Measuring Your Teams Performance In Sales Jobs

I have had a long and successful career in the world of sales jobs. Like many people in managerial positions in the sales industry I began working from the bottom of the ladder and had to work my way up into more prestigious positions. I have worked in a number of different industries in sales and discovered that depending on the industry, you will need to adjust your method when it comes to performance managing. You will need to change what and how you measure your teams performance to ensure that what you are doing reflects the current state of whatever industry you are in.

In broader terms, performance can certainly be measured into two different groups so to speak. These are essentially the primary and secondary markers. Firstly the primary markers are the more direct outcomes such as the amount of cash sales and even profit. The secondary markers could refer to the activities that have been taking place such as face to face calls or even the amount of appointments that have been booked. This can almost be looked at like a funnel of sorts, with the secondary markers being wider part of the funnel and the primary sales measures would be the narrow end.

Many people in sales roles believe that the best way of improving any aspect of anybody's work in the sales industry is to make the effort to measure it. If something is measured, the sales person will soon realise that it is important and will make an effort to perform well at it. If something is recorded, it can be used in one to one situations with your team members and can then be improved upon. It does make sense really and can also be used for team members to see how they are performed compared to their fellow members of the team.

Despite having plenty of aspects of the role to measure, many sales managers fall into the trap of focusing too much on aspects of the job that wont necessary lead to sales. For example if the focus of a one to one meeting revolves around one of the secondary targets, such as the amount of visits made, that could damage the amount of sales made. If this is pushed for example, people may resort to visiting people they know will be more than happy to see them, but not likely to make many purchases. A good sales manager will always ensure their team members remain focused on their primary goals.


This article is written by Jonathan Walker of Sales Jobs