5 Killer Sales Metrics in Just 5 Clicks

Sales VPs are busy. We get it.

Even if they are data-driven and operate with an analytical bent, there isn’t always time to study the key sales metrics they need to optimize their sales processes. Poking around in Salesforce.com, exporting all that information to a complicated Excel spreadsheet and diving deeply to find answers and actionable insights sounds like a grueling and time-consuming process, not to mention limited in its findings.

Fortunately, with InsightSquared, Sales VPs can get the most important and pertinent information they need from their sales metrics…in just 5 clicks! With hardly any extra time to work with, Sales VPs need to prioritize their sales metrics.

Answer these 5 tough questions by focusing on the right 5 sales metrics with just 5 clicks.

Are any of my opportunities slipping through the cracks?

Nothing stings as much as letting a valuable opportunity slip through the cracks, especially if that opportunity could be easily won with a little attention and engagement from the right sales rep – or even with a little help from the Sales VP or the CEO. Use the Pipeline Today screen to prevent this from happening. The red bubbles indicate opportunities that are at a high risk of being lost, so look for those opportunities – coupled with the close date on the X-axis – to prioritize your sales team’s work.

Where is our sales process breaking down?

Looking at the sales funnel can alert a Sales VP to weaknesses or bottlenecks among their team’s sales process. Ideally, the sales funnel maintains its shape all the way down to the closed-won deals at the bottom, with even drop-offs between each stage. If there is a particularly steep drop-off at a stage – particularly if its early or in the middle of the funnel – that indicates that your team is doing something wrong there. Are they not qualifying opportunities strongly enough? Are they failing in their demo process? Sales funnel conversion metrics help answer those questions.

What coaching does each of our reps need?

Sales coaching should be customized to each individual rep, addressing the issues and weaknesses that are uniquely relevant to them. Studying the sales funnel by individual employee can help identify what coaching each of your reps need.

Look at this example above. While his peers all have relatively even drop-offs across each stage all the way to the bottom, Robert Mitchum saw a massive drop-off between the ‘Present Solution’ and the ‘Technical Fit’ stages. Now you know where specifically Robert struggles the most, providing an avenue for you to focus your sales coaching attention.

Is marketing contributing to the pipeline?

Sales depends on marketing to help generate leads that convert into valuable opportunities to be worked on and closed-won. As such, it is important for the Sales VP to know that his marketing counterpart is holding up their end of the bargain and contributing to the sales pipeline. Study the marketing contribution to the pipeline over the past 30, 60 or 90 days to see if the pipeline count from marketing is growing, shrinking or holding steady at an acceptable level, per the Service Level Agreement (SLA).

Are you entering data into your CRM correctly?

Is your team of sales reps using your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software like Salesforce.com correctly? All the sales metrics in the world won’t help you if the data behind them is incorrect. That is why data quality should be an utmost priority, and all reps should be rigorously trained on these best practices.

This report from InsightSquared lets you know which data errors have cropped up in your CRM. These data quality errors could run the gamut, including:

  • zeroes where there should be values

  • percentages entered as numbers, e.g. 20 instead of 0.20

  • extreme values, e.g. $2,000,000 when your average deal is $20,000

If these errors arise, you have to identify them and fix them immediately. Letting data quality errors exacerbate will create a domino effect, rendering much of your sales metrics and analysis inaccurate and useless.

 
Still find that you don’t have enough time to study the key sales metrics you want to optimize your sales process with? Check out InsightSquared immediately and get these 5 killer sales metrics in just 5 clicks.