Situation
Our client’s sales team was missing their goals and no one was quite sure why. They have an unpredictable sales cycle, with infrequent hits and misses. The staff understood their monthly goals and target metrics but had no leading indicators to understand whether or not they were on pace to achieve them.
The sales team lost confidence and began to assume success was due to happenstance, rather than measurable behavior. The company would experience good months and bad months with no way to predict outcomes or assess individual progress. Leaders felt unable to help their sales team improve, and the sales team felt confused and disappointed.
Solution
Proxxy started with a complete, individual analysis of sales performance. Proxxy analyzed the call report data for each individual salesperson over the course of a three-month window. Data points included the number of inbound and outbound calls and the duration of each. Call data was analyzed alongside sales data to determine patterns of sales success. Proxxy also analyzed cross-selling data. Cross-selling Cross-selling was crucial to understanding the success of selling multiple products to each customer (a key component of this business).
The result of this analysis was that each individual could see a unique pattern of call volume and call duration to indicate they would hit their revenue goals. Additionally, this data enabled salespeople to understand what it would take on a team level to hit company-wide sales goals. For this particular client, Proxxy began studying sales data just as COVID hit, and the sales team began working from home. As a result, this data analysis enabled the company to additionally assess in-office vs. at-home sales data by comparing pre-COVID patterns to post-COVID patterns, both at an individual producer level and as a company. Previously, salespeople frequently visited customers in person as part of the sales relationship.
A sister company to this client had attempted to solve this problem by giving each salesperson the same target around call volume or length of call. However, this didn’t take into account the individual sales tactics and strengths of each salesperson. For instance, less seasoned employees may need to make 15 calls a day to less qualified leads in order to build skills and close sales. More experienced salespeople may only need to make seven calls per day.
Instead, Proxxy’s technique emphasized multiple metrics with a focus on producer-level goals. This delivered more effective results thanks to individual patterns of sales history which spotlight each person’s sweet spot. This process took into account a person’s skill, the types of leads they have, and the style with which they close deals.
Not all salespeople are created equal. Individual sales goal setting prevents low team morale when a company expects each person to perform exactly the same without taking into account their unique skill sets. It also allows for process improvement across the sales team, where people can teach between their skill sets and each individual improves to eventually take on better leads.
Outcome
Following Proxxy’s presentation of the data analysis, each salesperson received an individual recommendation for how many calls to make and how long they should be in order to meet their sales goals. Employees responded in the affirmative, that the pattern presented by Proxxy aligned with their individual sales style. Proxxy also added another metric to track referrals.
As each employee implemented their individual roadmap, they were able to track their own performance on a weekly basis. For instance, if they’re not on the phone as long, they are less likely to cross-sell. This means their average will go down and the total monthly sales amount will go down. There was an employee who had been with the company for seven years. He was convinced there were no leading indicators that could predict his sales outcomes. Three months of data were not enough to surface relevant patterns in this employee’s performance. However, due to the length of his career at the company, Proxxy utilized additional data to expand the analysis and was able to confidently recommend a path forward for him.
Now, each employee feels empowered to analyze and understand their own personal metrics. Weekly meetings have become the new normal for this company. In these meetings, goals are set and evaluated alongside other team members. Weekly meetings provide an opportunity for each employee to evaluate their personal leading indicators, troubleshoot any problem areas, and still have time to shift gears before the month is over.
When employees began making calls consistently at the level predicted by the data, their sales started going up. The individual employee above stuck to his plan and his numbers went up 40%. As a whole, the company has experienced a 40% growth in sales across the board thanks to the implementation of weekly meetings and individual-level leading indicators for sales goals. The client has continued to succeed at this level, sustaining increased growth for the last three years.
