Now that 2011 is here, like most of us, I’ll begin to take an inventory of my team’s success and failure over the previous 12 months. With hindsight being 20/20 there are things I would have changed with my approach last year while other areas I feel have had a positive impact on my team’s performance. Going through this exercise every January has allowed me to focus on what is driving this success but the difficult part is trying to develop the metrics around this success to consistently track it throughout the year.
While I wish there was a universal report that could indicate to me why an inside rep has failed or suceeded, I’ve recognized over the years that it doesn’t exist. Every rep we have on the phone has different skill sets and typically a different way to motivate themselves to develop leads and build forecast. What has become evident to me is that there is a variety of key performance indicators we can use to evaluate and push our people to hit their goals.
Since there isn’t one magical report, here are the 5 most common reports we use that can apply to any inside rep making dials:
Activity Report: This should total all calls made, conversations, emails sent and received.
The goal with this report is to simply track the amount of effort your inside reps are putting into getting someone live on the phone. Often it’s the sheer volume of calls (or lack there of) that can make the difference. You could have a very talented rep and a solid product but if you aren’t touching enough of your prospect universe you’ll never get an accurate gauge on their ability or their level of interest.
Connect Rate: The amount conversations divided into total activity.
Beyond activity, this report allows us to dig a bit deeper into how much real effort is being put into dials. Anyone is capable of picking up a phone and making a dial or sending an email, but how many of these activities are resulting in healthy sales conversations? If they are taking the time to do a little extra work by zero #ing and doing the preliminary research to find the right person, typically that number should be much higher than 10%. Also consider tracking the amount of actual calls that went into getting that person live. If they are spending too much time spinning their wheels, then it may be an indication that they are not being smart with their dials.
Lead Rate: The amount of leads passed divided into total conversations.
This tells me how effective they are when they actually get someone live. If I see a low lead rate, I have to assume we are not making the most out of that precious little time we have with a prospect on the phone. A low percentage can range from not closing on the meeting thus getting pushed out another quarter to not doing an effective job of overcoming objections.
Lead Conversion Rate: Leads converted into forecast divided by total lead passed.
This speaks to the quality of the opportunities that are getting into the sales teams hands. Low lead conversion rates tell me my reps leads aren’t good enough. Are they asking enough questions to further qualify in/out the prospect? Or are they just throwing anything over the fence in order to hit a lead goal?
New Accounts/Contacts Added Report:
How much effort are they putting into getting in front of the fresh stuff? If your team members are not attempting to backfill their lists with the new prospects then they are going to be left eventually spinning their wheels calling into the same group of unresponsive accounts. Generally I find that on average we weed out 5 accounts a day, so simple logic would tell me that we need to add 5 fresh “net new” accounts a day.
Ultimately the things that matter most to me is how much forecast my outside sales team is working, worth. The reports above allow me to be focused on the behaviors that help to build that forecast.
How much effort are they putting into making dials and adding new accounts? How hard are they pushing to get in front of a decision maker? Are they asking the right questions to convert a prospect into a viable sales ready opportunity?
These are the questions we need to ask ourselves about our inside team everyday. Start thinking about the questions you want answered this year and come up with a report to find a way to accurately track it.
Craig Ferrara is the Vice President of Client Operations for AG Salesworks. He has extensive experience in the sales and teleprospecting process. Craig joined AG Salesworks in 2003 and has successfully managed several teams of high-performing Business Development Representatives. To read more of his articles, click here.
