Are You Tracking the Right Referral Success Metrics?
Joanne Black
Get Access to Buyers in a Tough Sales Climate | Partnering with Sales Leaders & Their Teams to Build an Outbound Referral Culture I Referrals: Your Fastest Revenue Driver | Unparalleled 70 Percent Conversion Rate
“Revenue is the only metric that matters.” Somebody actually wrote that in a recent blog post. If that’s how he manages his team, I’m glad I’m not one of his reps.
Sure, revenue is our goal in sales. Beating our numbers is our passion and getting to Club is our reward. But in terms of sales metrics, revenue is a lagging indicator. We can measure revenue, but we can’t manage it. We can, however,?measure and manage?the key sales activities and behaviors that drive revenue. And since referral activities drive the most revenue, referral success metrics are the KPIs that matter most.
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The Referral Success Metrics That Matter
If you’re like most CROs, you’re tracking the wrong referral sales metrics and spinning your wheels.?
For example, Craig was a veteran sales leader with only one referral KPI, and it was the wrong one: the number of prospect meetings his reps conducted. Meetings are an important activity metric, but your team will never fill their pipelines with hot referral leads if they skip the first step: asking for referrals .
It may seem obvious, but if you don’t ask, you don’t get. At least not at scale.
Other sales leaders measure reps on calls made and emails sent. So, guess how reps choose to spend their sales prospecting time? Pestering strangers with cold calls, cold emails, and cold social media outreach.
Some sales leaders do measure reps based on referral results, but referral?activities?are the referral metrics that matter. These include:
These metrics collectively provide insights into the health, efficiency, and growth potential of your referral program , enabling you to refine and optimize your approach.
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Set Referral Success Metrics, Watch Your Revenue Soar
Revenue isn’t the only metric that matters. Set referral success metrics around sales activities you can measure and manage. Then adjust your KPIs to match. Set revenue goals for each person. Your veterans expect their goals to increase year-over-year, so there should be no surprises. Now it’s time to set KPIs for referral activities and referral results.
Invite me to connect with you on LinkedIn so we can stay in touch. Let me know you’ve read my blog.
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Coaching healthcare professionals to RISE in leadership | Executive Coach | Imposter Syndrome Coach | Keynote Speaker | Gallup-certified Strengths Coach | ICF credentialed Coach | Emotional Intelligence certified
5 天前Makes so much sense - tracking first and foremost how often you ask for a referral!
Should have Played Quidditch for England
1 周Great article Joanne Black shared on X
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1 周You used one of my father's favorite sayings, "If you don't ask, you don't get." It's so true!
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1 周So true! If you don’t ask you don’t get. Asking sends people beyond their comfort zone. To ease some of that anxiety consider that it’s a mindset shift to one of helping people by offering a referral the same great product or service.
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1 周This is so important for professionals to understand. I work with attorneys and they don't do well with this. Lawyers get easily discouraged when efforts don't yield paying clients (e.g. when clients don't respond to a proposal). I try to get them to do what you are saying. It's a great mindset shift that dramatically increases motivation.