The Ambition Guide to Predictable Revenue: Part I

This post is an excerpt from the Ambition Guide to Predictable Revenue.

A driving point in Predictable Revenue is the importance of Predictable Success and Return on Investment---in essence, knowing how much you are getting out of your sales team.  When you are creating a sales machine, it is critical that you can measure the output of the machine so you can tweak it where it needs improvement. 

Achieving Predictable ROI in Your Sales Team

Sales is a metrics-driven industry. And to that end, the importance of having good data analytics and understanding those analytics is impossible to overstate. To be effective, a good sales manager needs to be able to look at his or her team’s performance and see what is going right and wrong, what areas are driving success and holding the team back, and so forth.

Best Practices in Choosing a CRM

It's very simple: in order to measure productivity accurately, you need accurate data. This idea is nothing new within the industry. Most sales forces nowadays use CRMs that convey a bevy of information about the sales team’s productivity. The question is: are they using it properly? If your employees aren't supplying you with that accurate data, look at how you are using your CRM. Is it:

1. Too complex?
2. Too dry?
3. Lacking in features that add value for the employees?

As someone who has worked with multiple CRMs before (and been part of a company that blew through 3 separate CRMs in a span of 6 months), I can attest to the importance of having a CRM that balances easy user interface with quality, value-adding features.

You don't want a CRM that is so unwieldly that the users are intimidated by it. A good CRM is engineered to optimize employee usage.  I'm going to take a moment and reference Kathy Sierra's famous "Featuritis Curve"--demonstrating the sweet spot for user happiness with a CRM.

Another important aspect of CRMs that often gets overlooked is the output-side. What kind of metrics is your CRM churning out for your sales managers? How easy is it for them to access a given employee's metrics at any time?

Unfortunately, a common problem in many companies is that management possesses too much information. It is easy for managers to become bogged down in “Analysis Paralysis” when looking at the vast amount of data that comes in quarterly reports and data spreadsheets.

You want to avoid this problem like the plague. Because many CSO’s and sales managers simply do not have the time to pore over weekly or even daily sales data, they miss critical opportunities to train and inspire sales team members who are executing poorly or lacking in motivation.

Addressing performance issues too slowly is a major problem for many sales managers--you want to address a problem with performance before it becomes a major issue. In other words, don't let smoke become fire.

Predictable Revenue in Theory. Ambition in Practice.

Ambition boils down your team’s advanced productivity metrics into easily understandable “meta-metrics,” giving salespeople a single productivity score at the end of each week. The result is a clear understanding--for both the salesperson and the sales manager--of that salesperson's weekly performance, in easily understood metrics.

How do we accomplish this? We work with your team to create weighted metrics that align with your ideal levels of performance. 

The salesperson's Ambition score is then generated based on his weekly performance in meeting and surpassing these metrics. The result is an easily understood, readily available, and company-personalized score that you can use to assess how productive each individual employee is being. And in turn, better predictable success and ROI--better predictable revenue.

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:

1. FiveStars: Adam Wall. Sr. Manager of Sales Operations . 
2. Filemaker: Brad Freitag. Vice-President of Worldwide Sales.
3. Outreach: Mark Kosoglow. Vice-President of Sales.
4. Cell Marque: Lauren Hopson. Director of Sales & Marketing.
5. Access America Transport: Ted Alling. Chief Executive Officer.

Watch Product Walkthroughs:

1. ChowNow. Led by Vice-President of Sales, Drew Woodcock.
2. Outreach. Led by Sales Development Manager, Alex Lynn.
3. AMX Logistics. Led by Executive Vice-President ,Jared Moore.

Read Case Studies:

1. Clayton Homes: HBR finds triple-digit growth in 3 sales efficiency metrics. 
2. Coyote Logistics: Monthly revenue per broker grew $525 in 6 months.
3. Peek: Monthly sales activity volume grew 142% in 6 months.
4. Vorsight: Monthly sales conversations grew 300% in 6 months.

Contact us to learn how Ambition can impact your sales organization today.