For sales leaders, the end of Q2 offers a pleasant opportunity to look back and reflect on your team’s accomplishments over the past six months. But you don’t want to bask in past successes too long, as the start of the second half of the year means new goals, new challenges, and new potential. In order to build a plan for success in Q3 and Q4, you’ll need to look at the daily activities and key performance indicators (KPI) that your team is presently focused on, and identify areas for improvement.
To help get you started, LevelEleven created a comprehensive KPI report featuring the most prominent metrics being used by successful sales managers. Here are a few key highlights from the report.
1. Unique KPIs by Industry
Out of all of the industries we studied, technology had the most unique set of KPIs with more than 50 percent difference compared to the other industries. This is likely due to the technology industry’s products and services, which often require longer conversations and more customer interactions. Some of the most notable KPIs outside of the technology industry include event bookings, bottles sold, and paperless policies. These KPIs are simply a glimpse into the many unique metrics in use throughout various industries.
2. Most Common KPIs by Industry
Wins was the most common lagging metric that we saw in top performing sales teams, while meetings scheduled and calls were the most common leading metrics. Progressing opportunities and creating opportunities tied for the fourth most common KPI. It is notable that these common metrics appear across all industries that we studied, reinforcing the idea that motivating your sales team towards key behaviors is the best method to achieve organizational success.
3. Most Common KPIs by Role
For this portion of our research, we looked at inside sales, field sales, hybrid sales, and account management. The majority of sales professionals had wins as the most common KPI, with meetings and opportunity progression close behind. But Account Managers were actually more focused on activities and progressing opportunities. The takeaway: although salespeople and Account Managers are often grouped together, their KPIs should be tailored to their position-specific goals in order to motivate the right behaviors.
“Adding sales metrics is healthy and should make sense to the reps that are using and tracking them. If they understand how the metrics help shape their behaviors and activities, they are more likely to embrace them.”
– Phil Brabbs, Managing Director, Torrent Consulting
4. Staying on track with your KPIs
Although the sales leaders involved in our study often use multiple time frames to monitor their KPIs, we collected data on which time frames were the most common. Notably, calls, meetings, and demos are usually measured weekly, while wins and progressing opportunities are most often measured monthly. Overall, monthly was the most common time frame for goals. It is important to remember that with Sales Management Systems, like LevelEleven, sales leaders and individual contributors are able to see real-time pacing towards their goals, regardless of the time period selected. This allows sales leaders to make course corrections in real-time instead of waiting for a custom report a month from now.
5. Setting up your KPI strategy
The KPIs that you employ to track and motivate your team’s performance should be uniquely applicable to job roles, industries, and the customer journey. It’s also important to choose just a few KPIs to focus on. Measuring too many things can result in data overload, which can cause your sales team and frontline managers to get lost in the day-to-day noise. To avoid this common pitfall, use the LevelEleven KPI Report to see what companies similar to yours are measuring, and decide what is best for your company.
To read this report and begin setting your KPI strategy for the remainder of 2018, download our Sales KPI Report. Also, be on the lookout for our new Sales Management Report, coming this August!
