Sales Rep Scorecards: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
Sales rep scorecards or performance scorecards have been around since the dawn of sales time.
They enable a Manager / team or individual to track where they are against key performance indicators. According to ChatGPT sales rep scorecards can be defined as:
“A sales rep scorecard is a tool used to evaluate the performance of a sales representative. It typically includes a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) that are used to track and measure the success of the sales representative in meeting their goals and objectives.
The scorecard can be customized to reflect the specific goals and objectives of the sales representative and the organization. Some common KPIs that may be included in a sales rep scorecard are:
Sales revenue: The total sales generated by the sales representative in a given period of time.
Sales pipeline: The number of potential sales that the sales representative has in their pipeline, and the progress of those opportunities through the sales process.
Conversion rate: The percentage of leads or opportunities that the sales representative successfully closes.
Average deal size: The average dollar value of the sales that the sales representative closes.”
ChatGPT is behind the times on this as it only knows the world up to September 2021 and it’s safe to say that if you follow this to the letter then you’re in danger of ending up with an ugly duckling scorecard. But never fear, we’re going to walk you through how to ensure you have the swan of all scorecards.
Let’s start with the Ugly…
This is perhaps the most basic of sales rep scorecards.
Although it technically satisfies the ChatGPT definition of a sales rep scorecard…it has 2 KPIs and their annual Goals ☑️…
But here’s what’s fundamentally wrong with this picture:
It’s one dimensional
It’s showing lagging indicators that neither I as a Manager or the rep can go back and impact
It’s only highlighting the negative areas
It doesn’t give any insights into how or where I focus to ensure the next month doesn’t look the same
So how would this fuel a conversation with a rep?
“Annie, you didn’t hit your annual number and were behind the monthly target in 9 out of 4 months”
OK, so calling this out is not a bad thing but where do we go next with this?
“Annie, you hit your meeting number”
OKAAAY, so what?
We are of course purposefully dumbing this down as we would hope that most sales leaders would be able to dig a little deeper but it doesn’t offer a consistent way to dig beneath these high level KPIs.
What about one up from downright ugly… the Bad
If we address the lack of data behind some of the ugly version, we end up with a more thorough view of performance. We are starting to unveil some of the indicators that sit behind the final lagging numbers. Some first level causality.
We can begin to review whether we have a pipeline issue
We can see if Annie is focusing on only small deals
We can check if there is a conversion issue
And review what activity sits behind her meetings
But this approach is still outdated and fundamentally flawed…
It still drives us towards a numbers conversation
It doesn’t speak to the underlying skills, processes or behaviours that are behind these outcomes
It doesn’t enable wider stakeholder groups (e.g. enablement) to understand where they can play a part in influencing Annie’s performance.
And finally, what you could achieve… The Good
Learning the lessons from the Ugly and Bad examples above and to create that swan of a scorecard you’ve always dreamed of, there are a number of principles to think of:
Make it accessible to all relevant stakeholders - sales rep, manager, senior sales leadership and enablement to name a few. This creates alignment.
Make sure there’s no manual admin involved and it’s actively updated - admin is the curse of sales and will undermine any efforts you make to build an operational scorecard
Make it a simple and easy to follow journey - remember, the purpose of a scorecard is to take action to continually improve
In the example above e4enable does all the heavy lifting so you can take a positive journey with your sales reps but some tips to consider on your own scorecard journey…
Start with an overall team scorecard view so you can spot where intervention and support is needed
When you move onto your individual reps, in this case Annie, start with her goals
Use benchmarking against peers to highlight where Annie is trailing behind
Align your leading indicator to the skills and behaviours that underpin it to easily transition from a number conversation to the competencies behind them
Use competency assessment and benchmarking to immediately identify where to focus in
Be clear on your positive indicators to support a coaching conversation
Use flags to ensure continuity, consistency and focus
And finally take action and set clear coaching objectives to support improvement
In summary, the secret to creating the perfect rep scorecard is to:
Ensure it’s muti-dimensional and can be valued across all stakeholders
Connect the dots between the pure metrics and the competencies that underpin them
Make sure it’s actionable - it should be a coaching tool to drive improvement, not just numbers for review