But is it as simplistic as just a sales target that can be the only performance measure?<\/p>\n
To delve further, we reached out to Senior Sales Executives from across industries and geographies for their feedback on what should be the Top KRAs for the sales function.<\/p>\n
While sales target achievement remains the key aspect, everyone said that the process is equally, if not more important, as the outcomes that one generates.<\/p>\n
Thus, breaking down the target into short-term measurable objectives and key day to day activities and tracking these are absolutely sacrosanct.<\/p>\n
Quality over Quantity<\/h2>\n
The emphasis must be on quality rather than quantity: measuring raw activity levels for calls, meetings demonstrations or proposals is likely to encourage dysfunctional behavior. Whilst raw activity levels may be useful predictors of success in relatively simple transactional sales, a naive over-emphasis on the volume of work without regard to the quality of work can actually depress revenue performance.<\/p>\n
The quality of activity can only be measured in terms of the outcome achieved. In complex B2B sales, the best way of assessing the quality of any activity is to determine whether it resulted in a qualified prospect committing to advance their buying decision journey<\/a> as a result.<\/p>\n This emphasis on quality is likely to result in salespeople:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s make sure that we\u2019re measuring what matters. In particular, let\u2019s make sure that we never confuse activity with progress, or inadvertently drive our salespeople to do more of the wrong things rather than motivating them to make intelligent quality-based choices.<\/p>\n First, we identified Business Results<\/strong><\/span>, such as revenue growth or market share. These are the most important performance metrics, for sure, but they cannot be directly managed.<\/p>\n Next, we found Sales Objectives<\/strong><\/span>, which are things like acquiring new customers or selling certain products. These still cannot be directly controlled, but they can be influenced by the third categories of measures.<\/p>\n The last one being Sales Activities<\/strong><\/span> that are tasks like making sales calls or completing account plans. These are wholly manageable and are where leaders should focus their daily attention. If you do the right Sales Activities well, you can accomplish your chosen Sales Objectives.<\/p>\n And if you accomplish your Sales Objectives, you will achieve your Business Results. A well-run sales force will report sales metrics that are a balance of those three types.<\/p>\n So, what are the performance measures in each of these categories?<\/p>\n 1. The number of new calls on new people who can say Yes to buying from you, by making a constant effort to reach new people who haven\u2019t yet heard of how well you can help them.<\/p>\n 2. The number of those new calls that included discussion of how they will benefit from buying from you. And we must be sure to talk with them about how we can bring value and results to them.<\/p>\n In summary, the Sales executive has to deliver results but there should be a diligent focus on the process and daily activities as these are important steps that help achieve the big outcome.<\/p>\n Lastly, we combined some must-dos for Salespeople recommended by our experts.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, there is no true replacement for pure hustle. Yes, you can work smarter than harder, but you can\u2019t accomplish the simplest tasks without the work. The more you put into perfecting your craft, the more efficient you become with your sales process. The more efficient you become will generate new leads which follow into meetings\/appointments and further into revenue.<\/p>\n There is a saying \u201cPeople Buy from People. The number of opportunities that you present have face-to-face interaction will not only increase your chances of a successful sale but will also increase the overspend. There is a direct correlation between top-level accounts and in-person occurrences.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a lot easier to keep a current client compared to acquiring a new one. Are you sending out the traditional holiday cards or touching base only when it\u2019s time for a renewal? Dive into the weeds and really find out what\u2019s important to the business and their people. Make sure to get creative and take care of the little things (ex. birthdays, company milestones, charity events, etc.)<\/p>\n Sales in an ever-changing profession. You can find a great deal of success through traditional methods, but is that really putting you in a position to reach your maximum potential? How are you trying to reach potential clients? How often and in how many ways do you use social media? When is the last time you sent a handwritten thank you note?<\/p>\n Instead of just focusing on monthly, quarterly and yearly goals, you must put a career roadmap in place. If you are too narrowed into the very next step you might lose sight of what you really want to accomplish in your career. By creating and tracking these types of goals will not only motivate the representative to work for themselves, but will also want to work for their superiors\/company\u2019s overall success.<\/p>\n 1) Robert Jolles<\/a>,\u00a0President of Jolles Associates, Inc.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Connect with\u00a0Robert on LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Email<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Follow on Twitter<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n 2) Bob Apollo,\u00a0Founder of Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners<\/strong><\/p>\n Connect with Bob on LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Email<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Follow on Twitter<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n 3) Larry Long\u00a0Jr, Director of Collegiate Business Development and Team Sales, Teamwork<\/a>s<\/strong><\/p>\n Connect with\u00a0Larry on LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Email<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Follow on Twitter<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n 4)\u00a0Jason Jordan, Partner,\u00a0Vantage Point Performance<\/strong><\/p>\n Connect with\u00a0Jason on LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Email<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Follow on Twitter<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n 5)\u00a0Jim Cathcart<\/a>, CSP, CPAE Sales Motivation, Keynote Speaker & Best Selling Author<\/strong><\/p>\n Prior to HBS, Mark served as SVP of Global Sales and Services at HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS). Mark was ranked #19 in Forbes’ Top 30 Social Sellers in the World. He\u00a0was also awarded the 2010 Salesperson of the Year at the MIT\u00a0Sales\u00a0Conference.