Are you a sales manager with a team and dread having "the" conversation with your folks? Yes, the performance review talk that makes you and your team anxious (more for them, let's give that).
Conducting a performance review and doing it right is one of your critical responsibilities. It is an opportunity to guide your team toward success, recognize achievements, address challenges, and align individual goals with the company's strategic objectives.
But if you are new to this or looking at new ways to conduct sales performance reviews, we are here to ease you in. Read on to learn seven examples of sales performance reviews.
What is a sales performance review?
A sales performance review systematically assesses the performance of individual sales representatives and the team. These reviews are periodical and generally monthly or quarterly.
What happens in the sales performance review?
- Review the targets set, and targets met using quantifiable metrics such as the revenue generated, pipeline created, and more.
- Providing feedback (we suggest to keep it two-way)
- Checking if the sales rep is happy with the work and talking about career growth
But why do this?
Benefits of conducting reviews for salesperson
Here are the common advantages of conducting a fair sales performance reviews:
- Increased sales performance: Organizations may use specific initiatives to streamline processes and improve sales performance by recognizing strengths and shortcomings.
- Goal alignment: Sales performance assessments ensure that individual goals align with the firm's larger goals, supporting a cohesive vision and strategy.
- Constructive feedback: Regularly receiving productive feedback assists sales professionals in identifying areas for growth and developing the skills required to flourish in their positions.
- Employee engagement and motivation: Acknowledging and recognizing outstanding performers and assisting those struggling to enhance staff morale and dedication to the firm.
How to do it?
5 sales performance review examples - What to appreciate on?
Sales performance is quite straightforward. Sales reps are given quantitative targets. The goal is to see how much of the target your team members have achieved and help them identify where they are lacking.
Here’s a quick look at some of the performance review examples:
1. Target or quota attainment
Check the achievement so far on the given target or quota and give feedback. Use your CRM or any tool and measure sales quota attainment.
If it's a quarterly target and monthly performance review, check if the sales rep will achieve the target by the end of the quarter at this rate and provide tips to achieve it.
You can also evaluate based on metrics that are suitable for you. Here are some:
- Percentage of meeting quota: Analyze the percentage of fulfilling their sales objectives.
- Average deal size: Assess the typical size of deals closed by them.
- Total win rate: Determine the percentage of total opportunities pursued vs. deals won.
- Average transaction size and revenue: Examine the relationship between transaction size and revenue earned to find patterns and opportunities for improvement.
Read: Learn more about metrics and KPIs to perform sales data analysis.
What to say?
For good aspects
Appreciate the efforts. Talk about their strengths and double down on them for continuous improvement.
- Strategic planning: You effectively plan your sales activities and focus on high-potential opportunities, which contributes to your success in hitting your targets.
- Strong pipeline management: You maintain a healthy sales pipeline, which helps you achieve your quotas with a steady flow of opportunities.
For room for improvement
Appreciate the efforts. Check where they are struggling - is it closing deals or generating pipeline or leads or following up, etc., and help with ways to overcome.
Point out if they are not doing their best and discuss what will help them do better. Check if it is a personal issue that's making them not perform.
- Missed opportunities: Occasionally, you’ve missed opportunities to upsell or cross-sell, which could have helped in meeting or exceeding your quota.
- Overreliance on key accounts: Sometimes, you rely too heavily on a few key accounts to meet your targets, which can be risky if those accounts underperform.
- Diversify lead sources: Expand your prospecting efforts to include a broader range of leads, reducing reliance on a few key accounts and creating more stable target attainment.
You would have already noted. Always appreciate efforts and start on a positive note.
2. Demo or sales presentation skills
Here's how you can evaluate:
Structure and organization:
- Is the presentation logically structured and easy to follow?
- Does the salesperson use a clear, concise, and engaging format?
Product knowledge and USPs:
- Is the salesperson knowledgeable about the product/service and its benefits?
- Do they effectively communicate the value proposition and differentiate from competitors?
Storytelling and engagement with prospects:
- Does the salesperson use storytelling techniques to engage the audience?
- Are they able to create a sense of excitement and enthusiasm around the product/service?
Handling objections and questions:
- Can the salesperson effectively address common objections and concerns?
- Are they prepared to answer questions and provide additional information?
Here's an example of what you can say:
You can also do a peer review for this and get feedback. You can check the demo recordings and go prepared with snippets to review calls to point out good approaches and areas for improvement.
What to say?
For good aspects
- Engaging delivery: Your presentations are engaging and capture the audience's attention, making it easier to communicate the value of the product.
- Clear messaging: You deliver your key messages clearly and concisely, ensuring that the audience understands the benefits and features of the product.
For room for improvement
- Overloading information: Sometimes, your presentations include too much information at once, which can overwhelm the audience and dilute the key messages.
- Lack of customization: There have been instances where the presentation was not sufficiently tailored to the specific needs or pain points of the client, reducing its impact.
- Inconsistent pacing: The pacing of your presentations can be uneven at times, with some sections rushed and others dragging on, which can affect the overall flow.
