Naturally, in most cases, sales teams are mainly measured against revenue. This could come in many forms such as potential revenue such as leads, MQLs, SQLs, etc., or actual revenue from active and existing clients. I think there is one main KPI that is commonly overlooked, and that is the quality of the relationship with the client. This is a critical aspect that more often than not, is not measured. And I completely understand as it is incredibly difficult to do so. While a great and trustful relationship with a client will not always correlate with revenue in the immediate term, this is the key metric that will ensure long-term partnership and mutual accountability going forward. A great sales representative will forgo short-term gains in order to build a long-term partnership.

In today's world it is relatively quite easy to make a very well informed decision when assessing a new role in a different company. These are some of the things I look at and advise my mentees to do too : * If it's a public listed company, look at their financials to figure out their year on year growth. * Check out websites like RepVue which give you a very good understanding about how sales reps in that company are doing * On LinkedIn, check out the trend on their headcount,especially in sales, is it increasing consistently or not. * Check out analyst reports and websites like g2.com to see how the product is rated by their customers. * Check websites like Glassdoor to understand about the culture of the company you are considering * If possible speak with a few customers and partners of the company as well. 

* Lack of Relevant Experience: It’s concerning if a candidate's resume lacks relevant sales experience or is not tailored in a way to showcase how their experience is relevant to the open role. Including a personalized cover letter or tailoring the summary/objective of the resume to highlight relevant skills and achievements is important to show alignment. * Inconsistent Job History: A history of short tenures at previous companies can raise concerns about a candidate's commitment and reliability. Aim to demonstrate stability and longevity in your roles, and be prepared to explain any job changes or gaps in employment during interviews. Additionally, always make sure that your resume aligns with the roles on your LinkedIn profile. It’s not a good sign when either the resume or LinkedIn is inaccurate. It’s surprising how often we see misalignment. * Not closing the interviewer: When it comes to a sales interview, not being prepared to ask for the next step in the process or get buy-in on their candidacy is a huge miss. As a sales professional in a sales interview, you are expected to close. It shows you investment in the role and your ability to move a conversation forward. * Skipping thank you notes: It may seem a bit old school, but the best reps I’ve ever hired have all written extremely thoughtful thank you messages during the interview process. Take the time to reiterate your interest in the role and thank the interviewer for their time and insights. It’s a sign of strong follow up and rapport building skills and can further set you apart from the candidate pool.

Begin by baselining critical metrics for new seller success. It could be things like: time to first deal, deal velocity, time to pipeline, etc. Then: * Divide new sellers into 'cohorts' * Measure their metrics against more tenured seller cohorts * Understand trends that support or refute your hypotheses * Draw correlation where you see it to infer if your programs are working Causation is near impossible but with large enough data-sets, you can find correlations & trends that will help explain and direct future learning.

Thanks for the question! There are three ways that we go about this: Focus Groups, Open Requests, and Analytics. First, I'll mention that all content should point back to your team's goals and objectives. What are you trying to achieve as an organization and business? Who are your target audiences? Will you be focusing on your ICPs or perhaps reinforcing the weakest sales opportunity? Are there any spots in the buying journey that have gaps and need to be addressed? These will ensure the content and strategies are giving you a north star and some hypotheses for the tactics below: For focus groups, we typically do a quarterly check-in with leads and they will recommend a few folks who are passionate about content. This helps us to get a pulse on what their biggest pain points are and we then diagnose and prescribe content. Typically specific pieces here are more general, like requests for "case studies" - which require more digging. For open requests, this is a typical form that our reps can go in and request content throughout the quarter. We send out a blast to the team reminding them, which is typically paired with a survey. Lastly, for analytics, we take a look at some factors: * Content searches with no results (what they want but aren't available) * Content most used but with low engagement (to help us understand what needs to be edited or made more of) * Look for reps who are using your content the most and the least and go back to focus groups to interview them Hope these help!

