The Covid-19 pandemic triggered what many are referring to as the “world’s biggest work-from-home experiment” and KPIs were one of many things undergoing considerable change.
By early March, millions of Americans were forced to leave their offices and work-from-home. For most, this occurred within a 24 to 48-hour timeframe, creating a wide spectrum of complex challenges — both in terms of sales teams and their managers. While previously only 7 percent of U.S. workers had the option to work remotely, in response to COVID-19, approximately 66 percent of employees currently work-from-home.
At this time, there is a “new normal” that must be accepted. Managers must now shift their attention to new KPIs, or key performance indicators — the metrics that matter for remote, digital sellers.
Out With the Old, In With the New
Without much warning, field and inside sellers across the nation were forced out of their offices and into their homes. These individuals are used to, and in many cases set up to, interact with customers face-to-face. Whether they typically attend sales events or are accustomed to the types of in-person tools and strategies that allow them to remain as efficient and productive as possible.
Now, the same objectives remain in terms of customer management and selling. However, in-person sales teams are now digital sellers — a new norm they must accept. They must now adjust and adapt to digital systems that drive intelligence and growth. In addition to their regular day-to-day selling and customer interaction goals, sales teams now face new challenges as they strive to maintain communication with customers and managers.
The key is to implement and adapt to new systems — all interactions must be tracked and analyzed.
Managers are also dealing with new complexities, as they aim to maintain visibility and communication with their team. Even in a good economy, the ultimate goal is to remain as efficient and effective as possible in terms of time management. However, during the current pandemic, this has become an even greater priority. Companies are looking for ways to save money while improving both short- and long-term sales strategies.
Related: 6 Steps to a Successful Digital Sales Transformation
Previous KPIs, including individual account visits, event leads, and face-to-face engagements are now counterproductive. That is why managers now need to focus on metrics that measure remote employee performance and productivity.
Employees who have a laptop and a cell phone can now be digital sellers — but without tracking and monitoring the right metrics, revenue efficiency will rapidly decline.
KPIs Every Sales Manager Needs to Track During the Pandemic
As the American (and global) population continues to accept the new work-from-home norm, this means that sales teams are no longer attending meetings, trade shows, or any in-person sales opportunities. To ensure the highest level of at-home productivity, all while recording and monitoring key insights, sales teams need the right tools.
Across the majority of businesses, CRM is a foundational element in place to support these efforts. However, the pain lies in getting teams to physically log the information related to each interaction. Even when they do, that information will be missing key details — not to mention the time and focus spent to log that type of data manually. CRM needs to bridge the gap between the customer and the seller, regardless of the type of communications channel used.
The metrics managers can measure all depend on an agent’s home set-up. In an ideal world, all agents will have access to a phone system, and this will be linked to their organization’s CRM, which will track performance. After all, each call contains a ton of content.
Consider a sales call, for example. What details could the sales team, manager, and company as a whole benefit from? When speaking to a customer, what is personally impacting them at this time — what are their pain points and what do they wish to achieve in the short- and long term? Some of this has likely been communicated previously, perhaps in a different channel, to a different team in your organization. By automatically collecting and monitoring these little details, you can engage each customer far more intelligently.
When it all boils down, managers want to know:
- How many times did a seller engage someone?
- What product did they discuss during this time?
- How valuable was the interaction — and what does it tell us?
- What was the end result or outcome — and what is the best next step to take?
Conquer, which automates various sales tasks, will provide managers and reps with a lifeline at this difficult time. The goal is to become more productive during this time, which in turn, will allow you to significantly increase revenue efficiency. When you have the types of tools that allow your team to engage 3x as much, with a consistently more relevant message that’s still personalized, this directly impacts your bottom line.
Track These KPIs Right Now
To enhance efficiency and increase sales intelligence, be sure to track these key KPIs right now.
- Revenue efficiency — The current pandemic has forced businesses around the world to review their revenue management strategies and in terms of a work-from-home sales team, nothing is more important than efficient systems. Now is the time to focus on what you can do, and in terms of revenue efficiency automation is imperative. By logging activities, recording calls, and updating outcomes automatically, you will not only save time, but you will also gain instant access to a wealth of information and data that will drive substantially better strategic insights. This also ties into another vital KPI—agent efficiency. Learn more about how you and your team can develop sales automation.
- Inbound and outbound interaction volume — The goal at this time is to ensure that engagement volume rates remain high. Many sellers are now using their personal profiles and cell phones to reach clients. It is more important than ever to implement an automated data capture system through the cloud, allowing you to better track and monitor all inbound and outbound activity. The goal is for you to have better conversations with your customers. Learn more about Conquer’s automated sales engagement.
- Deal progression — You need a system that will allow you to map all of your company’s customer engagement activities, organizing them into positive, neutral, and negative outcomes. The goal here is to create a sales process that tracks key stages, focusing on prospecting all the way to a deal’s closure and beyond into customer delivery and success. When each step of this process is recorded and monitored, you and your team can take proactive measures that will drive results and save critical resources. To optimize each workday, learn how to better organize your day with campaign schedules, all while referring back to the deal progression of each client.
- Activity metrics and conversations — The conversations that your sales team has with customers are incredibly valuable in terms of the content. Since activity metrics are manageable, meaning that sales managers can have a direct impact on them, it’s imperative to remain aware of everything from the number of conversations each sales rep has on any given day to the number of scheduled meetings. By recording these metrics, while analyzing the conversational data, you can help each sales rep increase their daily output. For more guidance, check out the five metrics you must measure in order to be a more effective sales coach.
- Strength of Customer Success hand-off — Measure how well your sales and account management teams collaborate with customer service and support. Make sure your left hand can communicate with the right hand, by connecting both sides of the house in terms of customer engagement and lifetime customer value.
Takeaway
Tracking agent performance at this time may seem difficult, but it’s one of the most important things managers can do. When things improve, managers will have access to a wide range of insights that will help them recoup any losses and plan future campaigns.
The goal now is to maintain good communication and to enhance customer relationships during these uncertain times. Although these times are challenging, placing immense strain on businesses across the nation and the globe, there is a silver lining. Nearly overnight, companies were forced to really knuckle down and look at the systems they currently had in place, with the ultimate goal of becoming more efficient and productive. New systems are being developed, leading to greater awareness and long-term value.
There are opportunities to be had and with the right systems in place, many businesses will not only make it through the current pandemic but will thrive based on the changes they implemented during times of adversity.
After all, Benjamin Franklin said it best, “Out of adversity comes opportunity.” Now is the time to create opportunities and grow.
Take a test drive of Conquer to see how native CRM sales engagement can make all the difference.
