Many times when sales teams hear the word accountability, an immediate sense of dread fills the room. That’s because, traditionally, responsibility comes alongside words like a quota. In the mind that if you don’t meet your quota, you’ll get in trouble.
However, there are plenty of other ways to drive sales accountability (and get great results) without sending your sales team into a frenzy.
This article will go over five metrics to help your sales team get better outcomes through a renewed sense of accountability.
What is Sales Accountability?
In an ideal world, every person in a sales team would have consistent, repeatable results. But as anyone who has worked in sales can attest to, this perfect scenario rarely, if ever, happens. Variability is inevitable for each salesperson and can be a result of any number of factors, including more or less:
- Experience
- Knowledge in the field
- Motivation
Sales accountability is a way for the sales team to take ownership of the goals and the plan to reach them. It’s about empowering everyone in the group to perform their best without the need to micromanage.
How to Create and Encourage Sales Accountability
Motivation in sales teams can make a massive difference in the team’s performance. The problem is that there is no one-size-fits-all way of motivating a sales team.
Since you can’t force motivation, you have to implement ways to increase it. A great tactic is to give your team visibility and transparency with what it will take to reach your goal. To do this, give them accurate data.
Give Sales Reps Relevant Data
Providing your salespeople with relevant data is about creating a feedback loop they can use to see the effectiveness of the team’s sales plan. It gives everyone clear visibility on whether their actions are working or not, which will empower your team to make the individual adjustments they need to stay on track with reaching the team’s goal.
5 Metrics for Sales Team Accountability
There are dozens of metrics that can be used to track the progress of your sales team. And a common mistake that sales teams make is that they take on too many once they start tracking metrics.
Once again, when it comes to metrics, there is no one size fits all recipe. Each team needs to find the combination of metrics that help them best. Here are five metrics you should track to build a solid foundation:
1. Total Sales (Per Rep or for the Entire Sales Team)
- This is the most straightforward metric, yet it is beneficial. Making sure everyone in your group has clear visibility on how the team is doing helps everyone take ownership and understand how they contribute to the goal.
2. Net New Clients
- This metric is beneficial in the SaaS space since it is often possible to obtain multiple sales from repeat customers. By tracking net new clients, you can help your team understand what impact they have from the business they bring in through the door.
3. Revenue Per Client
- The usefulness of tracking revenue per client comes from the fact that not all sales are equal. Many organizations tend to rely on the volume of sales, giving an unrealistic perspective on the actual revenue being generated by the sales team.
4. Sales Growth (as a Company)
- Keeping track of how sales have grown from an organizational perspective helps sales teams view the degree of their contribution. This allows salespeople to understand the impact they can make within the organization and not lose track of the value of their role.
5. Client Retention and/or Churn
- It’s normal for clients to stop working with your organization. But in most cases, this metric is not shared with sales teams. That’s because once the sales teams hand off the client, they move on to the next prospect. Giving your team visibility on this metric can empower them to provide valuable insight into your customer’s life cycle so that they can set the right expectations with their sales prospects.
Note: These metrics heavily tie into the financial health of your company. When used in conjunction with other financial metrics (i.e., cash flow, expenses, etc.), you create an optimized financial system for your company to grow.
3 Tips for Improving Accountability
The main benefit of adding accountability metrics is that it empowers your sales team to take ownership of their actions. Here are some tips to help you make the most out of your steam’s sales accountability:
1. Pipeline Review and Management
- Making pipeline reviews a habit in your sales team is a great practice. It lets you share your experience and gives them actionable feedback in a timely manner. This way you can share best practices and any breakthroughs they’ve had with the rest of the team.
2. Make Your Key Metrics Crystal Clear
- Investing the time into making sure everyone is clear on the metrics that you’re keeping track of is a critical step to driving sales accountability. Everyone should understand how the data is being tracked and why it is essential to the organization. This ensures the entire process is transparent.
3. Discuss Wins and Losses As a Team
- Beyond the motivational aspect of sharing what the team has done right, it’s also important to point out areas of opportunity based on the metrics. This makes it easy to establish a culture of objective communication without making any team member feel like they are being reprimanded for their missteps.
Use Founder’s CPA for Accurate Sales Data
Having your sales team perform at its best is a challenge for every organization. So the more prepared your salespeople are to take ownership of their performance, the better your odds of having long-term success in reaching your sales goals.
Tracking sales metrics is a beneficial tool for motivating your sales team. However, implementing data tracking can be tricky when a lack of bandwidth gets in the way of executing the action plan successfully.
At Founder’s CPA, we can work with you and your team to make this process easier. We’ll act as a strategic partner and help you track the right metrics so your sales team can keep the focus on what matters most. Schedule a free consultation today.
