Measuring What Matters

Tim Ferris has a powerful quote in the 4 Hour Body: "Measuring something is better than measuring nothing". Many people, especially business leaders, may find that insanely obvious. At some levels, companies have the capability of measuring everything.

However, what Tim is getting at is there is an immense power source from tapping into the wealth of data we create on a daily basis. Ferris is famous for measuring everything: his weight, body mass index, fat content, lipids, cholesterol, caloric intake, and everything in between - not just on a weekly or daily level - but oftentimes multiple times a day.

sales contests

The core of what Tim preaches with his constant wealth of data analytics is that true transparency shapes reality - and when our interpretation of reality is data-driven, we can actively and accurately make decisions to effect and reach our desired outcomes. Whether that be losing weight, gaining muscle, learning a new skill, or in Ambition's case - improving Sales.

How To Create Sales Contests that Actually Work

A key difference in Ambition and standard business SOP, is that we focus on measuring what matters. The KPIs and activities that are truly the mechanisms behind an organizations growth. We do that in a 3 step process which any sales org can follow:

1. Understand the Players

Sales orgs can have a diverse cast of characters: SDRs, Account Execs, Account Managers, Field Sales, Hunters/ Closers/ Farmers. Just like it makes little sense to rate NFL lineman on their receiving stats - you have to understand the players to accurately assess their skills. It's all about the pancakes!

Ambition is built for multiple employee types with different metrics and benchmarks - allowing managers to compare apples to oranges. Or lineman to receivers.

2. Understand the Stats

Companies track and accumulate unbelievable amounts of data. Unfortunately, many sales departments are drowning in the myth of data and end up simplifying to one or two super easy stats - and where are the trends?

Managers we talk to daily confess about hours spent hunched over unruly reporting, rows of unfriendly spreadsheets, and painful queries - all in hopes of figuring out who needs help, who is killing it, and who are the rising stars.

To get a true understanding of how your people are doing, you have to be tapped into their full performance metrics.

Back to the sports metaphor - we could compare every QBs completions to rest of the field all day - but if we're not looking at the entire picture; the TDs, incompletions, interceptions - we have no idea what the total QBR more simply, who is doing the best and who can do better. And we don't know if the stats are rising or falling.

We're just seeing one piece of a big puzzle.

With Ambition, management has advanced analytics for a real time heart beat of the sales floor - and the past and the future. Once you have the whole picture, you can get out from behind that desk and engage with people to improve. We believe in people helping people - not people playing with spreadsheets.

3. And Finally, Understand the Desired Outcomes

On Sundays, a lot of football fans get caught up looking at how many yards or big plays a team had - and we could probably do a decent job guessing who won a game with those highlights.

But what really matters, if we want to judge a team's performance, is the ultimate metric: the score.

That's the culmination of all the stats: yards allowed, time of possession, special teams, interceptions - everything. Every football coach will tell you today they don't care about yards or sacks, they care about Wins and Losses.

When a company decides to pull the trigger and bring on Ambition to drive performance - we get to know them and their goals. Are they looking to drive the top of the funnel or are they trying to increase their conversion rates?

Maybe their core KPI is talk time or new qualified leads - either way, we know when those KPIs start rising, the end result is driving revenue - and Ambition can step in and deliver.

We take a holistic approach to metrics, because every CEO's ultimate metric is revenue - the culmination of all those KPIs.

Let us know how we can increase your companies KPI's and drive revenue for you by emailing sales@ambition.com. Follow @AmbitionSales for more posts from our blog.

Ambition: The 360° Sales Management Platform

Ambition is a sales management platform that syncs business teams, data sources, and performance metrics on one system.

Sales leaders use Ambition to enhance sales performance insights and build sales reports, scorecards, contests, and TVs that supercharge focus, effort and accountability.

Ambition is endorsed by Harvard Business Review and AA-ISP (the Global Inside Sales Organization). Hear more from business leaders who use Ambition in their organization.

Watch Testimonials: