While a strong sales enablement strategy can arm your sales organization with the tools necessary for success, it’s only half the battle. The other half? Figuring out which metrics to measure and then fine-tuning the process to turn that data into actionable insights.
So what should teams be measuring? How should they measure it? And how can they use all of that data effectively? According to Resy sales enablement expert Seamus Ralph, measuring sales velocity, mid-funnel activity, establishment rate and more help the company reach its overall KPIs. From there, his team continuously breaks down the data until it reaches individual sales reps and their respective targets.
Read on to learn how the reservations platform turns their data into enablement opportunities — not only for the sales team, but for the company as a whole.
When it comes to sales enablement data, what do you measure and how do you measure it?
When it comes to sales enablement data, we like to have a segmented focus on the sales funnel and post-sale metrics. Things like sales velocity, mid funnel activity tracking, establishment rate and churn rate are the main components where we find continued growth and learning opportunities.
Although it may not seem advantageous to the seller in real time, we also greatly value the importance of data quality and providing as much information as possible for our implementation and customer success teams. Operationalizing and tracking sales methodologies, such as MEDDICC and Sandler, are a huge focus for us to get to know our prospects and customers better. The hospitality industry is a very close-knit community, so we have a 360-approach to working with our customers. Many of our relationships manifest into referrals and references. At the end of the day, you want your data to tell a story. It’s important to make sure you use the analysis to improve the customer experience.
Data really helps us to provide the ‘why’ to our team.”
What goals or targets are tied to these metrics, and what are some ways you support your sales team in reaching them?
On a macro level, we are ultimately looking to contribute to the overall company key performance indicators (KPIs). From there, we start to zoom in closer on the sales team’s objectives and key results (OKRs) and then finally we help with the individual sales targets and quotas. In order to contribute to the company’s KPIs, we find it helpful to be transparent about the data that we are seeing as a sales organization and sharing that information with other departments and vice versa.
We break OKRs into four main objectives, such as operational excellence and building a world-class team. Under each of these objectives are smaller, data-backed targets that we work together to hit each quarter and review as a team on a monthly basis. Once the quarter is complete, we review the results to see if any specific targets need to be carried over to the new quarter or if we can replace any with new initiatives.
Finally, individuals on the team are, of course, looking to hit their individual quotas. These are tied to metrics such as booked revenue, realized revenue and churn. In the spirit of competition, we also like to try and layer in some contests throughout the quarter, such as providing accelerators for winning against competitors. For example, we recently hosted competitive “war rooms” where we did a deep dive into the offers and features our biggest competitors provide. That way, we are prepared for whatever a prospect might throw at us in a demo.
What’s one way this data has helped you fine-tune your sales enablement strategies, and what was the result?
Data really helps us to provide the “why” to our team. Some initiatives may be obvious, others not so much. But at the end of the day, data can be extremely persuasive when presented to the team. As an operations and enablement team, we try to work on a theme to help align with our current roadmap. We take a topic for the month or even the quarter and really provide as much reporting, enablement opportunities (both required and optional) and overall support to help everyone feel as though they are an expert on that topic. For example, we provide robust data behind why an average deal size might be lower than the typical average, and host enablement sessions on selling with value.
We have seen great progress in the topics that are not just sales focused, but across our entire revenue org. This helps to break down the silos between teams and get everyone working together in scenarios where they may not otherwise get the chance.
