In some sales organisations, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are seen as the enemy – something that only brings negative feelings with them, particularly when they aren’t achieved.
But developing sales KPIs (the right ones) are an integral part of the sales process, and on an individual basis they set in place the action required for salespeople. If set up correctly, they should provide clarity and clear structure around the tasks that result in moving prospects through the pipeline, to ultimately become customers.
This means they should be something salespeople enjoy having as part of their job scope – but more often than not, they are unrealistic targets or inaccurate guidelines set in place without proper management.
Five common mistakes when setting sales KPIs
There are five common mistakes that sales leaders often make when setting KPIs, and while these have been covered before, to quickly recap they are:
1. Focusing on just financial KPIs.
2. Too many KPIs.
3. Measuring activity without effectiveness.
4. No pass or fail criteria.
5. Lack of visibility.
The above points are real barriers to KPIs being effective targets for sales performance, and so it is important that business leaders take these factors into account when setting up individual KPIs.
Measure, analyse and review regularly
Another factor is to ensure KPIs are regularly reviewed to ensure they still appropriate and relevant – and this will be particularly appropriate after measuring and analysing results from the sales pipeline (which should also be done on a regular basis for the most accurate and up-to-date activities required).
Once KPIs are set, they then need to be managed, and the easiest way for business leaders and CEOs to do this is through a dashboard. This is about having visibility over the sales process and pipeline, to be able to monitor and manage activities, and to provide a real time view over all aspects of current opportunities. Membrain is a powerful tool that brings your sales process and dashboard come to life – giving your management team the ability to hold your sales people accountable to the right activities.
From lead funnels, to forecasting, sales activities, keeping track of KPIs and up-to-date results from the sales team, dashboards provide an important functionality for all business leaders, and it is difficult to manage these metrics without a central point for the information.
