Customer acquisition rates
Posted: Tue Dec 17, 2024 6:13 am
Another commonly used metric is customer acquisition rate. Of the new prospects your reps reach out to, how many become customers? It’s natural for some salespeople to perform better than others, but if there are large discrepancies between conversion rates, dig deeper.
Are underperforming reps approaching prospects who aren't a good fit? Is there something that top performers do in sales meetings that others don't?
Compare conversion rates to the number of leads a audit directors auditors email lists rep reaches. If you find that conversions drop off after a certain number of touches, use that number as a benchmark to prevent your reps from burning out or stretching themselves too thin.
Finally, use conversion rates to compare different outreach methods, such as sending emails or cold calling versus seeking out face-to-face interactions.
KPIs for Sales Development Representatives (SDRs)
While some of the KPIs from the previous section may also apply to your sales development reps, keep in mind that SDRs primarily respond to inbound leads. For this reason, you should also track their performance with these KPIs:
Average response time
If your marketing team marks a lead as qualified, or if that lead indicates interest by filling out a form, there’s no time to waste and no need to keep them waiting. Always benchmark response time and encourage reps to improve it. That way, they’re capturing leads while the pain or problem is top of mind.
Percentage of potential customers followed up
You want your SDRs to reach out to all qualified leads, and that won’t happen if your team is doing the screening. This metric can also give you insight into productivity and bandwidth.
Positive vs. negative response rates
When tracking this KPI, consider all lead responses across any channel as binary: either the lead is interested or not. It’s based on sentiment, not customer acquisition. That’s what sets this metric apart from others.
It’s also notable because it’s measured at the lead level, meaning all that matters is the total number of prospects contacted. However, many of the emails, calls, or other touches required to reach them aren’t reflected in the figure. The metric is expressed as a percentage: if 50 prospects were contacted and three responded positively, the positive response rate is 6%.
SDRs should track this figure, tagging positive responses to identify trends. This metric can reveal flaws and highlight benefits in aspects of your sales process, such as outreach cadence, prospecting approach, and channel preferences.
System Touches
Ideally, you would like your sales process to be fairly “low touch,” meaning your salespeople are efficiently closing new business for your company and your consumer.
If you review a salesperson’s quarterly numbers and see that they missed their quota and had a very high number of lost closed deal touchpoints (e.g., five video meetings, 11 emails, and seven phone calls), it might be time to review how effective the rep’s strategy is.
Analyze the average touchpoints of your most successful reps. Do their closed deals average three video conferences, eight emails, and four phone calls? Ask these reps to share their strategies, techniques, and tips for optimizing their team’s average collective sales cycle.
Are underperforming reps approaching prospects who aren't a good fit? Is there something that top performers do in sales meetings that others don't?
Compare conversion rates to the number of leads a audit directors auditors email lists rep reaches. If you find that conversions drop off after a certain number of touches, use that number as a benchmark to prevent your reps from burning out or stretching themselves too thin.
Finally, use conversion rates to compare different outreach methods, such as sending emails or cold calling versus seeking out face-to-face interactions.
KPIs for Sales Development Representatives (SDRs)
While some of the KPIs from the previous section may also apply to your sales development reps, keep in mind that SDRs primarily respond to inbound leads. For this reason, you should also track their performance with these KPIs:
Average response time
If your marketing team marks a lead as qualified, or if that lead indicates interest by filling out a form, there’s no time to waste and no need to keep them waiting. Always benchmark response time and encourage reps to improve it. That way, they’re capturing leads while the pain or problem is top of mind.
Percentage of potential customers followed up
You want your SDRs to reach out to all qualified leads, and that won’t happen if your team is doing the screening. This metric can also give you insight into productivity and bandwidth.
Positive vs. negative response rates
When tracking this KPI, consider all lead responses across any channel as binary: either the lead is interested or not. It’s based on sentiment, not customer acquisition. That’s what sets this metric apart from others.
It’s also notable because it’s measured at the lead level, meaning all that matters is the total number of prospects contacted. However, many of the emails, calls, or other touches required to reach them aren’t reflected in the figure. The metric is expressed as a percentage: if 50 prospects were contacted and three responded positively, the positive response rate is 6%.
SDRs should track this figure, tagging positive responses to identify trends. This metric can reveal flaws and highlight benefits in aspects of your sales process, such as outreach cadence, prospecting approach, and channel preferences.
System Touches
Ideally, you would like your sales process to be fairly “low touch,” meaning your salespeople are efficiently closing new business for your company and your consumer.
If you review a salesperson’s quarterly numbers and see that they missed their quota and had a very high number of lost closed deal touchpoints (e.g., five video meetings, 11 emails, and seven phone calls), it might be time to review how effective the rep’s strategy is.
Analyze the average touchpoints of your most successful reps. Do their closed deals average three video conferences, eight emails, and four phone calls? Ask these reps to share their strategies, techniques, and tips for optimizing their team’s average collective sales cycle.