The sales manager’s job is arguably the the most difficult and demanding in a company. From above, the sales manager is being monitored and pressured to get those sales. From below, salespeople are looking to the sales manager for leadership, while at the same time harboring a bit of criticism because the sales manager isn’t out there selling on a daily basis.
One of the primary differences between success and failure in sales management is having, knowing and using the right sales metrics. These metrics must reflect:
- Past and present sales of each rep, and predicted future sales for each rep for the sales period
- Past and present sales for each sales group, and predicted future sales for each group for the sales period
- Past and present sales for whole company, and predicted future sales for the company for the sales period
- These metrics need to be the most reliable available, for the purpose of managing and predicting sales.
In this white paper, we explore:
- The importance of both inbound and outbound leads, why there should be a balance, and the basics of tracking and measuring them.
- The value of lead scoring, the criteria you create for scoring, and how it is accomplished.
- How to figure out how many leads you need in your pipeline at any given time
- Managing opportunities, and calculating their priority and value
- Precisely calculating the number of opportunities needed to make a target
- and much more!
Along the way numerous examples are utilized so that you can see how these metrics can be immediately applied to your sales pipeline.
Leads
The sales process for any organization begins with leads—for without leads (and an adequate number of them) there are no sales. No sales, no revenue, no revenue, no company. So it’s quite obvious that leads are of prime value.
Inbound vs. Outbound
There are 2 main categories of leads: inbound, and outbound.
Lead Scoring
The next set of metrics comes about in lead scoring.
Number of Leads Needed
Concurrently, you’ll need to know how many leads it takes to keep your sales machine viably up and running, as well as succeeding and making its targets.
Opportunities
Once leads convert to opportunities, then it is a matter of figuring out how many winning deals it takes to profitably sustain the company’s pipeline, and monitoring that.
Proper sales management begins with metrics…and proper use of metrics begins with this white paper. Download it and start using it right away.
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