A problem artificially hindering sales among B2B sales teams is measuring and rewarding the wrong thing — closed sales.

It sounds right — pressure the team to sell more.

But riding your team to close more business is like yelling at a player to run faster.  It feels good, but it rarely results in a faster time or more money.

If you want more sales, you need to measure the things that result in more sales – number of calls, meetings, presentations, trials, financial qualifications, quotes, etc.

You should review individual sales opportunities as they progress step-by-step toward a close, not merely focus on whether or not they’re closed.

All B2B complex sales within a given market have a similar pattern of the purchase decision and buyer activity. This activity needs to be broken down into identifiable stages and milestones, then reviewed and measured against the stage of the sale you’re in and what activities are underway to advance the sale to the next step. Monitoring sales performance this way puts emphasis on activities that qualify, advance, and close opportunities — and it’s harder for a sales person to pad the forecast or wear rosy glasses.

Drop all the coffee is for closers BS and instead watch what’s going on in the sales process, lending help and company resources to advance individual opportunities to their natural close.

What do you think?