Post Sales Analytics

A fundamental view of sales results is a chart by month, over 13 months, of sales results which can quickly identify trends and whether sales are on track or off, year over year. Drill down capability into further details is just a click away.

A basic next step is to look at these results by Rep For example, although overall Sales Results show a declining sales environment, two reps (Ahmad and Mike) have increased sales year over year. And Amy and Sanjay have seen distinct declines in the same period. Mitch has held up well while Claudia has never been a top performer and has declined in same relative fashion as Ahmad and Mike. This chart exposes where the problems may be and where to give priority for further investigation, coaching or changes.

As markets change and competition evolves knowing where you are winning by Industry can be critical. In the example on the right the Apparel industry has taken off as has Chemicals while Transportation and Agriculture are down. Should Apparel get added priority or is it overheated and due for a pull back? Drilling into Apparel will provide answers about specific opportunities that are being won, just as drilling into Transportation will show what customers have weakened or stopped ordering altogether.

Another perspective on sales performance is how sales wins vary across customer size, from two dimensions: how are wins varying and trending by Employee Size and how wins vary and trend by Annual Revenue. Often these vary in tandem but not in all cases. Generally the best success has come from "midsized" customers (50-1000 in Employee Size and $50-250 million in revenue) but another growth area has been large ($1B+) customers.

What do you know about your sales cycle? Most managers only have educated guesses. Few have ready access to the most important facts: has there been a negative change in the length of your Sales Cycle in the past year, since last quarter, or even last week? What stage in your Sales Cycle is taking the longest? Are you spending more time on "losing" deals than you are on "winning" deals (and why)? Drilling in another level and looking at a Quarterly view of the Sales Cycle for Wins shows visible trends, with the lengthening of the cycle being driven by specific stages of the sales process. Clearly the Qualify step is growing disproportionately. The Wins cycle has increased by about 5 days the past 4 quarters, yet the Qualify stage has increased by 7 days over the same period.

Comparing Sales Cycle for Wins to Sales Cycle for Losses can reveal very important insights about your sales priorities and problems. For example, Sales Losses typically take longer than Sales Wins (in the example at right, it is 2/3 longer) - but do you know how much longer? And if it is getting worse, staying the same or getting better?

Drilling further into Sales Cycle reveals, in this example, the main culprit for the length of the losing sales cycle: the significant increase in time in the Qualify stage and also increase in Implementation. Comparing it to the Sales Cycle for Wins chart (above) shows that Sales Losses spend on average much longer - about 2 and half times -- in the first stage than does the typical Sales Win. With this insight, you can set up and test rules of thumb to govern pipeline management: in these examples any opportunities aged to a certain threshold old, say 45 days, and any opportunity that spends more than, say, 15 days as "Qualified" should be reviewed to determine if they are worth continued pursuit.

Another way to look at the Sales Cycle is by individual stage and comparing it against other stages and across time. This can reveal very important insights about your sales process. For example, in the Wins category some stages may have changed significantly in a positive fashion, such as the Value Proposition stage on the upper chart which has gotten markedly shorter over time. While others have changed in negative direction, such as Negotiation stage in Sales Losses category. Are these expected changes? Do they reveal where the sales process (or training effectiveness or sales priorities) need attention?

For many companies the front-end of the sales funnel is often more like a “sales sieve” as marketing dollars are wasted on lead generation activities that don’t have a direct correlation to closed business. Lead generation powers your pipeline. Identifying the sources for lead that are most effectively driving high quality pipeline opportunities will ensure that the best performers get necessary investment and top priority. Decipher provides wins, losses and yield information for different lead sources to guide you in making that decision.