The most powerful, actionable sales metrics

In partnership with Modern Sales Pros, QuotaPath hosted a panelists of Sales and RevOps leaders shared the sales metrics they pay most attention to and why. 

There are hundreds of sales metrics to track, such as average contract value, meetings to close, demo to close, activities per meeting, qualification rate, and many, many more. 

But, like any data point, the metrics are only meaningful when they are actionable. 

“I was reading a HubSpot Blog that said, ‘If you ask a sales leader what sales metrics they care about most, their answer might be yes,’” Graham Collins said in his opening remarks of the webinar. “That’s because we have so many different metrics to consider. Today, we want to hone it down to a few metrics that we think are really important.”

What sales metrics should leaders focus on, and why? Even more, what’s the best way for leadership to communicate these metrics to their team to promote certain behaviors?

Below, QuotaPath’s Director of RevOps Ryan Milligan and Chief of Staff Graham Collins spoke with Alariss Global’s Joyce Zhang Gray, and Brazen’s VP of RevOps Will Foley about measuring, communicating, and making immediate use of sales data.

We shared the full recording here, and for three time-stamped key takeaways, read on. 

3. Opp creation volume and identifying the start date of opp origin (12:30)

No matter the split between outbound and inbound expected opp generation, sales teams should always focus on outbound opportunity creation.

“If you only rely on inbound-generated opportunities, your team loses that prospecting muscle,” Graham said. 

By dedicating time and effort to an outbound motion, regardless of how many inbound leads come in, your team will keep their outbound skills sharp. And, if things go south, or marketing leads drop, your team can quickly fill in the gaps with their own efforts. 

As far as defining when an opportunity becomes one, Ryan and Graham said it starts when the meeting is scheduled.

Will added, “It’s less about the actual definition and figuring out what works for your organization.” Rather, it’s more on if the process is consistent and discrete.

2. Quality checks on sales metrics (16:10)

It’s easy to forget that sales metrics, like demos booked and activities, can affect revenue projections and financial forecasts. 

Joyce reminded attendees that, although opp creation is important, leaders and reps need to be mindful of lead quality.

“Revenue projections and financial forecasts are due in part to pipeline momentum and activity,” Joyce said. “So, you want to be careful about what you call and count as an opportunity. You don’t want reps clogging up their pipeline with poorly qualified leads.”

She suggested focusing on consistency to allow reps to zero in on the highest quality and probability of close opportunities. 

1. Communicating metrics in a non-overwhelming way (38:30)

You’ve got the metrics. You understand the why behind them and what causes them to move in different directions. Now, the challenge is to communicate these to your teams in a meaningful way that inspires action.

But how?

Ryan mentioned that a lot of reps are cash motivated. As such, he likes to work backward from their quota.

“We look at the quota together. Then I show the breakdown on what it’s going to take to get to your quota,” Ryan said. 

To help, we created a free Sales Funnel calculator for anyone to use. The funnel shows your activities, conversion rate, ops created, and average contract value, to, as Ryan said, work backward.

“Give those tools, like our Sales Funnel, to your team,” Ryan said. “Start at the bottom. Work your way back up mathematically. Show your math. And, show that if they want to close $50K in outbound revenue this quarter, it’s going to require you to set X amount of demos, based on historical figures.”

That’s a wrap on our most recent webinar. Thank you to our guest speakers, Modern Sales Pro, and all those who attended. We hope you learned something new about sales metrics. To stay atop of our upcoming events follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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