Beyond Vanity Metrics | Inbound Sales Development

Performance optimization discussions in the world of Sales Development typically focus on vanity metrics – surface-level metrics that are good for comparison, but don't necessarily lead to action. Using Looker, our team is able to view and analyze data beyond simple vanity comparisons, and instead focuses on clarity metrics – those that drive behavior, growth, and learning.

Here's a rundown of some metrics we use to evaluate our Inbound Sales Development (SDR) team at Looker, starting with simple activity counts for comparison purposes and moving into more complex efficiency rates that impact behavior.

For a bit more context, our Inbound team is primarily responsible for responding to Marketing-generated leads, qualifying them, and passing them off to our Sales team to initiate the sales cycle.

Calls made

The number of phone calls made per SDR is the single most common metric I hear when discussing Inbound Sales Dev. While it's necessary to set expectations for SDRs, this metric doesn't tell you much about efficacy and is impossible to optimize around. Is the SDR actually speaking to anyone, or are they just logging calls? Above, is SDR 1 really more productive, or are they burning themselves out?

Managers may be impressed by SDR 1's level of output, and direct the rest of their team to achieve similar results. But more analysis is required to truly optimize process and performance.

Calls connected

Here's the same view of calls made, adding in how many of those calls are connected – how many people are SDRs actually speaking with? We're starting to get a bit more info, but this alone is still not super actionable at a glance. One quick addition will start to point us in the right direction...

Connected rate

Connected Rate gives a good apples to apples comparison of efficiency. What are SDR 5 and SDR 7 doing differently to connect with more people? You can get anecdotal thoughts from reps, or do further quantitative analysis on other factors that could affect this rate – what day and time are reps making calls? Leadership should tease out those best practices and share them with the rest of the team to increase everyone's efficiency.

SDR 1 is making the most calls, but could benefit from 5 & 7's strategies around connecting with more people. Similarly, 5 & 7 have something to learn about increasing call volume. Action items exist for each SDR here, as well as for SDR Leadership.

Side note: Custom metrics & table calculations in Looker are great for on-the-fly data manipulation without necessitating technical resources. Here's what it looks like for the Connected Call measure you see above.

Now we can shift a bit to focus on results. Typically, the main success metric for SDRs is the number of Meetings they book for the Sales team. But only focusing on results lacks a certain amount of context – just like only focusing on calls made – so I'll skip that view and look at results alongside activities.

Calls connected & Meetings booked

Here are counts of Connected Calls next to a count of Meetings Booked on the phone. Again, this is helpful for comparison purposes, but is not ideal to take action from. One quick addition makes all the difference...

Meeting booked rate from Connected

The green line is showing the percent of Connected Calls that led to Meetings Booked. Just like above with Connected Rate, we now have a good point of reference to gauge SDR efficiency.

SDR 1 and SDR 8 have a similar quantity of Meetings Booked, but SDR 8 is twice as efficient. What can SDR 1 learn from 8's phone techniques to improve their rate, and what can 8 learn about increasing call quantity? This kind of analysis allows them to learn from each other's process nuances and consequently improves the output of the team.

SDR Leadership should use this view as to dictate their learning, coaching, and training sessions. Sit in on call sessions to understand strategies and techniques, and be sure that the team continues to build on the existing foundation and improve the process.

Meeting booked rate from Calls

All the way back to the Calls metrics – here's a look at the overall percent of calls that turn into meetings. As you'd expect, this gives similar information as the booked rate from connected in a slightly different view.

These percents can be a bit tough to interpret, so flipping them around may lead to more actionable insights...

Calls per Meeting & Connected Calls per Meeting

In this view, we see that SDR 1 is making 29 calls for every meeting booked, where SDR 5 is making 16.9 calls per meeting booked.

Similarly, SDR 1 gets a meeting from every 5.3 people he speaks with, where SDR 5 gets a meeting with every 4 people she speaks with.

This is a very good way for SDRs to understand their efficiency and effectiveness, and it helps dictate their day-to-day. If SDR 2 has a goal of booking 2 Meetings per day, she can set activity targets of ~56 calls and ~10 connections per day to get there.

Taken at an team-wide aggregate level (below), this is great analysis for SDR Leadership to do headcount and lead flow planning with Demand Generation. Starting with the goals around Meetings Booked, management can back into informed decisions on how many Inbound SDRs to staff based on the Demand Gen goals. This kind of predictability is essential for scale and growth.

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It's great to monitor effort and performance through the lens of data, and it's even better to up-level that analysis to influence action and behavior. Challenge yourself and your team to find and focus on these clarity metrics. This removes a lot of the guesswork from SDR workflows, and ensures that individuals, managers, and teams know how they can continue to improve and what they need to do to hit their goals.