Are You Making These Costly Mistakes With Your Salesforce CRM Metrics?

The Salesforce CRM is a powerful platform that delivers mountains of valuable sales data. But are you using that data effectively?

Jason Jordan, partner at Vantage Point Performance, says his research reveals that only 17 percent of the metrics sales leaders measure can be managed directly.

The result, he says, is that inside sales teams waste a lot of time worrying about the wrong metrics and fail to focus on the high-impact activities that drive performance.

Jordan will be sharing groundbreaking research from his book, “Cracking the Sales Management Code,” during his presentation at Dreamforce on Monday, Nov. 18. His session is titled “How to Use Salesforce CRM Metrics to Drive Sales Performance.”

Which metrics really matter?

CRM has enabled sales leaders to measure lots of stuff. It’s easy to create reports with boatloads of different data points. Sales managers still struggle, though, with the best ways to use that data to improve management and coaching.

It’s not the sales managers’ fault, Jordan says. Many just haven’t been trained on how to use these reports in a productive way.

He says there are two kinds of CRM metrics: those you can manage and those you can’t.

Focus on the manageable metrics, which represent “sales activities”:

• Number of calls your reps are making

• Types of prospects they are calling

• How much time they spend planning before a sales call

It is less productive to obsess over unmanageable metrics, otherwise known as “business results”:

• Quota

• New customer acquisition

• Customer retention

You can influence these outcomes by doing certain things consistently, but you should concentrate on the sales activities that drive your business results.

Jordan says his Dreamforce session will highlight the need for focus and simplicity. The key is to identify high-impact activities, so you can increase revenue using the metrics in your Salesforce CRM.

See Jason Jordan’s presentation at Dreamforce:

Monday, November 18: Noon to 1 p.m. PST

San Francisco Marriott Marquis, Yerba Buena – Salon 9

Find out more about this session.

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