As with any other strategy, you must be able to measure the success of sales enablement efforts. At the same time, you might not know exactly how to measure sales enablement in a way that both gives you accurate insights and can fit into your business processes.
So, how can you measure sales enablement? Let’s look deeper into some of the key metrics and methods for how to measure sales enablement that can help with this based on your unique goals.
Disclaimer: The information below is accurate as of May 6th, 2024.
Be sure to gauge content performance
Content is a crucial part of the sales cycle, as it communicates directly to audiences in an attempt to move them through the customer journey. There are all types of sales enablement content that can help boost sales toward the end of the journey, including:
- Bottom-of-the-funnel blog posts and articles
- Case studies
- Ebooks, white papers, and other downloads
- Explainer videos
- Product sheets that include comparisons
- Sales presentations
- Proposals
- Testimonials
- Webinars
Every organization has a different sales enablement strategy when it comes to content. Regardless of the content you develop and publish, ensure you’re measuring its performance against your goals and engage in good content management. Look at reads, clicks, page session duration, and other key sales enablement metrics that apply to content, and make any necessary adjustments through content creation.
Attribution reporting is an important part of how to measure sales enablement, especially when it comes to specific pieces of content. This method of reporting tracks customer conversions and connects them to content. Good attribution tools can give you an idea of which pieces are truly getting results.
Look at lead-to-customer conversion rates
The primary goal of sales enablement is to attract the most viable potential customers and convert them. That’s why you should pay close attention to this particular key performance indicator (KPI).
You can determine the effectiveness of your efforts based on how many people are actually converting in your sales funnel. You can also track lead-to-customer conversions over a period of time to get a better handle on what’s working and what isn’t. Then, you can work to perfect your campaigns based on overall performance.
When you start increasing your conversions, you can benefit from a more streamlined sales process and a more effective sales enablement team.
Measure the win rate
One critical sales metric is the win rate, also known as the opportunity conversion rate. Measure both the general and competitive win rate. This metric measures how well you close deals within a specific time period.
Based on this metric, you can measure sales rep performance and figure out whether your reps are actively closing. If you find that this metric isn’t doing so well, your sales team could benefit from additional sales training and education.
You can measure this metric using the following formula:
Total number of wins / Total number of sales opportunities.
In addition to the general win rate, you can measure competitive win rates against one or more competitors. This win rate would measure your success against that of a competitor, which can help you figure out where you stand in your industry. You might discover that you’re underperforming against a top competitor. In that case, you would want to consider upping the ante in your market.
Plenty of sales enablement tools are out there to help track your progress as you measure win rates, too. For example, customer relationship management (CRM) software could help you track the customer journey and ensure your sales reps engage with people at the right time to secure deals.
Keep track of the sales cycle length
This metric keeps track of the total length of your sales cycle, beginning with the initial point of contact and ending with a customer conversion. Over the course of the cycle, multiple sales activities will take place that bring the lead through the sales funnel.
For example, people might initially reach out for a free download, such as an ebook. They’ll subscribe to your email campaign in the process. You might then push a free trial or a demo of a particular product offering. At some point, a sales rep may reach out to secure a deal.
Ultimately, you want to keep the sales cycle as short as possible to convert more people into paying customers efficiently. Using solutions like Salesforce, you can equip your team to become sales leaders as they boost conversions and revenue growth.
Minimize your churn rate
Another important metric to track, and which you’ll want to reduce, is the churn rate. This rate indicates the number of customers your company has failed to retain in a specific period.
There are many potential reasons why customers might fall off, and that’s when you’ll see this metric rise. For example, customers might stop doing business with you because of:
- Increasing prices that fall out of your customers’ price range
- Poorly performing offerings that don’t give people what they want or need
- A bad business reputation that deters people from doing business with you
- Competitors that fill the gaps you leave open in your offerings
Based on recent events, you can look at your churn rate and determine what kinds of trends are possibly causing customer falloff. Have you seen a surge in your churn rate shortly after a price increase? Maybe you notice a spike based on changing market trends that competitors appeal to as you fall behind.
Taking steps to reduce churn can go a long way in helping your business thrive.
Shorten the time to the first deal
As you measure sales enablement success, you should keep track of the time to the first deal. This specific metric looks at how long it takes for salespeople to close their initial deal after becoming new hires. The shorter the time to first deal, the more effective your sales enablement initiatives and onboarding processes are.
The key here is to ensure your reps can efficiently carry new potential customers through the buyer’s journey to convert successfully. If you notice that the time to first deal isn’t short enough, then you may want to improve training and take other steps to better prepare your sales team.
Increase your average deal size
Yet another critical metric is the average deal size. It accounts for the total amount of revenue divided by the number of closed deals over a set period. It looks at the growth of a specific business segment, which could include total business or new or existing business.
The higher your average deal size, the better your return on investment and bottom line. However, increasing this metric can be somewhat challenging if you’re not taking the appropriate steps.
There are multiple ways to boost this metric, including:
- Selling your offerings based on the value they bring to customers
- Developing an approval structure when considering launching discounts
- Upselling and cross-selling your offerings
With the right approach, you can significantly improve your sales enablement programs and achieve your sales targets.
Implement quota attainment
This metric helps measure overall sales productivity based on your sales goals. The methods your company uses to attain your target quota should adhere to your overarching goals and help you increase revenue in the long term.
Establishing a quota will give your sales managers and reps a clear target to achieve with your initiatives, and you could find that while your teams are effectively closing deals, they’re still behind on their quotas.
You want to see a considerable increase in quota attainment, which will paint a better picture of your sales team’s performance. When certain reps aren’t meeting this quota, you can work with them to help boost their individual performance and hit their targets.
Generate a Net Promoter Score
Get a feel for how your stakeholders perceive your organization and efforts by getting them to give your company a Net Promoter Score (NPS). The NPS ranges from -100 to +100 and indicates how likely people are to recommend a business to others.
In addition to measuring customer loyalty, you can use the NPS to measure your sales team’s satisfaction. Conduct a survey asking sales managers, reps, and other members of the sales enablement team to provide specific feedback.
You might discover that your sales team desires better access to training tools or sales software that can improve their performance. They might also indicate what sales activities are the most effective versus which are holding the company back.
To get the most valuable feedback for how to measure sales enablement and ensure everyone completes your survey, keep the survey concise and simple.
Take the right steps as you decide how to measure sales enablement efforts
By tracking the appropriate sales KPIs and incorporating the best techniques, your sales organization will benefit from total optimization to fuel real growth. Knowing how to measure sales enablement will help you figure out how well your employees and processes are performing. Then, you can more efficiently boost sales and increase revenue.
Over time, you can work with your sales teams to improve individual and collective performance as they hit their targets and attain their quotas. If you notice any areas that are underperforming, you may take steps to further improve and streamline your sales processes. This may entail more training, setting different goals, or integrating new sales solutions. Ensure that the goals of your sales teams align with your company goals, which will help you more effectively measure success.
One tool you can use to dive deeper into how to measure sales enablement and improve your sales efforts is a learning management system (LMS) like Docebo, which can incorporate an informal learning strategy into your sales processes. Using this solution, you can equip your teams with the training needed to maximize performance. Feel free to schedule a demo with Docebo to try us out!
