Unfortunately, the perfect sales team does not exist- but measuring the performance of your lead generation strategy can reveal weaknesses and opportunities in your strategy that can help to optimize your team.

To optimize your sales team’s performance, you must have a dynamic strategy that includes a methodical evaluation process. Follow these 3 steps to evaluate your lead generation performance.

1. Track the Right KPIs

What key performance indicators (KPIs) you choose to track and prioritize will vary depending on your unique offer and goals. However, there are a few KPIs that all sales teams can benefit from tracking. 

Number of times reaching the decision-maker

This metric is incredibly important and revealing for B2B sales. 

The “decision-maker” is the person with buying power and therefore the primary target for B2B sales representatives. As opposed to getting stuck at gatekeepers, reaching the decision-maker means your sales rep has gotten in front of the primary target- the person with the ability to make a purchase decision. 

For complex B2B sales, not always reaching the decision-maker is to be expected, especially depending on the industry and organization of the target company; it takes at least 6 touches to connect with a decision-maker, so a longer sales process is expected for B2B. 

However, if your sales team is struggling to reach decision-makers, you may need to reevaluate your lead generation process to better target decision-makers.

Read B2B Telemarketing: How to Reach the Decision Maker for more tips on how to connect. 

Number of qualified leads

Your instinct might be to track all leads, assuming this will show you how many potential sales your team is bringing in; however, a more accurate metric to track is qualified leads. 

Tracking qualified leads reveals the success of your sales team and the strength of the leads your team is bringing in. 

Are you finding that many of your leads are weak, or are not converting to sales? This may be a sign that your sales team needs some help. 

Once again, attracting the right leads comes down to messaging. An experienced B2B caller is able to have a peer-to-peer conversation with the decision-maker, and go in-depth to reveal the ways your product or services solves the pain points of your target. 

Sales Cycle Completion Rate

Building off of your number of qualified leads, your sales cycle completion rate reveals the success of your sales team and its ability to bring in qualified leads who convert to clients. 

A high sales cycle completion rate means many of the leads your sales team connects with are converting to paying customers. A low completion rate is a sign, however, that your sales team is not bringing in qualified leads.

To improve this rate, you may need to reconsider your sales cycle. A sales cycle is the strategic and repeatable process your sales representatives follow to convert cold leads to clients. Reviewing your sales cycle from start to finish can reveal where sales reps may be losing leads. Consider where in the sales funnel your leads are dropping off, and what you could change to improve this step.

Some common areas of weakness include inexperienced sales representatives not knowing how to connect with decision-makers and callers relying too heavily on script.

2. Client Satisfaction and Retention 

Creating a positive customer experience is crucial for acquiring new clients and retaining existing clients- especially in our digital world. 

Though you may not see your prospects face-to-face, their satisfaction is linked to their experiences with your company in every capacity. The experience your representatives create during the sales cycles reflect on what their experiences may be like as clients. You must ensure a positive customer experience across all aspects of your brand.

You can learn a lot about the success of your lead generation strategy from your failures. Review testimonials and other client interactions to find where you may have failed to delight clients in the past. If possible, reach out to past leads who never converted to customers to see where you went wrong.

Understanding where customers have been unsatisfied in the past can reveal opportunities to improve in the future.

Your retention rate should reveal the overall satisfaction of your clients. If clients are irredeemably disappointed in your products or services, they will not sign another contract with your company. When you do lose a customer, an exit interview can reveal where you went wrong. It can also give you direction for how to improve next time. 

Overall, how your current clients feel about your company will reflect your client satisfaction. Simply asking where you can improve can be a huge step in optimizing your lead generation program. 

Read 4 Ways to Create a Positive Customer Experience in B2B Sales to learn more.

3. Return on Investment 

Your ROI is the most obvious metric to track when trying to determine the success of any business effort. What you put in must come back with value. However, to evaluate the “true” ROI of your lead generation performance, you must take into account all aspects of your sales process. 

As you evaluate your lead generation performance, consider not only your financial budget but also how much time and energy your representatives spend on calls. How your sales representatives spend their time is a very important indicator of your ROI. On average, sales reps spend about 65% of their time on tasks other than sales- meaning more than half of their time is spent on non-revenue-generating activities!

On the other hand, representatives who spend most of their time on calls may be neglecting other sales activities.

Outsourcing sales activities can actually save you time and money if you partner with the right team. Rather than only spending 35% of time on sales- an outsourced team will give you 100%, every time.

Effectively qualifying leads when your sales team is stretched thin can be difficult. An experienced outsourced sales team has the know-how to properly assess prospects to bring in highly-qualified leads. Spend less time digging through duds and more time working with prospects who will actually make a purchase. 

The key to successful outsourcing is finding the right team to complement your sales department. This means providing a team of experienced sales professionals who understand your target audience and how to provide the in-depth conversations needed to convert complex B2B sales. 

Learn more about our B2B sales and lead generation services. 

When looking for B2B sales success, you must focus on maintaining a dynamic strategy- this means changing your process as needed to stay ahead of the competition. Evaluating, reevaluating, and evolving your lead generation strategy will ensure you keep performing at an optimal level.