Benchmarking Inside Sales

To 'Benchmark' something simply means to measure or judge it against a known standard. This is an extremely simple definition for a process that, when applied to a customer contact operation (call and/or web center), is anything but simple. Here for your benefit are benchmarks to use as guidelines and ways of structuring your thinking:

Every sales cycle is different. It depends on the target market, the complexity of the product and/or service offering, the marketing efforts behind it and the strength of the infrastructure such as sales force automation, sales support tools and training .The benchmarks provided are guidelines for you, not key performance indicators that you should use to compensate your people. In order to turn these benchmarks into metrics that work for your team you need to factor in the variables in market, product, and infrastructure support.

With all of that in mind the following are a set of broad definitions and key variables that are to be considered in benchmarking productivity of a Business to Business (B-B) inside sales team.

Benchmarking allows you and your team to know where your inside sales operation stands today. A handful of metrics that most inside sales team track are provided below for your review. Remember that a thorough InTelegy benchmarking audit will consider the impact of these variables on your organization and customize them to meet your needs.

Inside Sales Metrics

Metric	Definition	B-B inside Sales
Average Dials/Day	Total outbound or inbound calls answered from the rep workstation. Report generated from phone system and provided daily, with weekly averages calculated	Full Ramp Goal- 65/day
Average Talk Time/Day	Total minutes of phone time as reported through the phone system. Reported daily, measured and averaged weekly.	Full Ramp Goal- 180 minutes/ day
Average Decision Maker contacts (DMC)/Day	This may be used to represent the total number of live contacts that an agent made during outbound calling or e mailing to a known decision maker*, or it may be refined to indicate only the number of decision maker contacts per Hour. The ratio of emails to calls should not exceed 60%phone contact and 40% e mail contact when calculating total contacts/hour	Full Ramp Goal- 10 /day
# of calls to close	The number of anticipated DMC's required to close the sale.	benchmark dependant on variables- range is 3-15
Sales Conversion Rate	Conversion can be based based on the number of Sales divided by the total number of DMC's or Sales divided by a key event in the sales cycle such as demo, evaluations or proposals	benchmark dependant on variables- range is 3-25%
Average Demo/Day	Demo is defined as a sales presentation (mini-demo) or a full Demo covering a features and benefits review.	Full Ramp Goal- 10 week
Total Pipeline	The total amount of revenue in the sales forecast. Deals x value of deals = pipeline
Pipeline Growth	Total new pipeline revenue added on a weekly basis, net growth. Measured through the pipeline reporting from pipeline revenue comparison on weekly basis	Growth goals determined by individual rep territory goals
Pipeline Accuracy	Snapshot analysis of pipeline accuracy on monthly basis. Pipeline for month captured at beginning of month, then that same list is tracked for results at the end of the month to determine % accuracy	80% accurate at full ramp
Touched Lead Goal	Leads Touched- total number of leads that remain 'untouched' or at 0 lead status for longer than 1 week. Measured from the lead creation date, tracked weekly	Full Ramp Goal- 0 leads remain untouched for one week
Ramp productivity	The time it takes a new representative to be at 100% efficiency and proficiency after training. Efficiency is the effective use of tools : phone, SFA, web conference. Therefore , how much productivity can be expected. Proficiency is the knowledge of the product /or service and the ability to use that knowledge in the sales cycle.	6 weeks - 6 months efficiency target should be 6 weeks

Creating Profitable, Predictable, Measurable and Scalable Results

Every inside sales operation is unique and, much like a doctor would examine x-rays and lab reports, an InTelegy Strategy and Plan is a focused and individualized review of your center. InTelegy can work with you and your team to develop a clear and complete understanding of the current state of your customer contact operations. Beyond that the InTelegy team can work with you to develop an actionable strategic plan, implement the plan, then manage and fine tune the on-going operations. InTelegy is prepared to become your partner in success.

If you would like to further discuss these benchmarks and how they impact your operation, complete the email form or call us at 1 877 GR8-CALL.