10 (relevant) KPIs to improve your sales efficiency

Revenue is a superficial indicator.

All indicators related to financial results are superficial indicators.

Those that are presented to investors, to the public…

While these results were made possible thanks to the constant improvement of the teams and their work.

Behind the façade lies all the machinery where each cog can serve as a beneficial lever for your entire business.

Especially when it comes to the engine of your company: your salespeople.

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Sales effectiveness and sales performance: what are the differences?

In this article, it’s more about sales effectiveness than sales performance.

That is to say, beyond quantity-focused advice, sales effectiveness is geared towards optimization, efficiency, and quality.

For example, rather than looking at the number of prospects generated, the preferred KPI will be the quality of leads (or qualification rate).

Work smarter, not harder.

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Why measure sales effectiveness?

Indicators (or KPIs, Key Performance Indicators) help shed light on performance trends and the impact of sales activities.

Thanks to these metrics, making informed strategic decisions becomes easier. You can see where the bottlenecks in your sales cycle are and optimize the process to achieve your sales objectives.

Here is a selection of 10 crucial KPIs to improve your sales effectiveness.

Summary:

• The main indicator of your sales effectiveness
• The 2 indicators to improve your prospecting
• The 3 indicators to optimize the sales phase
• The 2 indicators to measure your customer loyalty
• How to measure your sales team's fulfillment?

The main indicator of your sales effectiveness

When we talk about sales effectiveness, we are talking about optimization.

If there were only to be one measurement indicator, it would be the average duration of the sales cycle. From this KPI, optimization opportunities arise, as do the other sales effectiveness indicators.

Master the 8 stages of the sales cycle

However, in reality, the true indicator is yours.

Objectives change over time, and the boldest update them every 3 months. Therefore, rather than measuring everything, it is advisable to have one main sales objective with 1 to 3 associated indicators for your sales team.

Then, individual objectives for your salespeople.

Reducing the number of objectives and indicators to track also maximizes the work of your sales force.

The 2 indicators to improve your prospecting

Lead Quality

In the prospecting phase, sales effectiveness first means not wasting time on poorly targeted prospects. To measure it, the KPI will be the conversion rate of prospects to opportunities.

Next, the challenge is to continuously improve the identification of high-quality leads with the help of the marketing team. Thus, the measurement indicator aligns with the sales objective: increasing the value of the first purchase of each lead that becomes a client.

The quality of the initial contact

The quantitative indicator would be the average time between detecting a lead and the first contact initiated by a salesperson.

But to measure the quality of the initial contact, here is a relevant KPI to use: the time spent on personalization of the initial contacts.

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The first impression can be decisive during initial contact, so the time dedicated to researching a company, identifying the right person to contact, tailoring the approach, gathering personalized content… This is time saved in your sales cycle.

The 3 indicators to optimize the sales phase

Conversion Rate

The conversion rate of your prospects into customers is a must-have for gaining insight into the smooth functioning of the sales process and the growth in your sales team's performance.

The 5 best prospecting tools

This sales indicator is also useful for determining how many prospects need to be contacted to reach your customer and revenue goals.

Customer Acquisition Cost

How much did you have to invest to acquire this month's customers? This includes both sales and marketing efforts.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) indicates where your team's efforts are truly effective and should be focused to achieve results.

Average Sale Value

The average basket value (or the average transaction amount) of your clients is linked to the quality of your leads and directly impacts your customer acquisition cost.

This indicator helps direct your sales efforts towards your targeted clientele.

10 essential tools to boost your sales effectiveness

The 2 indicators to measure your customer loyalty

Retention Rate

Depending on your business, it can also be the renewal rate of existing contracts. Retaining your customers is often more profitable and demonstrates the quality of your offerings.

The customer retention (or loyalty) rate is the primary indicator of customer satisfaction.

Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction can be measured using various indicators: retention rate, number of complaints, satisfaction ratings on Google…

But one of the relevant KPIs to track is the recommendation rate, also known as the Net Promoter Score (NPS), which reflects your customers' engagement.

How to measure your sales team's fulfillment?

Onboarding of Your Salespeople

Onboarding new salespeople is a short-term investment. Tailoring the onboarding process is a guarantee of effectiveness as it helps identify strengths and weaknesses, acquired skills, and those that need improvement.

To measure it, the indicators may be linked to the time spent training or closing the first sale.

Cockpit accelerates the onboarding of your new recruits thanks to your company's best practices and the top performers of your sales team.

The training and coaching of your sales team

The constant development of your salespeople's skills is essential for your company's growth. Cockpit offers tailor-made training powered by AI and gamification for your sales team.

To track performance progression, Cockpit generates detailed reports on your salespeople's development along with all data on the mastery of sales knowledge and skills.

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