grateful.” – Jason Jordan, Partner, Vantage Point Performance
- “When it comes to metrics, it’s been very important to minimize what we’re looking at, and to communicate it to people in really powerful, impactful ways. With LevelEleven … our activity went up 30%.” – Doug Mantelli, Senior Vice President, Sales Development, Jackson National Life Distributors
We couldn’t have said it better. Sales metrics must be simple and visible for reps to embrace them. Don’t forget to check out our highlights of Dreamforce 2016 by clicking here.
