Yusuf Bulan's Profile

How do you develop quarterly/annual sales OKRs and tie those to individual projects?

Yusuf Bulan

HubSpot Director Sales DACH • 1y

Quarterly and annual OKR's on an individual level need to be broken down from the Company/Segment/Team Level. Once the overall priorities are defined you can identify the contribution on the individual level. I would say to define projects based on the gaps you are seeing and cascade them down to the individual level. Ultimately, the sales goal will be defined by the revenue goal broken down by segment and product. The expected growth rate will determine the priorities. Will the growth come from ...Read More

1,305 Views

What are some KPIs that you find over-hyped and/or unimportant?

Yusuf Bulan

HubSpot Director Sales DACH • 1y

There are plenty of KPIs which are not relevant if not used in the right context. Ultimately, revenue is the most important KPIs in sales. You can look at plenty of activity KPIs which are less important when revenue and pipeline are in good health. If not, then activities become more important. So it depends on the context.

1,146 Views

(How) do you include top performers on certain KPIs to set benchmarks you want people to work against?

Yusuf Bulan

HubSpot Director Sales DACH • 1y

Absolutely yes! We celebrate high performers in team meetings (also broader teams) and share their attainment and other KPIs (not all of course). We also share averages amongst all team members so that everyone can compare themselves with others. We do have a culture of transparency established very early on.

1,126 Views

I've seen plenty of sellers regularly miss on their KPIs, but still reach or exceed quota, so why have more than 1 KPI (quota attainment)?

Yusuf Bulan

HubSpot Director Sales DACH • 1y

If targets are reached you want to ensure that it will stay that way. So pipeline is very important as well. If pipeline is in good health, you are in a good spot. If not you need to ensure that the activity levels are up. Also, you want to be aware of an upcoming gap in the future. Therefore you need indicators alerting you ahead of time.

1,008 Views

How well do typical KPIs around deal progression capture potential bottlenecks in the sales pipeline, and what are some effective strategies to accelerate the sales cycle across different customer segments?

Yusuf Bulan

HubSpot Director Sales DACH • 1y

KPIs around deal progression can help to identify trends in sales duration, close rate and similar. So changes in the typical pipeline coverage needed can be observed early on. This will be a leading indicator for pipeline gaps and can trigger required actions.

Effective sales strategies can include multi-threading and broader stakeholder management. If there is a shift in buying personas this should also be identified and addressed.

1,004 Views

What is an important KPI that you see sales teams completely missing?

Yusuf Bulan

HubSpot Director Sales DACH • 1y

The sales equation is quite simple:

Pipeline x Average Sales Price x Close Rate = Revenue

If not all KPIs are measured leading to this equation we are missing out. Focus should be on the area with the biggest gap!

Also if you have strategic objectives like Net New Growth or shift in a product mix or geographic expansion those KPIs become more relevant. So the importance of KPIs are dependent upon priorities. The basic function is the above mentioned sales equation.

1,002 Views

What are good sales OKRs?

Yusuf Bulan

HubSpot Director Sales DACH • 1y

The fundamental sales OKRs are Revenue, Pipeline and Activities leading to pipeline generation. Pipeline generated x Average Sales Price x Close Rate = Revenue Modern sales tools will provide you with plenty of KPIs, however, the context and the priorities of the business will determine the importance of individual KPI. If the business wants to grow by productivity increase rather than headcount growth, the Productivity Per Rep (PPR) is a key driver. Sales Cycle, Close Rate and Average Sales Pri ...Read More

912 Views

What role do Sales KPIs play in improving forecast accuracy, especially in unpredictable markets, and what approaches help teams make the most of these metrics?

Yusuf Bulan

HubSpot Director Sales DACH • 1y

KPIs can certainly help to improve forecast accuracy. You can even build models to predict an outcome with a high accuracy. Deal velocity, pipeline coverage in different sales stages and forecast categories will help to predict the outcome. The more accurate data is available the better the models will become. This of course is on a pipeline level rather than on the deal level. No model can improve sales execution :-) This will become more difficult in unpredictable markets of course, however, s ...Read More

756 Views

What are some of the worst KPIs to commit to achieving?

Yusuf Bulan

HubSpot Director Sales DACH • 1y

KPIs which are not tied to objectives, initiatives or strategic goals are irrelevant.

E.g. why should someone focus on ratio between emails sent to meetings booked if meetings will only be scheduled via phone. Why looking at seasonality or amount of revenue booked in the final 2 days if the pattern stays the same month over month or quarter over quarter?

737 Views

What KPIs should I own and not own?

Yusuf Bulan

HubSpot Director Sales DACH • 1y

Everyone should own the KPIs which are relevant to achieving the goals. If you can't influence the KPI they become less relevant and impactful. The context of the KPIs are also important if the intent is to drive behaviour. If there is no attention from management to KPIs this is probably also a good indication that they are no longer a priority.

670 Views

Yusuf Bulan

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