There are as many ways to manage sales performance as there are sales managers. But it still comes down to results.

If you're focused on managing a sales rep's performance & output, you start at the top and work your way down until you've found something to optimize. The cascade could look something like this:

1) Closed business (vs. quota or goal)
2) Pipeline (closeable business within current month/quarter/year)
3) Pipeline make-up (big deals, small deals, the right deals?)
4) Pipeline activity (next steps, demos, proposals)
5) Leads (how many, quality, which are next to become an Opportunity)
6) Activities (cold calling, new meetings, lead follow-up)

Individual sales rep review sessions can follow an agenda like this, with a focus on enabling/helping the rep to overcome obstacles and solve problems to exceed their goal.

The focus is ALWAYS on the top of this list. At the end of the day, it's all about closed business. But the elements below closed business are what get you there, and is usually where the roadblocks occur that lead to missing milestones.

What do you think? Are there critical steps missing? What's your preferred method of managing sales reps to maximum performance and closed business output?

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