Enabling and Empowering the Data-Driven Sales Manager

When you assign someone a task and provide them with a set of resources to use while working on that task, it’s safe to say that they will complete it more efficiently and effectively than if they didn’t have those resources, right? 

Sales managers are tasked with improving their team of reps, so why not give them tools that enhance their coaching strategies? 

At Atrium, we love getting the opportunity to conduct webinars with our partners to discuss how data informs our decisions and makes our sales teams better. 

Recently, our very own Pete Kazanjy, co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) of Atrium, had an excellent conversation with Justin Beck, Senior Manager of Revenue Enablement at Checkr. They discussed how sales enablement can improve managers to improve reps. A little meta, we know, but based on recent research, teams that use sales enablement have a win rate that is 6.5 percent higher than teams that don’t. 

We hope you take away some killer information and further build those data-driven sales muscles using the highlights we pulled from the conversation.  

What does it mean to be a data-driven sales manager?

For Justin, data-driven sales is all about using the right structures and processes for predictable outcomes. But those structures don’t simply come into existence out of nothing. It’s up to sales leadership to provide those structures and processes, such as a sales management platform.

Within these platforms, management can make decisions using verifiable metrics instead of shooting from the hip. These same metrics can offer foresight into potential issues.

Because a significant portion of sales management is focused on coaching reps, having access to robust metrics is the first step toward good management. According to Pete, it’s high time sales managers stop acting like “super reps” who think managing is all about swooping in to close a rep’s deal. Instead, sales managers need to:

• Get out of the business of being a pipe inspector. Strategy is important, but deal coaching shouldn’t be the number one priority. 
• Get into the business of managing by metrics. 
• Coach reps based on those metrics by providing insights gleaned from data. 

To bring it all together: Managers can improve their coaching by using cold, hard data to inform each decision.

How do you decide which metrics and KPIs to focus on? 

Justin believes that setting solid goals helps reps achieve their numbers (and therefore, get paid), so he determines key performance indicators (KPIs) through “sales algebra”:

• Determine the cadence, such as the quota of closes.
• From there, work backward with each specific metric in the sales funnel, all the way to top-of-funnel activities.

Determining the average goal also creates a standard for new reps to ramp into. From there, management can determine where they are failing to focus their coaching.

But in their busy schedules, how can sales management be expected to know which cadences should be in place? That’s where sales leadership comes in.

Leaders at the executive level have their revenue goals set on monthly and annual bases, so they should deliver forcing functions as cadences for metrics. On a month-by-month basis, leadership should review revenue to make any necessary adjustments to the cadences. 

That’s the beauty of a sales management platform like Atrium: Metrics reports can provide revenue forecasting information that helps leadership set cadence goals for management to more accurately accomplish future revenue. 

How do you use data to improve rep performance?

Data is the foundation of Justin’s framework for sales manager and rep improvement. His recommended process for improvement has five steps:

1. Find your metrics. Similar to the “sales algebra” approach, start from the quota and work backward to find the metrics that forecast the outcome.
2. Build out the entire sales process. Know the expectations for rep success at each stage of the funnel by converting from one state to the next. 
3. Review metrics regularly. Ensure managers conduct reviews weekly and sales leadership conduct reviews monthly. 
4. Determine coaching cadence. Determine coaching goals based on single metrics to be completed weekly and multiple metrics to be accomplished each month. 
5. Train reps with enablement. Take the top two reps and dig deep into what they are doing, create a training program based on their successes, and train other reps using that program.

As Justin reports, each of these five steps stems from the right sales management platform.

It's all about empowering sales managers

So there you have it. Atrium enables Justin’s team to measure rep performance and inform the sales manager’s coaching plans. As Justin tells us, there’s no reason leadership shouldn’t provide their teams with the tools and resources needed to improve. 

And we agree! To learn more about what Atrium can do for you, download our Rep Metrics Inspection and Diagnosis guide.