3. Follow up skills
Track the number of leads or prospects that the sales rep follows up with regularly. This can be measured by the number of follow-up calls, emails, or meetings made within a certain timeframe (e.g., 30 days).
To review, you can ask questions like:
- What percentage of leads do you follow up with regularly?
- How many follow-up calls or emails do you make per week?
- What is the average response rate from your follow-up efforts?
The conversion rate from leads to prospects, prospects to opportunities, and opportunities to closing can help you understand success.
What to say?
For good aspects
- Consistency: You consistently follow up with leads and clients, ensuring they are kept informed throughout the sales process.
- Timeliness: You are prompt in your follow-ups, responding quickly to inquiries and keeping communication lines open.
- Personalization: You tailor your follow-up messages to the specific needs and concerns of each client, which helps build strong relationships for customer retention.
For room for improvement
- Lack of documentation: Sometimes, follow-up details are not well-documented in the CRM, which can lead to gaps in communication and missed opportunities.
- Overly aggressive: At times, your follow-ups can come across as too persistent, which might be off-putting to some clients.
- Balance persistence with patience: Work on finding the right balance between being persistent and giving clients the space they need to make decisions.
- Enhance CRM usage: Improve your use of the CRM system to document follow-ups better, ensuring that no lead falls through the cracks.
- Prioritize leads: Develop a system to prioritize follow-ups, ensuring that warm leads receive the attention they need to convert into sales.
Read: What is OTE in salary
4. Sales cycle efficiency
Evaluating a sales rep based on sales cycle and efficiency helps you identify areas for improvement.
Measure the time it takes for the sales rep to move a lead through the sales cycle from initial contact to close. This can be broken down into different stages, such as:
- Lead generation: time from initial contact to qualification
- Qualification: time from qualification to demo or presentation
- Demo/Presentation: time from demo or presentation to proposal
- Proposal: time from proposal to close
Doing this will help you analyze the below two metrics:
Average sales cycle length: Evaluate the average length of the sales cycle for each rep, and compare it to the company's average sales cycle length.
Stage distribution: Analyze the distribution of leads across different stages of the sales cycle. For example, are most leads stuck in the qualification stage, or are they moving quickly through the demo/presentation stage?
What to say?
For good aspects
- You efficiently manage your time across different stages of the sales cycle, which helps in closing deals faster.
- You have followed streamlined processes and resolved issues proactively, minimized delays and kept the sales cycle moving smoothly. minimized
For aspects to improve
- Focus on closing negotiations more quickly by setting clearer deadlines and being more assertive in pushing for decisions.
- Identify and eliminate any unnecessary steps in your sales process to reduce the time it takes to move from one stage to the next.
- Work on helping clients make decisions faster by providing them with the necessary information upfront and addressing concerns immediately.
Tip: You can suggest good books or content on sales time management training.
5. Team collaboration with cross-functions
Review a sales rep's performance on team collaboration involves assessing their ability to work effectively with marketing, pre-sales, and customer success (CS) teams.
Look for evidence of successful handoffs, joint campaigns, and coordinated efforts. Assess the sales rep's ability to gather and use customer feedback to improve their sales approach.
Ask questions like:
- How do you work with other teams to achieve sales goals?
- Can you describe a successful collaboration project?
- Can you share an example of a successful demo or presentation you delivered with pre-sales?
These questions will help you do your sales performance review. But trust us, the best way to learn to do these things is from your manager and review calls. It will teach you what to do and what not to. That being said, read on for some best practices to follow.
What to say?
For good aspects
- Strong communication: You maintain clear and open communication with cross-functional teams, ensuring everyone is aligned on goals and priorities.
- Proactive engagement: You take the initiative to involve relevant teams early in the process, which helps in addressing potential challenges and streamlining efforts.
For room for improvement
- Siloed working: At times, you tend to work in isolation without fully engaging cross-functional teams, which can lead to misalignment and inefficiencies.
- Delayed involvement: There have been occasions where cross-functional teams were involved too late in the process, leading to rushed or suboptimal solutions.
- Improve feedback loops: Establish regular feedback loops with cross-functional teams to ensure ongoing alignment and to address any issues as they arise.
- Make friends: Have more frequent and informal interactions with other teams to build stronger relationships and improve overall collaboration.
10 tips for conducting a review for salesperson effectively
- Be open to feedback from your team and act on it. It will help you gain their trust.
- Quantify everything as much as possible. No, we are not saying let the numbers talk. You talk but base it on numbers.
- No bias. Try to be unbiased in all aspects.
- Be constructive with feedback.
- Encourage your team to talk in the review process by promoting self-reflection and self-evaluation, boosting personal and professional progress.
- Recognize individual and team accomplishments to enhance morale.
- Assess skill gaps and provide training and mentorship to promote individual growth. Encourage healthy competitions with sales leaderboards or other games.
- Get the basics rights. Set up sales processes to promote team cooperation, information sharing, and peer support, which will boost collective performance.
- Track and analyze progress against specified targets regularly to guarantee ongoing development and to change methods as needed.
- Be you. Be empathetic.
