For a long time now, sales coaches have focused on making the perfect choice when it comes to the methodology of ramping up the productivity of their sales reps. While a robust methodology still is very important, sales enablement coaches today also have an array of diverse tools and systems at their disposal to base their coaching programs on relevant and accurate data.
Gone are the days where sales managers and enablement leaders can rely on a ‘one-size-that-fits-all’ coaching program. The key to ensuring a better productivity rate among your sales reps is to have a program, backed by performance data that makes it more personalized and fitting to their need.
Why do metrics matter?
Without a set of clear, baseline metrics, there isn’t a good answer to why a lot of coaching approaches fail to achieve better sales readiness among reps. It’s critical to have visible goalposts that can guide salespeople through the sales process. Furthermore, discussing approaches that are backed by data gives these programs much-needed transparency. Sales enablement leaders and managers can approach the development of sales coaching programs knowing reps will clearly understand the performance expectations.
Now that we have established why performance metrics play a key role in sales coaching, the next obvious question that is left to be addressed is – what metrics can be used to take a more strategic approach in helping your team win more deals?
To answer this, we have highlighted 5 key performance metrics which you would want to evaluate
- Conversion Rate:
When tracked over time, this key metric can measure how well your sales team turns leads into new customers and it can improve the overall quality of leads by aligning the sales and marketing teams. Monitoring conversion rates over time, and the characteristics of those leads, ensures that your company focuses on selling to relevant buyers and continues to grow. Keeping an eye on a reps’ conversion rate throughout the sales cycle can give sharp insights into where the sales rep is falling behind. For instance, if someone’s conversion rate is lagging between qualification and proposal accepted, you can work with the salesperson to develop proposal writing and presentation skills.
2. Sales Cycle Length:
The sales cycle length is the amount of time it takes prospects to become customers. By studying how long it takes them to get through your pipeline you can better monitor salespeople and their abilities to reach quotas. Furthermore, regularly monitoring sales cycle length data can lead to the identification of new bottlenecks and deals that won’t happen thus, automatically leading towards opportunities of speeding up the cycle.
3. Pipeline Staging:
This gives an insight into at how much the sales reps have in their pipeline and what opportunities are coming up in their schedule. Making sure that reps have enough in their pipeline and that they’re not letting any opportunities be overlooked will make sure that they’re taking advantage of every chance to close a deal.
4. Demo complete rates:
This measures the number of demos completed as a percentage of demos scheduled. It's a top-of-the-funnel metric that is commonly measured to make sure that they are setting quality demos.
5. Upsell and Cross-sell rates:
By tracking the upsell and cross-sell numbers you can pinpoint which verticals are doing well and responding to certain sales strategies or pitches. The key is to look at when, how, what, and to whom the reps are upselling or cross-selling and to adjust the coaching program accordingly.
Along with the 5 metrics discussed above, another key aspect of sales coaching is continuous training. Organizations that commit to a culture of continuous learning tend to see the results from their efforts. In fact, according to MindTickle, best-in-class companies that enlist a training plan see their sales reps reach higher quotas by 31%, with a 10% increase in yearly corporate revenue.
Your new approach to sales coaching with Master-O
When it comes to tracking metrics and ensuring an engaging learning experience for sales reps, organizations in today’s times have sales readiness platforms in place. Master-O is one such platform.
Master-O is a sales enablement & readiness platform, which has aided several sales enablement programs for enterprise customers. The platform is a key driver of sales strategies for many industry leaders across industries and empowers the field force with the right tools and information they require for having compelling sales coaching conversations that lead to higher conversions and customer lifetime values. To make the learning experience more personalized, Master-O helps managers tap into various data points and analyses. This gives leaders and managers the much-required objective perspective to reimagine their coaching approach and realign with the performance goals of the reps.
To learn more about Master-O along with microlearning and enablement in the flow of work, please visit masteroapp.com or schedule a demo to discover how Master-O can redefine sales enablement for your organization.