The Top 5 Ways To Measure Go To Market Strategy Success

How do you know if your Go to Market Strategy is yielding the anticipated results?  Many sales organizations track metrics. Few track metrics that are meaningful and act on the what the metrics are saying.  World Class sales organizations set specific milestones for metric progression, long-term goals, and adjust their strategy based on the story the metrics are telling.

When selecting Go to Market metrics here are a few things to keep in mind: 

• Do the metrics align with the corporate strategy?
• How difficult are the metrics to track?
• Are the implications of the metric changing clear?
• How long will it take to impact the metric?
• Can we diagnose the origin of metric movement?

Five Key Go to Market Strategy Metrics:

1. Revenue Per Dollar of Sales Expense – calculate by dividing revenue by sales expense.  This metric will improve with either an efficiency or effectiveness strategy (as illustrated below in figure 1.0).  If you improve revenue and maintain your cost structure, less will be spent per dollar of revenue.  If you maintain revenue and decrease expenses it will also improve
2. Selling Time - determine the main activity buckets that your sales team performs on a weekly and monthly basis (15-25 total activities).  Categorize each activity as either a selling activity or non-selling activity.  Launch a survey, or better yet, have your team track their time for 4 weeks using a time tracking template.  Best in class sales organizations are north of 70% selling time
3. Quota Attainment - take the total number of sales professionals that achieve quota and divide by the total number of quota carrying reps.  Best in class sales organizations have greater than 60% of their quota carrying reps achieving and exceeding quota
4. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) - measured as ratio of the: (Total Cost of Sales + Total Cost of Marketing + Miscellaneous Costs*)/(Annual Contract Value)
5. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) - the net present value of the cash flows attributed to the relationship with a customer

Figure 1.0: Example of Go To Market Strategy Success

 

Sales metrics enable you to manage your sales force, not just record its history.  Choose metrics that align with your sales strategy and act on the data patterns.  Analyze trends in the data to determine if your Go to Market Strategy is having a positive impact. 

Please comment on metrics you currently use to track your Go to Market Strategy effectiveness. Do you currently use these same metrics or have you created your own variations?

Thanks to Scott Gruher / Sales Benchmark Index
http://www.salesbenchmarkindex.com//bid/71357/the-top-5-ways-to-measure-go-to-market-strategy-success?source=Blog_Email_[The%20Top%205%20Ways%20to%20Me]