Sales has transformed tremendously over the last decade. Years ago, sales managers couldn’t measure performance with pinpoint precision. But that’s drastically changed. It’s now not only possible to generate a ton of sales performance data you can use to continuously refine your team’s approach and optimize your strategy—it’s easy. But the game continues to change. With software such as Atrium, you can actually see real-time data to improve team performance before they miss their goals. So how do you best use the data you’ve got?
Effective modern selling requires a data-driven approach to performance management. Yet unfortunately, many organizations struggle to transform into data-driven operations. Instead, they are data-reactive operations. Rather than utilizing data proactively to intervene before things go sideways, they react to data from a passive stance.
The best sales teams utilize data as their crystal ball.
One key component of driving positive activity is making analytics readily available and visible to everyone on your team. Without the data constantly in their sight line, reps can’t be driven by it.
Keep reading to learn how to create a data-driven sales culture and implement a data-driven sales approach by distributing metrics to get the results you’re hoping for and take your sales organization to the next level.
1. It’s all about distributing sales team performance metrics.
The first step in creating a data-driven sales culture is collecting relevant sales team performance metrics and making sure they’re distributed effectively across the entire team. A data-driven sales culture wouldn’t be possible without getting the right metrics in front of every salesperson every opportunity you get. People talk a lot about fostering a data-driven sales culture, but it’s all for naught if you’re not providing real-time visibility into the performance metrics you’re tracking.
For the best results, consider broadcasting metrics using all means necessary to make sure that everyone on the team sees them, regardless of where they look.
For example, you might have big TV monitors on the sales floor that display key sales metrics. You might also create dashboards in Salesforce, send dashboards via email and Slack, and also proactively notify team members about how they’re performing against their goals at any point in time.
The key takeaway here is that sales leaders need to make sure current sales metrics are constantly in their team’s faces. That way, they are being driven by how well they are performing against their goals—or how much they need to improve.
Whatever you do, don’t make your already-busy team log into another platform or dig for the metrics themselves. Do whatever you can to display them as conveniently and ubiquitously as possible.
2. It requires a culture shift.
Creating a data-driven sales team starts with transforming the culture. Unfortunately, many sales reps are stuck in their routines and can be resistant to change. To get your sales team to where you want them to be, you’ll need to implement a mindset and culture shift.
The most effective approach is explaining how utilizing (and prominently displaying) proactive goal tracking analytics will give them real-time data behind why they are pacing above or below their goals. This allows reps to see the root-cause analysis of performance issues (or excellence!) and allows them to pivot to make improvements so they don’t miss their KPIs.
Using sales performance metrics to measure and improve performance will not only make it easier for them to focus on more important things and repeat the most effective actions, but it will also help them ensure they hit their KPIs and ultimately earn more money in commissions.
3. It requires you to support your team during this transformation.
As you begin your transition to data-driven sales, you need to commit to driving home the data-driven approach to your team. Be consistent with messaging to reinforce why these reports and metrics are important and what impact they can have on performance.
You also need to train your team and make sure they know how to read the data and dashboards, interpret metrics, and utilize them to adjust their tactics. Keep it simple in order to avoid data fatigue. Choose no more than five KPIs and one or two leading indicator metrics that demonstrate how you’re going to achieve against your KPIs.
Beyond that, you need to infuse your sales team with data. By consistently displaying and distributing metrics, they become the driving force of your sales organization, making it easy for everyone to keep them top of mind every day.
Ready to implement metrics distribution in your data-driven sales culture?
As you begin transforming your sales team, you also need to change the way your team members think about data. By using data to guide their approaches, reps will achieve better outcomes. Of course, you have to make sure to democratize data across your operations. This is where those TVs and dashboards we talked about earlier can be most impactful.
Transforming into a truly data-driven sales performance culture is no simple feat. But with the right tools in place, the journey becomes a lot easier. Atrium can help your sales team reach its full potential. Sign up and start your free trial or request a demo today.
