What successful metrics should I use to manage my inside sales reps?

Hi Ben,

Great question! I think there are a few metrics that need to be measured, and you're on the right track with calls and leads for certain. With an inside team, you want to focus on several things:

1. Number of dials
2. Number of conversations
3. Number of leads passed
4. Percentage of leads that occur

You want to focus on the number of dials your inside reps make because at the very least, that is a number that they can control. For better or for worse, this should be a barometer in terms of telling you who's trying and who is not. If you've got a rep that's struggling to hit their lead number and they've got a high call volume, you know that it's not for a lack of trying. Conversely, if you've got a rep who is hitting her number but her call volume is low, maybe she's not giving you as much as she really could.

You want to track the number of conversations your inside reps have, too. They need to be meaningful conversations, though. Conversations that move the lead process along, not a simple, "Call me later." The number of conversations that your reps are having is an important number to track because the more conversations you have, the more leads you should be producing. If you've got reps that are having low conversation numbers and aren't producing, well now you "know" why; it's because they're not having enough conversations. This should cue you in on people that you should be sitting with and learning why they're not talking to prospects.

Number of leads passed is pretty self-explanatory. Set the number of SQL's that your reps should pass and track who hits the number, who doesn't, and who over-achieves. Learn why reps can't hit this number, and determine if you can help them or not. The quicker you can answer that, the quicker you are to a team of high producing inside sales reps.

Lastly, you want to track the number of leads that occur. You may have a rep that passes a high number of potential opportunities, but if the appointments associated with those leads don't occur, that should be a red flag to you. Passing leads is one thing, passing leads that actually move along the sales process is another. As they say, the proof is in pudding, right?

Hope that helps Ben!

Ben -

If you’re going to make use of discussion forums to obtain answers to important questions—like the one you posed—I’d suggest that you provide greater context. Here’s why…

Sales excellence (which is what you want) is NOT derived from following general and/or generic advice, which is what you'll receive here given the limited information you’ve provided.

Three comments about metrics: (1) make sure you know WHY you want to track a particular measurement (the answer should relate to your sales system); (2) minimize impact of extraneous variables (you want accurate data that can be compared); (3) ensure that you receive reliable data.

Sell well.

-Steve

I would agree with Steve here and I'll make you an offer. Feel free to call me personally and we can discuss this. 310-804-5223. Or shoot me an email: kevingaither@gmail.com if you'd be more comfortable with that. I've been leading inside sales teams for over 15 years and can help you free of charge.

The metrics you choose to measure depends on the goals for your inside sales team and should roll up to support the goals of the organization as a whole.

What if your inside sales team IS a discrete revenue generating team like mine? Then we better be tracking revenue as a metric right?

What if your inside sales team is a team of qualifiers? Then dials, decision maker contacts and leads qualified, passed AND accepted might be relevant.

How about lead response time (minutes, hours) if your team is responsible for following up on your web generated leads?

Lots of variables. Give us more info and we can help you.

Good afternoon, Ben!

First, I'll go back to Drucker: "The reason a business exists is to create a customer."

Next, I'll ask two questions: First, what is the task and mission of your inside-sales organization? (Is it responsive - to deal with leads generated through a demand-gen program? Is it creative - to create those leads from a scrubbed list? Is it generative - do your inside salespeople generate actual sales? Is it supportive - do your inside sales reps support field reps?) Second - and based on the answer to the first question - How have you been measuring your inside team up to this point?

I think you can see where I'm going.

If the mission hasn't been clearly defined, no amount of measure is going to work, because you'll wind up (metaphorically) nailing jello to a tree.

If the job is creative, you'll be looking for the number of leads created. If the job is generative, you'll be looking for the number and value of sales they've generated - and so on.

The day of measuring inside-salespeople by the number of outbound-calls they've made is, I hope, dead or dying. That's just about as valuable as measuring gross-revenue without looking at margin.

Hope this helps!

-Will Noble; Aegis Consulting

Metrics: now there is a complex and very interesting topic.

in the B2B world, in which I am more familiar, I have seen best results when the metrics chosen are simple, straight-forward, tie to the mission, vision and values; and can be effectively influenced by the inside sales people.

Ben,
It looks like some of the others have caught on to the dilema your question poses for those of us who have the knowledge.

We don't have enough information. Like Kevin, I am available to give you insights and advice for free. To do that, I would want to have a conversation first.

I can't offer a solution without a complete understanding of your goals.
Dennis Tarrant
dennis.tarrant@hrresourcesgroup.com
303-699-8509 Direct line
720-413-6800 Mobile

Calls attempted per hour-which represents effort

Lead Burn per hour– which goes to cost

Positives per hour – which is our results

I stole this from Ken Murray @ Vanillasoft.

Link: http://blog.vanillasoft.com/stack-rank-your-inside-sales-team-it-can-be-very-...

It is practical and makes a lot of sense for my Acquisition Perspective.

We execute and manage a multitude of Inside Sales campaigns for our clients and leverage an affordable technology called Jesubi that works wonders. We utilize it to capture a ton of relevant metrics about the calling, approach we are using, how clean our data sources are, how many calls is too many and how many calls is too few, and what time of day are we most successful, what calling messages work and which ones do not work well, etc. I would recommend talking with Bill or Kurt at Jesubi. 317.844.6885 x121

Best regards,
Melissa