Building a framework for measuring and managing soft skills is challenging but achievable by focusing on qualitative and quantitative metrics. Here’s how you can build a manageable framework: 1. Define Key Soft Skills Relevant to the Role • Identify the most critical soft skills for success in your sales environment. Examples might include: • Emotional Intelligence • Communication Skills • Active Listening • Problem-Solving • Adaptability • Collaboration 2. Set Clear, Observable Behaviors • Translate each soft skill into clear, observable actions. For example: • Emotional Intelligence: How well does the rep manage stress and handle rejection? Do they adjust their approach based on the customer’s emotional state? • Communication: Is the rep able to convey ideas clearly, concisely, and persuasively? Do they actively listen to customers’ needs before responding? 3. Establish Quantifiable Metrics • Use a combination of self-assessment, peer feedback, and customer feedback, coupled with performance data. Examples include: • Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT): Measure customer feedback related to interpersonal interactions. • Peer Review or 360-Degree Feedback: Incorporate feedback from managers, colleagues, and cross-functional teams on a rep’s collaboration, communication, and adaptability. • Sales Cycle Time: Track how quickly reps can navigate complex conversations or objections (communication & problem-solving). • NPS or Client Retention: Measure long-term relationship-building (empathy & emotional intelligence). 4. Incorporate Qualitative Feedback • Gather qualitative data from customer comments, peer observations, and manager coaching sessions. Use structured questions like: • How did the rep handle objections? • Did the rep demonstrate empathy during the sales process? • How well did the rep adapt to changing customer needs? 5. Create a Rating Scale • Develop a simple rating scale (1 to 5) for each soft skill, aligned to the observable behaviors. This could look like: • 1: Needs Improvement • 3: Meets Expectations • 5: Exceeds Expectations For example, for Active Listening: • 1: Interrupts customers frequently and fails to address their pain points. • 3: Allows customers to fully explain their situation and responds thoughtfully. • 5: Proactively asks clarifying questions and tailors the solution perfectly to the customer’s needs. 6. Monitor and Coach Regularly • Build these metrics into regular performance reviews and coaching sessions. Use them as discussion points for ongoing development rather than just static evaluations. • Sales role-playing or shadowing can help assess how reps apply soft skills in real-life or simulated scenarios. 7. Set Improvement Goals • For each soft skill, set specific, actionable goals. For example: • Improve customer satisfaction by practicing active listening techniques during calls. • Increase adaptability by training reps on handling complex objections in varied industries. 8. Benchmark and Track Progress • Set baseline scores for each skill and track progress over time. This helps you see where improvement is happening and where additional coaching might be needed. 9. Leverage Technology • Use tools like CRM data to track certain soft skill outcomes (e.g., client satisfaction, deal velocity) and integrate them with feedback systems like surveys or peer reviews to have a centralized platform for measurement. Conclusion: By focusing on specific behaviors, using a mix of qualitative feedback and quantifiable metrics, and regularly tracking progress, you can build a manageable and actionable framework to measure and develop soft skills in your sales team.

This isn’t a one size fits all approach. Every leader should bring a different focus to their 30-60-90 day plan based on their leadership style, the stage in which the company is at, industry/market dynamics, immediate challenges/goals, etc. That said, the high level framework below is something I’ve used at several companies which has proven to be quite successful: Days 1-30: Listen, Learn, Connect * Establish presence and connection with team * Roll out User Manuals: How to guides for working effectively with one another * Product, value prop, and competition proficiency * Cross-departmental tour of duty (ally building) * Benchmark data (lagging/leading indicators) * RevOps partnership/hiring is critical * Understand first before suggesting any changes * Understand the challenges specific to the business and team in exceeding targets * Never assume what worked historically will work now * Deeply understand your customers Days 31-60: Align, Implement, Measure * Align before setting unrealistic expectations * Generate path toward exceeding targets * Provide clear measurables on path to targets (SMART goals) * Drive winning culture * Leveraging benchmark data to drive process improvement * Solve process inefficiencies Days 61-90 * Establish virtuous cycle with team and peers * Generate quick wins * Create constructive feedback loop * Scaling a repeatable outbound playbook * Address team and business challenges with clear solutions * Sell 90 initiative: GTM team should spend 90% of time with customers * Performance management: make smart decisions, clearly communicate

There are many KPI's and metrics you can evaluate for pay raises. Ultimately this is situational based on your companies revenue targets, values and policies. I believe there are 3 key factors in justifying a pay raise: 1) Craft: Mastery of your craft and demonstrated ability of your roles key competencies. 2) Impact: Have you had an outsized impact on Revenue and your GTM organizations key objectives. Some of the key KPI's that I look at are Revenue Growth, Attainment, New customer acquisition and Deal size. Secondly is any contributions you have made off the dashboard to impact the broader team i.e. Process improvements, enablement and creating assets that can be used by the team. 3) Behavior: Demonstrating the right behaviours in how you conduct yourself. I.E. Grit, resilience, positivity etc.

