The Sales Metrics That Will Actually Matter in 2016

For the longest time, sales reps have been bound to activity metrics. How many calls are you making? How many emails are you sending? How many product demonstrations have you booked? These metrics (along with quota) helped managers determine whether a rep was doing their job well or falling short.

But what if those metrics suddenly lost their value? What if instead of activity-based reps, we had something totally different?

As another year comes to an end, the old sales playbook is starting to fade, and an entirely new school of thought is emerging. It’s one that’s focused less on making the maximum amount of calls or sending the maximum amount of emails, and more on developing, maintaining, and strengthening relationships.

And this means that what is being measured is changing, too. Here are three sales metrics that will matter more than ever in 2016.

1) Customer Success

How successful is your customer after they purchase your product? What type of impact does it have on their business? Has their pain point turned into a point of strength?

Sales is no longer about getting someone to sign on the dotted line, setting up their new service, and then wishing them good luck. Instead, reps need to ensure that their customers are not only surviving, but thriving with their product. They must follow up with clients, offer assistance with problems, and help them strategize for the future.

As Forrester's Kate Leggett points out in a blog post, customer success is what’s behindincreasing existing revenue, and influencing new sales. One customer’s success can prompt another prospect to try to your product or service in hopes of attaining a similar outcome. But this virtuous cycle only kicks off if you actively promote and track customer success.

To measure customer success, formulate a customer "health" score. What do the financials look like? How many customers do they have? Get a handle on their business' health as it pertains to your product and then monitor the metric over time.

You can also measure your customers' growth. After all, the best sign of business success is growth. Ask if the company is hiring, taking on more business, or improving customer retention rates. 

2) Loyalty

Churn is still a great metric to measure, especially on a rep-to-rep basis. A rep who maintains a healthy relationship with each of their clients is likely to have a lower churn or cancellation rate. Again, sales is about relationships, and rapport makes a huge difference.

Loyalty, however, is not only about the customer’s feelings towards the sales rep, it’s also about the rep’s loyalty to the customer. According to Jason Wesbecher, “The best [sales reps] are intensely loyal to their customers and step in to solve problems. If things happen to go awry after the sale, the sales rep works on their behalf to fix the situation. This is the social contract that all great salespeople live by.”

The easiest way to measure loyalty is through net promoter score. An NPS measurement simply asks whether or not someone is likely to recommend your service or product to someone else. The rep, and their relationship with the customer, plays a major role in this rating.

3) Customer Feedback

The final thing to measure is your customers’ feedback. What are they saying about your reps? What do they like about their connection to the company, and what do they not like?

Customers need to feel that they have a voice. Offering them a chance to give feedback and provide insights is a great way build a long-lasting and meaningful relationship.

This HBR article from Tom Atkinson and Ron Koprowski points out that the two biggest pet peeves a buyer has with sales reps is a failure to follow their company’s buying process, and a failure to listen to their needs. Managers can determine from customer feedback how well their reps are working with clients in these areas if they take the time to solicit regular feedback. It might be unpleasant to hear where your sales process is failing customers, but getting the chance to right a wrong before a customer jumps ship is invaluable.

To collect customer feedback and report on it, send out a survey. Pose a few questions to your customer base and determine how they feel about your sales process and reps. Remember: Customer feedback shouldn't be solely about the product; it should also cover how clients feel about the company as a whole.

You could also hold a customer day. Invite some folks to your office or headquarters for lunch and talk to them one-on-one. Note their facial expressions and body language when they reflect on their rep.

Instead of making calls for the sake of making calls, reps are instead turning their attention to relationships and what happens after they make a sale. The metrics that matter have shifted, and the modern sales rep is adjusting accordingly. These three metrics are worth watching as you bring your sales team into 2016.

Collectied By...... hubspot