If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Manage It!!

Throughout my sales career, my Managers would constantly focus on the ‘number’, with many of them becoming ‘spreadsheet jockeys’ and not spending nearly enough time on the coaching and development of their people. Their focus was purely on getting the end result and their regular comment was ‘I can’t manage what I can’t measure’. Often I would become frustrated at this micro management, particularly when they would simply choose to focus on the end result, and not the measures that would ultimately deliver the end result.

I vowed that when I became a Sales Manager, not only would I focus on delivering outcomes for the business, I would also focus on identifying the measures that would lead to success, measure progress against them and ensure that my team and the individuals in it were on the same page. Back then, all the emphasis was on the end result, and often senior leaders had no interest in the status of opportunities, what strategies had to be developed, implemented and measured. They were simply interested in whether or not you delivered on the final number. You could in fact develop and implement a flawed strategy that could impact long term customer relationships, but as long as you delivered the short term sales result, all good.

This is no longer the case, because success in an ever increasing competitive landscape is now more than ever about strong and authentic relationships, and these relationships will deliver longer term, sustainable success. Today, more than ever, your personal reputation and that of your company or product, is critical and this means that a great deal more planning and strategic thinking needs to go into your approach. And whilst at its fundamental level, sales is still a numbers game, the successful sales teams have really contemplated the activities that must be implemented with purpose, in order to deliver the outcome. And this is where the old adage ‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it’ comes into it.

The only difference now being that there are significantly more activities and indicators to measure that will point to you and your sales team being successful. It is no longer just about looking at the end result or the bottom line. As a sales leader, there are so many activities you can now measure, which will make it much easier to lead and manage your team, without becoming a ‘micro-Manager’. Here are 8 suggestions on what you can measure within your team. It is important to note that in order to accurately measure against these, you must establish benchmarks on what you classify as successful, or ‘best practice’ :

1. The # of new leads being generated per month through marketing, social media networking or face to face networking – It is a fact that business can only improve in 2 ways, (1) attract new customers, or (2) increase the revenue from existing customers. How many new leads do you require to enter your sales funnel each month to give you confidence that you will achieve your outcome? Get really specific on this.
2. The # of new business development calls being made per month. Once you have established the # of leads you require coming in each month, now determine how many calls your team must make in order to generate an appointment. This will depend on the size of your team and the average revenue value of your customers. Assuming the leads being generated have been ‘pre-qualified’, the % of appointments being made from these leads could be as high as 40-50%. Work out the % for your team and start measuring it.
3. The # of face to face meetings and proposals being delivered by your sales executives per month. Again, depending on the qualification of the customer, this % could be quite high as well. Now, it is one thing to have proposals being delivered to customers, it is another to ensure that the proposal is of a high quality. Here it is important to have criteria and benchmarks for proposals that will drive consistency and not create a ‘rod for your back’ down the track because there are items in the proposal that cannot be delivered. So get really clear on what must be included in the proposals and measure that, as well as the number being presented. This will develop consistency.
4. The # of customers signing contracts or coming on board following your proposal, per month. This is where sales becomes predictable. If you have ensured that the ‘quality’ has been taken care of in the above 3 steps, then you should begin to see a consistent trend in the number of customers coming on board. Now it is a matter of measuring this against your end objective/sales target, and adjusting accordingly. This will also make it easier for you to communicate to your senior leaders around forecasting your sales and revenue, as well as identify any gaps that must be filled.
5. The punctuality of your sales team at sales meetings & strategy sessions. This is a huge one (even though it may not appear to be) as it points to the heart of the culture that you have developed and within that, the standards of behaviour that have been set. Through my sales leadership career, I could see a direct correlation between a sales person’s punctuality and their sales results, and it was fascinating. The sales executives who had challenges with punctuality also had challenges with hitting their sales targets. The sales executives who were organised and punctual, on average, achieved higher sales results than their peers. This comes down to your leadership, the standards you put in place and the discipline to measure against the standards. And remember, culture will always eat strategy!
6. The # of complaints your customers are making per month. I understand that some customers just love complaining, but there is a direct link between the number of complaints from customers and their desire to take on new services or increase their spend. As a sales leader, it is therefore critical that you get on the front foot with customers who make a bit of noise, as it could flow to your bottom line. I also like to take the perspective that if a customer is complaining, they genuinely care and will give you the opportunity to fix the issue.
7. The Customer Satisfaction rating or Net Promotor Score (NPS) of your customers. We know that feedback is the breakfast of champions and seeking feedback from customers through customer satisfaction surveys or NPS will give you a great insight into what your customers think about you, your team and your company. This is a very important metric and is one that can also assist you in developing customised sales strategies with your sales executives to drive growth in sales and revenue.
8. The # of professional development books your sales executives are reading and Podcasts they are listening to each month. I am convinced that leaders are readers and that a person’s professional growth will only be limited by their personal growth. As such, through encouraging the sales executives to read a certain number of books per month and plug into relevant Podcasts each month, this will underpin their development and eventually play out in the results they achieve.

As a sales leader, when I focused on the above 8 points and developed a level of consistency around them, the results of the team started to become more predictable, the conversations with the team more meaningful, and ultimately we developed a great engaging culture. Even though there was a lot to measure, it never felt like micro-management as all of the areas were like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle, and when the puzzle was complete, the sales team was successful. It also created predictability within the team which allowed for more in depth and authentic conversations. So if you are currently struggling with what to measure within your team to drive consistent and sustainable results, consider some of these points, implement them, and watch your sales numbers soar!

To your continued sales leadership success.

Darren

If you want to know how you can better lead your sales team, send me an email at darren@darrenmitchell.com.au

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Darren is a Sales Leadership and Sales Performance Coach, Facilitator & Speaker.  He is an experienced and committed coach with a background of sales leadership success in large organisations. He applies a genuine focus to coaching and developing high performing sales leaders who are looking to unleash the potential of themselves and their teams.