Using Metrics to Influence Performance

Using Metrics to Improve Performance

October 2009

We are often asked to guide sales organizations on which metrics they should be considering for their employees. The ultimate metric for many years has been revenue, but there are many others to consider.

Metrics play a powerful role in generating sales performance, and there is a lot of truth to the old saying “what gets measured gets done.”
However, we believe that too many measures can be detrimental. For example, we recently witnessed a financial institution which had established over 40 measures for their business development professionals. This organization measured every level of activity of the sales person to the point that it was counterproductive. Just because we can measure something does not mean we should!

So, what is the right number of measures to use? Each organization needs to establish what is right for their team by always asking an important question: “How is the metric going to be used in the coaching process?”

Simply put, managers should only collect those metrics they plan to coach to. If a metric cannot be used to affect the behavior of the sales team, then why collect it?

In all cases, we encourage you to have no more than 5-7 metrics to guide your sales force. To see the top metrics we are seeing used in sales organizations today, click Top Metrics In Use by Sales Organizations

Weakness to Strength

In our work with sales organizations, we see a wide variety of coaching approaches being used by Sales Managers. One observation is how frequently managers attempt to coach to weakness. Their argument is that if the salesperson could only improve in a given area of weakness, that he/she would be much more successful.

Experience of the best managers is different. Instead of coaching to weakness, they invest more time searching for each person’s strength. Coaching to strengths is a more powerful behavior in your work with your employees. 

Take a look at good friend Gary Markle’s article “From Weakness to Strength” and reconsider where you are
investing your time when you coach your employees.

Happy Selling!

Check out our latest book on Sales Leadership: Catalyst5 - Making the Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Leader