Tracking Sales Metrics: A Unique Guide To Advancing Success

Tracking sales metrics is a task that all companies should complete on a quarterly, monthly, and weekly basis. However, while it might be tempting to track only the number of products sold, or the number of deals closed in a service-based business, these figures will only take you so far. Instead, if you want your sales team to become more successful, then you need to adopt a micro lens for analyzing the right sales metrics.

What Metrics Should You Examine?

In addition to tracking the number of products sold, or the deals closed, you should also take the time to examine the following types of figures.

1. The Rate Of Traction. — In the competitive world that we live in, it is no longer enough to simply know how many meetings your sales associates have scheduled or completed. Instead, you need to know how good those meetings were. Did they have any traction with the prospects? Did the sales associate uncover the reason why the prospect is contemplating doing business with your company? Was a sense of urgency created, so that the prospect is ready to turn into a valued customer? Answering these types of questions will help you to gauge the traction rate, which in turn will tell your team if they are making and completing the types of meetings that lead to an improved sales rate.
2. Is There Velocity Within The Sales Pipeline? — Velocity by definition means “the speed of something in a given direction.” Without velocity, your pipeline will become a stagnant figurehead of empty leads. Measuring the velocity of your pipeline is a key component to successfully improving sales. To measure the velocity you will need to determine:
   • The time it takes a prospect to move through the entire pipeline;
   • The money and hours spent converting the prospect into a customer; and
   • The key milestones and stages that a prospect needs to reach, if the maximum ROI is to be achieved.
3. Measuring Quality Throughout The Entire Sales Process. — Not all sales are created equally. In fact, one of the most common metrics that sales teams fail to measure is quality. If you want to advance the success of your sales team, then you need to establish critical qualifying metrics to determine if a) the team has a qualified lead, and b) if the quality of the budding relationship will result in more than one sale. Through quality your sales team will be able to more effectively allocate time and resources during the sales process, which will result in increased productivity and subsequent sales to quality leads.

The bottom line is simple, moving beyond the simple metrics of number of products sold or deals closed, will help your sales team to fine tune their approach and improve their success rates.