The 3 Types of Metrics Legendary Sales Managers Track

The modern-day sales manager juggles many tasks, and one of those tasks is checking in on key performance metrics each day. Doing so ensures that reps are effectively executing the daily tasks needed to achieve their goals. 

In this blog post, we detail the benefits of tracking performance metrics and highlight the metrics that are an absolute must. Let’s dive in! 

The Benefits of Tracking Performance Metrics 

At a high level, tracking performance metrics allows you to measure sales effectiveness based on cold, hard (but incredibly useful) data. And what can this data tell you? Two main things:

• How it’s going: Is the rep underperforming? Overperforming? 
• How it will go: In knowing a rep’s current sales effectiveness, you can forecast how they will perform later down the line, allowing you to identify where you need to coach and whether or not goals need to be adjusted. 

Furthermore, tracking performance metrics allows you to:

• Set expectations: This sets a bar for expected performance and an agreed-upon goal for those involved.
• Reduce turnover: With specific goals to meet, reps know exactly what they need to accomplish. Arbitrary goals often lead to reduced morale. 
• Improve performance: Metrics allow management to see where reps need improvement, influencing their coaching strategies. According to a study from the Sales Readiness Group, 65 percent of sales managers at high-impact sales organizations spend more than 20 percent of their time coaching.

Once you begin tracking the metrics, you can measure the performance quality, which is how you know if the rep is performing to the expected standard. By implementing a coaching strategy, you can continue to improve rep effectiveness. 

Performance Metric Categories to Track

Because every sales organization has different goals and priorities, it’s helpful to discuss types of metrics rather than specific metrics (though they are still important to learn about). 

You can categorize each performance metric based on “type.” To reiterate, this might look different from team to team, but it’s a good starting point. 

1. Quality Metrics 

Quality metrics are different depending on the type of sales rep you’re measuring.

When it comes to account executives (AEs), their win rates are determined by the quality of the pipeline execution for the following metrics:

• Meetings per opp
• Time between touches 
• Contacts per account
• Email engagement rate

To understand the average sale price, you will want to measure the quality of:

• Contacts and accounts
• Average opp size
• Account types
• Discounting 

To generate pipeline, sales development reps (SDRs) need high-quality prospecting activity. You might want to measure the quality of the following metrics:

• Quality of contacts (seniority)
• Contacts per account
• Email response rate
• Call connect rate 

Tracking the right metrics will allow you to set goals for your sales reps that drive results.

2. Quantity Metrics 

Just like quality metrics, quantity metrics look different depending on the sales rep and the activity they need to excel in their role. 

When measuring the win rate of an AE, you want to look at the rep’s attempts. Measure the quantity of:

• Accounts 
• Opps engaged
• Meetings
• New opps

For SDRs, you can measure the quantity of their prospecting activity by looking at:

• Responses
• Contacts engaged
• Emails
• Connects

You can even consider measuring the quantity of their talk time to find areas for improvement, such as talk ratio and patience.  

3. Tempo Metrics

Measuring the tempo of pipeline execution applies primarily to AEs. If you want to understand what influences their average deal cycle, consider measuring:

• Average opp age 
• Opp progressions
• Follow-up meetings
• Stuck opps

By collecting the data from these three metric categories, you can also standardize onboarding and ramp to ensure your new reps become a productive part of your team. 

Never Let a Metric Data Point Slip By 

So what does this mean if you don’t have a platform to track and view these performance metrics? Not much. 

Utilizing a sales management platform like Atrium allows management to track metrics, catch underperformance before it becomes a problem, shift coaching strategies, and more. 

On the rep side, goals and metrics can be viewed with a few clicks in the dashboard, allowing them to see both their excellencies and areas for improvement.

For more information about sales metrics and key performance indicators, see here.