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When we first launched Ambition, the ability to measure multiple key metrics was always a non-negotiable for our product.
We prioritized launching with Scorecards — and highlighting them on user dashboards and TV leaderboards — because even in defined roles, sales reps succeed by effectively performing across a variety of KPIs. Not simply closed/ won revenue or deals won.
Sales reps need a daily road map. They need to know what objectives to complete and what metrics indicate their success. Here, we break down everything you need to know about scorecards and how they impact your team (and bottom line). Consider this your scorecards 101.
You’ll learn more about:
- What a scorecard is
- Why to use a scorecard
- How to create a sales rep scorecard
- Who should use a scorecard
- How a scorecard can transform your business
- How Ambition can help
So What is a Sales Rep Scorecard?
A sales rep scorecard is essentially a report that keeps track of key performance indicators (KPIs) for each rep on a sales team. This helps sales managers track team activity and productivity. Think of a scorecard as almost a granular report card. It shows what goals your rep is hitting or missing, what metrics they should be tracking towards, and what their productivity output is.
Sales rep scorecards allow you to prioritize activities by points and score reps on their accomplishments. This gives your sales reps a clear path to success by breaking down quotas into activities and objectives such as booked meetings, emails, or calls. This way, your reps know exactly what they need to do to hit their goals and which objectives matter most. Plus, you’ll have clear visibility into what’s on track and who needs coaching as you’re creating accountability.
Why Use a Sales Rep Scorecard?
Managing and motivating an entire team can become a frustrating process if you’re not using the right measurement tools. Sales is very much a numbers game, and these sales scorecard templates are invaluable tools for keeping track of your team’s individual achievements, visualizing your sales process, recognizing your best salespeople, identifying coaching opportunities and inspiring growth.
They also come in handy when used in 1:1 check-ins. For sales leaders, you instantly see how your rep is tracking, where they are thriving, and where they are underperforming. This can lead to great topics of discussion during coaching sessions and make it much easier to spot where the rep is doing well or needs a little encouragement from a bird’s eye view.
How to Create a Sales Rep Scorecard
Creating a sales scorecard template of your own is easy if you can do some basic math and already know which metrics and benchmarks you want to score your sales reps on. Oftentimes, the hardest part is identifying the exact activities and objectives that you want to use. Here are the 3 basic steps for creating a scorecard template for your team.
- Identify your revenue goal or overarching “big goal”
You may decide to divide that larger number by your average deal size value to determine how many deals by volume you will need to close. You will use that as your target to work “backwards from” to set the smaller objectives that get to that goal. Most teams have big goals or targets either based on incremental increases from a year prior or a number set by the executive team or board. Once you have this target, you can move forward to setting the objectives and activities for your sales scorecard.
- Identify the objectives and benchmark and weigh them
Once you identify your team’s goal, you’ll need to identify the objectives that contribute to that goal. Common examples are demos held, qualified opportunities created, and pipeline dollars generated. Pull historical reporting to identify how many demos last year turned into qualified opportunities and then how many qualified opportunities turned into closed/won deals. Look to see how many demos historically convert to opportunities to get your benchmark for how many demos get you to however many opportunities you decide. You may decide to weigh metrics, demos, and opportunities equally or you may decide that opportunities are weighted higher because they are more valuable.
- Identify the activities that lead to the objectives
Common sales activities that lead to these objectives are calls, emails, social media connections, SMS, demos set, and more. You can use the same “historical conversion rates” concept above to see how many calls typically yield a demo set and get your activity benchmarks for your card. Still confused or need some inspiration? Check out our “meetings set” template to practice walking through it yourself.
Sales Rep Scorecard KPIs
One of the biggest benefits of using the sales scorecard templates is that the scorecards are broken into leading KPIs (activities) and lagging KPIs (objectives). Managers have the capability to control the leading KPIs that will ultimately lead to the objectives and results (lagging). When you stay on track with the leading KPIs on a daily basis, you are much more likely to stay on track to hit your quota or target.
Who Should Use a Sales Rep Scorecard?
Scorecards are useful throughout the company, but might look different at different levels.
CEO
The CEO probably wants an overview of the whole business that shows high-level trends, like pipeline revenue and productivity. This could be a wrapup of the entire sales leg.
VP of Sales
The VP of Sales needs high-level information, but would want it broken out by their teams. It could also be helpful to see a scorecard of how each sales manager is performing.
Sales Leaders
Managers need to see their team performance in comparison to other teams in the org, but they should always be keeping track of their reps’ performance individually as well.
Sales Reps
Reps performance should always be visible, both individually and between teammates and peers. This can also help to drive friendly competition, which only fuels the performance fire.
Several different teams and leaders can utilize sales rep scorecards to see the performance by rep or rolled up to the team level.
How Sales Rep Scorecards Can Transform Your Business
Over 3,000 sales managers use Ambition to power their sales scorecards. These templates come directly from these real managers to show how they manage activity and objectives successfully for their teams. Each of our Sales Scorecard Templates provides a unique look into the sales leaders’ specialized processes, allowing you to pick and choose which format works best for you and your team.
How Ambition’s Sales Rep Scorecard Can Help:
We learned from our customers that we can create powerful sales coaching opportunities when we provide holistic sales performance analytics, which we deliver by allowing sales leaders to assign a "weight" (or importance) to each metric and the KPI target.
We took the classic sales scorecard concept, combined it with metric weights, and added the additional impact of separating day-to-day activity from performance on longer-term business objectives.
Today we want to share that expertise with you, and help you build the ultimate sales team.
Download your free sales scorecard template for any rep or role!
