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The Beginner’s Guide to Automating Your Sales Process Part 2 By Kevin Snow
“For a program just getting started with automation of a sales process, there are the 4 metrics you should be tracking.”
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n Part 1 of The Beginner’s Guide to Automating Your Sales Process, we walked through the steps to take your sales process digital, automating repetitive tasks and adding in tools to keep you organized. Now that you have your process documented and have some tools in place to help manage that process you need to start looking at how effective it is and how you can improve it. But you can’t measure improvement if you don’t know where you are starting. Fortunately, the tools you used to automate your sales process provide a wealth of data about your sales process. But how do you know which metrics to focus on? In Part 2 I break down the key metrics you should be tracking. These metrics will reveal valuable information about your prospect’s activity as well as your (or your team’s) performance. By monitoring this data regularly, you will gain the insight to consistently exceed your sales goals.
PART 2: Measuring Your Effectiveness Ok so there are easily 100 or more different
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metrics about your sales program you could be tracking, but unless you have a well-defined process, and multiple teams selling in multiple verticals, that amount of data will only set you down a path of constant analysis. For a program just getting started with automation of a sales process, here are the 4 metrics you should be tracking.
Top Lead Sources The first step in making sales is filling your pipeline with qualified leads. To make the most of your business development activities, you need to regularly assess which sources you are getting your best paying clients from. Tracking where leads come from tends to be one area where salespeople and business owners are less than stellar, but with automation it can be made easier and/or a mandatory part of adding a new lead to your CRM or marketing automation platform. If your numbers show that certain channels consistently bring in the best high value clients, you can re-allocate your business development efforts to focus on those lead sources. Understanding where your leads are coming from also allows you to diversify your business development strategy if you notice that one lead source is driving the bulk of the new prospects entering your pipeline.
Win Rate Your win rate is the percentage of sales opportunities that become paying customers and it is an important sales metrics you should be tracking. Your CRM will have built in reporting tools to help you review what your win rate is and how it changes as you adjust different parts of your process. A low win rate can signal that you have an issue with your approach, or that you are filling your pipeline with unqualified leads or possibly the wrong leads all together. It is important to understand your win rate is impacted by several other factors, including complexity of your product and how many people are involved in the decision, so to identify where you need to make changes and focus your efforts,