Compared to a sales-assisted org, your KPIs change with a self-serve product. You want product lead growth that funnels your NRR to feed your MRR that feeds your ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue). Some of my favorite self-serve product metrics are the following: *CAC *Unique traffic visits *fulfillment speed *active trials at any given time *AHA moments *virality & recommendations received post AHA moment (flywheel effect) *LTV *at what point does a human step in? (support or sales) *What percentage of your self-serve sign-ups convert to ARR? What steps from Marketing can speed this up? 

"You can't improve what you don't measure" - Peter Drucker. When starting out in a new market, there can be lots of uncertainty. This uncertainty is the starting point, however, for a fun and exciting journey to figuring this new market out. But uncertainty can be the enemy of action, so you want to remove as much uncertainty as possible, as quickly as possible, so you can get out there and start driving results. A few places to look for data in the planning and early implementation phase to eliminate uncertainty: 1. Your network - while you may not have a network of people in this new market already, you should be able to define a couple people who would be willing to speak with you who can help get the ball rolling. One or two quality conversations with your network can lead to a number of intros, and increase your network size overnight. If these people already know you, they'll also be kind if you fumble through your first conversations or have some misconceptions going in. 2. Interviews - when I was opening the Latam team, I learned so much from the interview process. I spoke with dozens of the top leaders in the industry and the vision became more and more clear each conversation I had. They helped me calibrate the resources needed for success, nuanced buying characteristics in each country that I was unaware of, partners and strategies that I wouldn't have learned about without their expertise, and more. I approached the process humble, and was honest about where I was at in my journey of learning the landscape, and so many people were happy to help fill in the blanks. 3. Online research - there's no shortage of information online. This is an obvious step and a great place to get a baseline before you test it out in the wild. This can get you past the initial uncertainty phase pretty quickly, and put you in a position to take action. That action COULD be to hire someone who IS certain and can go build out the appropriate KPI's based on their vast expertise in the the new market you're looking to enter. If this is an option and makes sense for your business - then this is a short answer. Go hire a superstar and let them do what they're great at. Get them what they need and get out of the way. If that's not the appropriate action, then you need to establish a baseline to measure against - so you can improve and re-calibrate along the way. A few things I would consider in going through this exercise: 1. Prioritize winning early, over winning BIG early. You want to prove concept, validate the mission and get people fired up for the cause early. You want positive visibility across the org, and an infectious enthusiasm in this new market. If you shoot too high, do a good job, but don't quite hit your big lofty goals, you'll move slower, dampen the enthusiasm of the team, and may even get skeptics on if it's the right bet. Set very attainable goals, crush them, and ramp the goals up quickly from there. 2. Think long-term revenue, short term activity. The short term revenue will come as a natural output from intense focus on activity. As stated there will be some uncertainty early on - especially around when/where/how that first deal will come in. So instead of overanalyzing it - go out and get data. Lots of data. Set intense activity goals and talk to as many prospective customers as possible. Don't overqualify when you still aren't positive what you're qualifying for. Every conversation is valuable early on. If you hit your lofty activity goals, and have a solid product market fit, you should naturally hit reasonable revenue goals in the first year. Year 2 is really where you want to ramp up expectations after validating assumptions in year 1. 3. Re-calibrate, re-calibrate, re-calibrate. Every week you should review what we learned week over week. Trends, competitors, partners, what's resonating, what's not, resource needs, etc. Your ICP will likely fluctuate during this time, which will inform the types of prospects you'll want to go after. You may adjust this as often as weekly early on. This is also where you review your achievement against your baseline metrics, and may adjust these KPI's if they're not the right ones. But you need a starting point. TL;DR When entering a new market you want to eliminate uncertainty as quickly as possible so you can take action. Hire or network with top talent in this new market to improve your ability to define starting KPI's that make sense. Prioritize high activity and achieveable revenue targets early to collect more data and build momentum. Re-calibrate often based on your initial KPI's and adjust as you continue to get real data about your product in this new market.