What are the top 5 metrics for sales coaching performance?

While it is true that this is important to track on individual level, looking at the industry standard and comparing it to how the company in general performs gives an indication on how much can be done on individual level and how much in organizational level. If the rate from offer to a win deal is very low this indicates a bigger issue than individual sales rep performance. As a Sales Director it is important to maintain a good pulse and understand how things are evolving in the industry. Reacting fast in improving value proposition, pricing etc. can be the key to individual sales rep success.

I like to use converstion rates to understand where deals are staling or outright stuck. It depends on having relevant stages in the pipeline that illustrate not just the selling process but elements of the buying process too. Once you've pinpointed where things are not going as planned, you can analyse the various elements that impact the deals and see what tweaks can be made to your process. Over time, you should be able to create fluidity and have deals that convert much more.

I do agree that conversion rates are directly affectef by SDRs or AEs that are using their skills and experience to have a higher conversion rate. On the other hand sales strategy has to look at the market it self and analyze if sales are targeting right markets, right geography, right people and through the right channels. To enable great conversion rates it is a joint collaboration between sales leaders and people that doing the field work. What I find useful is to always be curious about successes and failures of my team so we together as a team could analyze, regroup and make necessary changes to win.

Winning the deal starts with positioning the deal correctly in the first interactions. If you are looking at win rate alone this is not going to give you enough tools for coaching. First I would like to learn why we are moving the prospect to further stages. Are we positioning ourselves for a winning deal? I don't think we should focus on making offers, rather making winning offers. And only by truly understanding and uncovering the need in the first interactions is this possible. So be aware not to focus too much to the end of the sales cycle when coaching.

I'm a big believer that the right questions with a prospect often uncover larger issues that can be addressed by larger, more complex solutions. In the end it increases your average deal size. I know the term consultative selling has been thrown around a lot but it doesn't stop the fact that wanting to understand and help your prospect often bears some nice fruit.

Planning: During coaching, I focus more on the Pre planning and adherence to the plans. The quality of the plans and the discipline of the coachee to follow through with their plan is very important. A good sales call starts with a well prepared sales plan.

Planning and Evaluation gives you the edge in sales fundamentals. With the right planning, you can execute speed selling as a basic feature of sales calls. When planning lacks execution, then evaluation plays a major role to critique the whole planning process.