Choosing the Right Metrics for Your Sales Target Plan

The expectation to deliver accelerated revenue growth has never been more prevalent than in 2019. As another intimidatingly large target is handed to you by your C-suite, you likely look to the team to get a handle on where it's going to come from. At which point, you need a robust sales target plan.

With the increasing expectation of agile working practices and predictable revenue engines (aka Predictable Revenue and The Sales Acceleration Formula), the Sales Leader's challenge has shifted.

They must present their plans with greater detail and consideration than ever before and this means getting smart (and granular) with data.

The first step towards this is choosing the right metrics for success.

Click here to download our 4-Step Guide to Setting Sales Targets.

Choosing the right metrics for success

Take a step back from your CRM for a second and forget that there are leads, contacts and opportunities.

Regardless of this structure, what are the key sales moments in your entire sales funnel?

These moments are significant events that happen from top to bottom in your funnel and will be used as the basis of your entire sales target plan.

Your moments could look something like:

1. Prospects engaged
2. Meetings booked
3. Meetings completed
4. Opportunities created
5. Critical events completed
6. Proposals sent
7. Contracts sent
8. Wins

Your ability to hit target will be defined by these key moments, along with the volume that flows through them and the efficiency with which this occurs. So choose them carefully.

Here we need to focus on the moments that matter and are true signifiers of funnel progression.

These moments will become your key metrics for success.

Visibility

Your sales target plan should go hand in hand with visibility. Make sure you have a reporting system that enables you to quickly visualise the volume flowing through each key moment for your entire business, for each team and most crucially, for each individual contributor.

Every day, each of your salespeople need to be able to visualise how they are tracking on all of their key metrics to help them plan and execute a successful week at the office.

Put simply, your findings should not be a surprise to your salesperson.

A tool like Kluster can help you empower your salespeople with their own business dashboard.