AMA: UserTesting VP of Sales, Katie Harkins on Sales KPIs

An important KPI that I see sales teams completely missing is how many chorus or gong calls were listened to in a month//quarter outside of YOUR calls. It's important to learn from your peers and other people who are successful in your role. Even if it's a different segment or different vertical. You can still listen to someone's pivot points or how they sell around common objections. I recommend downloading the Chorus//Gong mobile app and listening to calls when you're driving or working out. M ...Read More

Here's some advice I would give to someone tasked with taking the sales function up-market in an existing business structure: *What sales cycles are repeatable that have closed up market?  *What hiccups did you see in that original sales cycle?  *Competitive Landscape  *What potential objections change and how do you sell around them differently?  *What was the process around: Security? Legal? Procurement?   If you haven't closed anything up-market yet in your sales org, I recommend first asking ...Read More

My process for figuring out what metrics to hold sales accountable for is related their percentage to quota each month//quarter & their W2. You can never take your eyes off the target. We are responsible for first and foremost revenue and making the company money. My favorite engineer use to call me "Paycheck" because he knew any deal I sold helped him get paid every 2 weeks. You'll want to make sure that AEs and sales managers are hitting the goals they set at the beginning of the year to h ...Read More

Here is my favorite hit list of OKRs for Sales: *ASP *Average Sales Cycle *# of net new logos *Total discos scheduled *Percentage to quota I've been at different organizations that also liked to measure the following: Total Appointments//Discos Total Pitches Completed Total Number of Net New Logos Total Transactions from Cross Sells Total Selling Days in Month//Quarter Total Calls//Emails (Calls2Set +Emails2Set Ratio) Total Talk Time % to Quota Selling Days Show Ratio Average Deal Size I live by ...Read More

I recommend socializing KPIs in team meetings, emails and in your slack channels. I have a weekly schedule I've followed over the years: MONDAY: Make it personal, pre-call prep for the week, praise from last week, etc TUESDAY: Who needs to get excited about the next 4 selling days? Who needs a gut check? WEDNESDAY: KOOLAID! Press hits on your company, new case studies, competitive wins, etc. THURSDAY: Low/High/KPIs. It's not too late to turn it around. It's time to praise those that have worked ...Read More

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 p ...Read More

If you have a quota, you should take ownership over all your KPIs. Make sure you make them easy to find in one dashboard. I usually call this my "Birds Eye View." I usually see sales leaders not asking enough demand generation questions. What keywords are you bidding on? Why? Why haven't we tried these keywords? I take my top 10 objections in my sales cycles and turn them into collateral. Whether it be a blog post, webinar or ebook. It's easy to user in sales cycles to farm prospects when you al ...Read More

Everyone has seen the "SMART" goals sheet. Are you specific with your goals when selling into new markets? Maybe it's by geo or by vertical or by title or by named accounts? Can you measure these goals on a weekly basis? Are the goals you set achievable? It's ok to shoot for the stars. Then here comes the tweaking part. You have to be realistic in a given time frame. It's always ok to ask for help. Usually, your network or higher-ups in your organization have seen mistakes or successes opening u ...Read More