What's your process for figuring out what metrics to hold sales accountable for?

To effectively define the metrics for which you should hold sales accountable, I look at a few things: Understand the "Sales Math" of the business across some core universally applicable SaaS Sales metrics Compare the performance of the top 1/3 AE's against the bottom 1/3 AE's and look for which metrics contribute the most to high performance. Go deep in those categories and correlate the activities top performers do differently to achieve these results. Quantify these activities to define suppo ...Read More

I stole the idea of “WGLL” from Kevin Dorsey, who works across his leadership structure in sales teams to be maniacally focused on what good looks like, and work backwards from there. As such, I’ve rooted our metrics in support of WGLL - not from the perspective of “Amy & Bobby are the best, let’s have everyone do what they’re doing!”, but rather in using WGLL activities across my sales leaders to understand specific wins from the sales funnel and the supported customer experience to drive t ...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

I think it makes sense to look at what success has looked like for your business as opposed to looking at general industry guidelines. What do the metrics look like for the top performers within your business and what do they do differently to the bottom performers? You will get more buy in from reps if you can show them how others are achieving success within their team. I would also recommend regularly reviewing these metrics, so that you can also demonstrate how top performing sales reps are ...Read More

Usually my process for figuring out what metrics to hold accountable for looks something like... Step 1: Work with a cross-functional group to align on the ultimate goals & objectives that are aligned with the strategy of your sales team or revenue organization. Step 2: Then take those goals & objectives and break them into the core tasks, behaviors, and milestones that if achieved will be a leading indicator to the success of your team. Note: these tasks/behaviors/milestones should be f ...Read More

Your process should be dependent on your targets: Are you focused on new logo acquisition vs. expansion? Is your goal to drive more revenue through self-serve as you go up market? How are you holding the team accountable? What metrics is most important to them (how they get paid)? Are you based on monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual quotas? What are the key KPIs that your business is struggling with? How can we incentivize (spiffs) the team to focus their efforts here? If there is a metric ...Read More