How? Simple: by keeping a close eye on what works and what doesn't.
The data you need to monitor includes everything you and your peers do to close a deal. Start by monitoring the obvious sales metrics :
Product demonstrations
Lead generation activity
By monitoring your data, you can track the days, weeks, and months leading up to a sale. You can then use the numbers to increase overall sales results , as many fast-growing companies do.
For example, this report from McKinsey and Company notes that brazil whatsapp mobile phone number list implementing purposeful analytics helps companies outperform their peers . Additionally, another report from the same company found that sales organizations that incorporate data and technology into all of their sales activity processes can radically improve sales ROI .
To make it easier, let's break down sales activity tracking into a simple three-step process:
Step One: Measure your sales activity .
Sales activities are the “inputs” that you can directly control. Ask yourself the following questions:
How many emails has your team sent?
How many meetings have you had with potential clients?
How many cold calls have you made to potential clients?
Track everything you do on a day-to-day basis. This will help you determine your key metrics.
Step Two: Analyze the quality of your sales activity .
Focus on how many key decision makers you were able to reach through your sales activity.
How many of them were qualified for your product or service? Take these numbers and see if your team is pursuing the right leads. This is also a good time to review your prospect list to see if you can weed out any of them.
Step Three: Find out the number of deals closed .
Finally, look at how many of your qualified leads continue through the sales process to become customers.
Use these three simple steps to identify any gaps in your sales strategy and see where your strengths lie.
Using a CRM is a quick way to correlate action-based data from your sales activities. Use it to keep an eye on your:
Forecast Analysis . Do you have a low volume of leads in your sales funnel? Few leads equal few sales opportunities.
Territory Coverage: Shows how well your sales team is performing in their assigned sales territories.
Quota Analysis - Sometimes a sales rep doesn't meet his or her quota. Keep an eye on the sales productivity of all your team members.
Keeping an eye on your data will help you make faster decisions because you'll have an informed idea of the challenges you face (and how to overcome them).
Sales Basics Guide: How to Create Your First Sales Process
3. Schedule your activities to follow up .
In a sales role, you'll likely have to juggle a number of different tasks and priorities, so you need to have a schedule to ensure each task is executed correctly.
Don't go down the rabbit hole by focusing on one specific activity. If you don't set an agenda and limit the time spent on activities, you could waste hours reviewing metrics and spreadsheets without achieving results.
Your most valuable asset is time.
If you plan to spend an hour generating leads on LinkedIn, move on to your next sales activity once that hour is up.
Prioritize the results you want to achieve that day. Start by deciding what your desired sales outcome is, and then decide exactly what you or your team needs to do to achieve it.
