This is a long post. If you care to read it, awesome, but if you don't, here's a summary: Stop complaining about your KPIs unless you are willing to prove to management that your method is netting higher revenue than their prescribed plan. Here's how:
We've all said it: "These KPIs are bullshit. Why do I need to make X calls, send Y emails, and interact with Z social posts?"
At face value, these are solid questions...but have you actually asked your management team why they exist?
You'll likely hear two reasons:
- (Common) A puzzled look on their face, followed by "why don't you get back to dialing!?"
- (Radical) The numbers are based on funnel activity that has been proven to drive opportunities and closed deals in the past by our top reps.
If you heard the second answer, would you be more likely to hit the numbers put in front of you for daily tasks? If not, would it change your mind if your manager/director/VP could walk you through the funnel math that proves out the KPIs as a scientific approach to pipeline-driving activity?
In my experience, you are more likely to get the first answer from your management team. They likely pulled the numbers they put in front of you from a blog or another peer/colleague in the industry. The problem is, those numbers worked for the company that published the blog or for the team their buddy manages...but who's to say that'll work for your team? In this instance, the KPIs are complete bullshit. However, you might be able to change things for the better!
I would challenge you to look at your June activity KPIs at the end of the month and compare it to the rest of the H1 2021. Is your call/email/meeting average higher or lower as compared to the previous 5 months? What about your closed business? Is it higher or lower as compared to the previous 6 months? If higher, take note of that and try to repeat it in July. If you can replicate the same outcomes from identical inputs then you might have a trend on your hands. Give it one more month and see if Q3 produces greater results than all of H1...and then go compare that to your peers. If your numbers perform better as compared to other reps in your org then you should take that data and prove out the math that your approach to activity is a scientifically-backed method to producing revenue for the company. Work with them to document it, and then replicate it across the sales org.
This is how you become an agent for change in a corporate environment. Managers hate complainers and excuses, but they love money...show them how to make more of it and you just might make your life, and that of your peers, much easier and more fulfilling.
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