VMafia

Account Executive

Should an AE have their outbound metrics tracked?

I'm interested to hear if it is normal for an AE to have their outbound activity tracked? We have to keep a certain total of outbound points at a certain point total by certain activities such as calls, emails and self sourced opportunities.

Is this typcial for your AE role?

Attached poll

Yes, completey normal No, you aren’t a SDR/BDR anymore

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

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15 comments

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funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

I think it’s unnecessary. If I’m making or exceeding quota, get the fuck out my face.

RaymundoFlex

Opinionated

Agreed. I track my own oppty’s created that’s as close to outbound tracking I do.

SaaSKicker1000

Politicker

AE II

Couldn’t have said it any better than that

KPIMaster

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

The dude abides

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

I agree with this completely, but what about AE's that are shitting the bed?

someoneinsales

Tycoon

Director of Sales

The best AEs track this themselves to see what is working and what isn’t. But a manager tracking is some micromanagement shit

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Not normal.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

Am I missing something here? Are you asking if its normal for a manager to track calls/emails/touchpoints?

If so, ya I would say it's pretty normal for a manager to at least keep an eye on it. Not necessarily throwing it at you and pushing for more constantly but every sales manager I have ever met at least keeps an eye on output.

I never manage to outbound activity but I do use it to guide my coaching and development with my team. Its hard to figure out how to help an AE thats struggling if there is no data to go off of.

That being said, I dont really care what outbound metrics look like for my AEs that hit and exceed their number.

VMafia

Contributor

Account Executive

100% agree with you and your logic.

In my current role you earn points for different outbound activity. For instance, 1 point for each call logged in Outreach, .5 point for each email sent, 10 points for a self sourced opp, 4 points for a deal review. These points must add up to and stay at 600 points with a rolling 30 day count.

They say that if you hit your numbers they aren't worried about your outbound metrics, BUT (and here is the huge BUT) if you don't keep yourself above that 600 number at all times, you miss out on the Round Robin Inbound opps that inbound SDR's set for AE's.

We are also expected to source 2-3 opps on our own per week and have a system that is like fantasy football and you have up to 150 accounts in your name at all times. If you drop you can add. So there are no territories besides east and west and I feel like all they are driving is to hit up accounts with opps on them so the same accounts are constantly beat up by our reps. T

My personal feeling is that this mentality is just driving activity with a shotgun approach and doesn't allow for more intelligent and thought out outreach. This could potentially hold me back later on when I land a role where I can't use that shotgun approach and I lack the skill.

Hopefully that provides a bit of clarity there.

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

Appreciate all of the additional context. This feels way over the top and the fact that they tie your SDR leads to it is fucked in my opinion.

If you have SDRs it sounds like your role is not full sales cycle, and therefore outreach should not be your main priority. This system just distracts you from doing what you should be which is pitching and closing.

Have you bubbled this feedback up at all? How much time do you waste chasing these metrics that would be better spent prepping for discos pitches and proposals? What is your success rate in closing the accounts you are being forced to add to your pipe that you dont really want to be working?

Gather all the data and then show your leadership team this is stupid haha

VMafia

Contributor

Account Executive

Couldn't agree more. We have inbound SDR's that set up those meetings for us, but the company restructured about 10 months ago and took away SDR alignment to the SMB AE's.

We are told by execs that the cost to acquisition in our space was too high and instead pay AE's (or as I like to call myself in this role a Glorified SDR) to handle the majority of the outbound and expected to handle the full sales cycle. The expectation is that whenever we aren't working on pitches/closes we are to be doing outreach. It's not motivating at all as you will hop off a customer call and feel like you are pinched for time and have to figure out a way to get the 25 mandatory calls out for the day (along with all of the other outreach) and change your mindset completely.

Feedback has been given, but since the company went public about 2 months back they see no need to change back to their old ways with territories for reps and aligning SDR's to SMB AE's.

CaneWolf

Politicker

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

Track attainment. If a rep really struggles then I think it's fair to look at activity but that's nonsense normally.

Rachet

Politicker

Account executive

At the end of the day, if you are closing you are fine. Doesnt matter if you make 1,000 calls or 1 call. If you do what you need to do to get that Revenue a good sales team will usually leave you alone.

Now there is a benefit to track your own activity as a back up. If you have a bad month but can show your activity to your manager they tend to give you a lot more of a leash during a bad spree.

If you aren't hitting quota and not able to show a lot of activity= you're on thin ice buddy.

I_LOVE_WINE

Executive

Enterprise AE

I don't think it should be necessary. Results speak for themselves and are what motivates the AEs since their commission is based on closed won and not activity.

RealPatrickBateman

Politicker

🔪Amateur Butcher🔪

To circle back on, expand and dovetail off what @funcoupons said:
👉🏻 At or above quota: Go fuck yourself
👉🏻 Below quota: Ok we can discuss, just this once though

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VMafia

Should an AE have their outbound metrics tracked?

Is this typcial for your AE role?

15 comments

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