1.6 Metrics

The sales process must be measurable. The old business adage holds true: “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.” But what needs to be measured? Traditional sales programs measure everything that happens up until the first contact and then jump to the measurement of sales dollar amounts or number of closes, leaving out the measuring of what actually happens when the real selling is taking place.

Sales volume is a lagging indicator. The most significant leading indicator is the progress of a client through the sales process. This is what the Griffin Hill system measures—everything that happens from initial contact to completion. As we measure the leading indicator, progression through the sales process, we can develop the skill of the salesperson and close a higher percentage of sales opportunities.

Most sales teams are victims of busy work reporting such as weekly call reports and 30-60-90 Fore-casts. The majority of Sales Managers don’t put much stock in these reports. They know the call reports are largely fabricated, and the forecasts are wish lists of what the salespeople hope they’ll close.

Sales Managers are desperate for true sales measurement, real-time vision into the company’s sales pipeline, and an accurate forecasting mechanism. Griffin Hill’s web-based ScoreCard tool provides all three. ScoreCard is designed to track how effectively salespeople are using the Process and Plays they have been taught. We track this effectiveness by automatically assigning points as a salesperson advances a prospect through each step of the Process.

ScoreCard™ requires only three pieces of information from the salesperson to generate over 20 reports in the areas of productivity (how much work they are doing), proficiency (how skillfully they are doing that work) and performance (volume, deal size and pipeline).

ScoreCard identifies areas of strength to celebrate, and specific skills that may need improvement, and it helps foster a new level of healthy competition in the sales team that drives improved performance. The reporting benefits of the ScoreCard are tremendous. True objectivity and accountability provides an effective yardstick to measure and evaluate sales performance. Point-based metrics permit the generation of sales reports that are always current and always accurate, including such things as:

• Close ratios

• Average days in the sales cycle

• Real-time forecasts based on historical close rates