<\/p>\n Connect with\u00a0Mark on LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Email<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Follow on Twitter<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n 7)\u00a0Christopher Orechia,\u00a0Manager, Premium Partnerships at New York Jets<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Connect with\u00a0Christopher on LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Email<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Follow on Twitter<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n 8)\u00a0Apoorv Sood, Vice President Sales at WebEngage<\/strong><\/p>\n In his role as a VP of Sales at WebEngage, he is responsible for the revenue growth across APAC & EMEA regions and expansion into newer markets across the globe.<\/p>\n Connect with\u00a0Apoorv on LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Email<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Follow on Twitter<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n 9)\u00a0Will Barron, Managing Director at Upgraded Media<\/strong><\/p>\n Connect with\u00a0Will on LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Email<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The function of Sales is seen as totally numbers driven. Performance is apparently judged based only on new deals and revenue generated by an employee. So, performance evaluation is expected to be binary based on whether targets were achieved or not. But is it as simplistic as just a sales target that can be the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_yoast_wpseo_title":"The Ultimate KRAs for Sales Professionals | Featuring 9 Sales Experts","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"We reached out to Senior Sales Executives from across geographies for their feedback on what should be the Top KRAs for the sales function.","footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-okrs"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
Measuring What Matters<\/h2>\n
Business Results<\/span><\/h5>\n
\n
Sales Objectives<\/span><\/h5>\n
\n
Sales Activities<\/span><\/h5>\n
\n
\n
\n1) A value adding proposition for your customer to give to future potential customers in their network (write a book, build a case study, hold a small industry event etc) and 2) clear criteria for your customer of who is appropriate for them to refer you onto.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\nOutbound Effort<\/h2>\n
F2F Opportunities vs. Numbers<\/h2>\n
Existing Client Engagement<\/h2>\n
Unique Engagement<\/h2>\n
Road Map<\/h2>\n
Key Experts who participated in this post<\/h2>\n
![\"Robert](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Rob-Jolles-300x300-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>A sought-after speaker and best-selling author, Rob Jolles has spent over 30 years\u00a0<\/span>teaching, entertaining, and inspiring audiences worldwide. His keynotes and\u00a0<\/span>workshops on influence and persuasion are in global demand, including\u00a0<\/span>companies in North America, Europe, Africa, and the Far East.\u00a0<\/span>His\u00a0<\/span>best-selling books, including How to Change Minds, Customer Centered Selling,\u00a0<\/span>How to Run Seminars & Workshops, and The Way of The Road Warrior have\u00a0<\/span>been translated into more than a dozen languages. He lives in Chevy Chase,\u00a0<\/span>Maryland.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Bob](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Bob-Apollo-3-white-background-400-square-150x150.png\")
<\/a>Bob Apollo is a Fellow of the Association of Professional Sales, a regular contributor to the International Journal of Sales Transformation and the founder of UK-based Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners<\/a>. Following a successful career spanning start-ups, scale-ups, and corporates, Bob now works with high-potential tech-based B2B-focused scale-up businesses, equipping them to Sell in the Breakthrough Zone\u00ae by systematically creating, capturing and confirming their distinctive value in every customer interaction.<\/p>\n![\"Larry](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Larry-Long-Jr-150x150.jpeg\")
<\/a>Experienced Sales Leader with a demonstrated history of success in SaaS sales. Passionate about coaching, and proven track record of hitting goals and helping sales professionals take their game to the ‘next level’. Strong sales professional highly skilled in Sales, Team Development\/Leadership\/Motivation, Sales Training, Sales Development, Cold Calling, Enterprise Software, and Sales Operations.<\/p>\n![\"Jason](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/jason-Jordan-250x250-color-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>Jason Jordan is a partner of Vantage Point<\/a>. He is a recognized thought leader in the domain of B2B sales and conducts ongoing research into the sales management best practices of world-class organizations. Jason\u2019s extensive research led to the breakthrough insights in his best-selling book, Cracking the Sales Management Code<\/a>, and his writing has been published by Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Sales & Marketing Management, and many other leading publications.<\/p>\n![\"Jim](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Jim-Cathcart-portrait-2018-100x150.jpg\")
<\/a>Author of Relationship Selling, The Acorn Principle, The Self Motivation Handbook and 15 other books, inducted into the Sales & Marketing Hall of Fame in London, Top 1% TEDx speaker, an award-winning professional speaker. Jim Cathcart advises leaders and leadership teams worldwide on how to achieve more. Jim\u2019s personal coaching gives courage and focus to people in transition.<\/div>\n![\"Mark](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Mark-Roberge-150x150.png\")
<\/a>Mark Roberge is a Senior Lecturer in\u00a0the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at the Harvard Business School<\/a>.\u00a0 He\u00a0teaches Entrepreneurial Sales and Marketing in the second-year MBA program in the Fall term\u00a0and The Entrepreneurial Manager and Startup Bootcamp in the first-year MBA program in the Spring and Winter terms.<\/p>\n![\"CHRISTOPHER](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/CHRISTOPHER-ORECHIA-150x100.png\")
<\/a>Christopher Orechia is an experienced sales professional within the Sports & Entertainment industry for 10+ years working with organizations in the NFL, NBA, NHL, minor league sports and NCAA. Currently, he holds the position of Manager, Premium Partnership for the New York Jets.<\/p>\n![\"APOORV](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/APOORV-SOOD-150x150.jpeg\")
<\/a>Apoorv Sood is Vice President Sales at WebEngage<\/a>, SAAS Company headquartered in Mumbai, India. He is both visionary and practical with high levels of analytical horsepower and ability to turn analysis into insight and actions.<\/p>\n![\"Will](\"https:\/\/grosum.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/will-barron-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>Will Barron is the host of The Salesman Podcast (the worlds biggest sales podcast) which you can find at Salesman.org<\/a>. He is also the founder of SalesSchool.org <\/a>where he helps salespeople not just hit their sales targets but really thrive in sales.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n