There are a few ways you can evaluate sales reps more fairly and effectively by simply looking at the whole picture of what they actually bring to your team
When evaluating sales, it might seem simple: you’ll be able to tell if the numbers look good or bad. However, bottom lines and numbers don’t tell the whole story and evaluating why your revenue is increasing or decreasing is important in understanding what role sales representatives are playing in your business.
Set goals, measure process and track indicators
Part of measuring the success of any position is understanding key performance indicators. Metrics will vary from business to business, but because sales is so wrapped in numbers, it’s easy to overload yourself with data. Instead of trying to track every trend, pick a couple that feel the most telling and make a meeting scorecard easy to understand.
You also want to have touchpoints that track the entire sales process such as first contacts, first calls, second calls, meetings and final closings. This enables you to follow along, give coaching and feedback. It also gives sales processes a uniform structure that holds both employers and employees can hold each other accountable.
Reward the right behaviors and schedule performance reviews
Even though you’ve established goals for sales representatives to achieve and metrics for them to follow, it doesn’t mean the process is going to be accepted smoothly. To incentivize the team to accept and adopt your structure, consider going out of your way to give feedback and rewards. What those will be is going to be specific to your company structure, but it is important to communicate clear expectations so that the team can grow and operate together.
In addition, regular performance reviews with sales representatives goes a long way in marrying the independent function of a representative with some accountability benchmarks. Monthly, bi-weekly or even week-by-week meetings are a good way to distance yourself from the “results only” signifier of success and dig deeper to understand the nuances of your sales team.
Ride-along with your representatives
Toeing the line between giving your representatives independence and wanting insight on the process is a challenge each employer will have to tackle. But one informative exercise can be to join a sales representative on a sales call, either one on the phone or in-person. This can be probably the most critical way to understand your sales representative, evaluate their process and give immediate feedback.
Measuring win rate by deal size
Not all sales representatives are created equal. Some might have a scattershot approach and thrive on closing a lot of smaller deals. Some might work better on long deadlines, building relationships with large clients. Analyzing the type of deals they’re closing can inform how you should fit your sales representatives in your pipeline and tailor the opportunities you pass them.
Think about what’s next
One of the most important factors in sales is to turn people into returning customers. That’s why the best way to evaluate a sales representative is to see how well they think ahead. Are they thinking about how to turn that person into a customer who will come back and renew with you? Will they refer you to someone else?
From the other side, knowing how the customer feels about the sales experience itself afterward is very important. If you have an aggressive sales person, they can close the sale, but will the customer feel like they were helped or taken advantage of? Checking in with customers, who are ultimately your greatest indicators, every six months to a year and getting feedback on how your sales force is working will be extremely valuable.
OSX Sales Solutions offers professional sales leadership at a fraction of the price for small and medium sized businesses in the Greater Omaha area. We are ready to become part of your team, and we are just as excited as you are to watch it thrive. Let’s not wait another day to build on your success. Contact us or call OSX Sales Solutions today at 402-858-6246!