The Performance Ratios section below tells you how your performance is reflected in your results. This report indicates how effective you are as a sales professional and where in the selling process your performance is good and where it could be improved. The main ratios include:
- The Meetings Ratio
- The Opportunities Ratio
- The Closing Ratio
- The Referrals Ratio
Scroll down to read more.
The Average Results section below indicates the link between performance and results. It tells you how much in sales value you’re producing by your activity. If you have an at-risk element in your income, this part of your Dashboard will also tell you how much you’re being paid for your performance, which is especially helpful when your potential earning is unlimited. Scroll down to read more.
Improvements in your performance ratios will increase your average sale value and perhaps your commission income.
The Efficiency Dashboard.
For each Selling Activity (one per line), if the traffic light in the middle is green, this means your activity rate in the last six weeks is greater than the average over the last 12 months. Keep increasing your activity rate until you are sure you’re working at your optimal level of work.
If the traffic light is orange, this means you’re operating (over the last six weeks anyway) at around about the same activity rate as your average over the last year. Is that what you want? Do you have spare capacity that you’re not using? Can you do more? Should you be doing more, especially at the top of the selling process? Make it happen and watch the indicator. If it changes to red, then you’re slowing down. Conversely, if it turns green, then you are being more efficient with your time.
If the traffic light is red, this means you’re slowing down your activity rate. The average in the last six weeks is lower than the last 12 months.
Watch carefully the balance of your selling activities. That is, if you slow your activity rate in the top of the dashboard (Capturing Leads, doing Pre-Approaches and Calls) it will in time slow your rate in the bottom of the dashboard because you’ll not have the meetings and opportunities to present to.
Correspondingly, any increase in the rate at the top of the dashboard should – if you maintain your effectiveness – lead in time to a boost in the bottom, with Presentations and Deals resulting from the more Leads and Opportunities.
The Performance Ratios.
This part of the Dashboard tells you how effective you are as a sales professional. For example, someone who only does three calls to get a meeting is more effective than someone who has to make five calls for one meeting.
Each of these ratios measures a very important performance factor. The Meeting Ratio tells you how many Calls you are currently doing to secure one Meeting. Now, obviously, any Call you make that does not result in a Meeting represents at least one lost Opportunity, and without Opportunities you can’t make sales. Therefore it makes sense that, to increase your results, you need to improve your performance. The Performance Ratios will tell you where you can gain the best results with a little focused attention to your performance.
Each industry has its own standards of performance. Some accept that you have to do many Presentations to get a Deal while others are only satisfied with a low ratio there. And even within your industry, you will know what amounts to a “high” performance and what is a top performance.
And then there is your personal aspiration – what performance level are you satisfied with? Provided your ratios are somewhere within the “acceptable” range for your business this last question is, ultimately, the most important one. You decide which ratio you want to improve. Upscale will give you the real time feedback you need so that you can monitor your performance and your improvement as you work on the key skills necessary for top performance.
Remember that the Upscale team does not know what might be a “good” ratio in your industry so you need to know your aspirations and we’ll give you the data so you can train and grow.
Upscale tells you about your performance over the last six weeks and over the last 12 months so that, by comparing your ratio over the last 6 weeks with the last 12 months, you can see whether your performance is improving or declining. If the Last 6 Weeks ratio is lower than the Last 12 Months ratio, then you’re growing; your performance is improving.
The Meetings Ratio tells you how effective you are at getting sales Meetings with prospects and customers to explore new Opportunities. If you can’t get in front of enough people you will not make sales. Your Last 6 Weeks ratio should be lower than the Last 12 Months. To improve your performance here, read “Get More Meetings” in the Coach Me Online resources, or call your Upscale Coach.
The Opportunities Ratio tells you how effective you are at discovering sales Opportunities. Upscale reports this by analysing how many Meetings you have to do to get invited back to Present a solution. Your Last 6 Weeks ratio should be lower than the Last 12 Months. To improve your performance here, read “Discover More Opportunities” in the Coach Me Online resources, or call your Upscale Coach.
The Closing Ratio tells you how effective you are at getting a buying a decision in your favour. Of course, you have to Present the right solution first, but in addition to that, you must know how to ask for the business. The perfect score is 1:1. How is your performance? Is your Last 6 Weeks ratio lower than the Last 12 Months? To improve your performance here, read “Get More Deals” in the Coach Me Online resources, or call your Upscale Coach.
If you want to improve your real sales results – which depend upon your ability to nurture an order all the way through delivery to completion – then read “Increase Your Completions” in the Coach Me Online resources, or call your Upscale Coach.
The Referrals Ratio tells you how effective you are at building a sustainable business, by filling your “funnel” with the best kind of Leads. To do that, Upscale analyses your Meetings and Referrals because the best salespeople use every meeting as an opportunity to ask for Referrals. To know that your performance is improving, your Last 6 Weeks ratio should be lower than the Last 12 Months. To improve your performance here, read “Be Given More Referrals” in the Coach Me Online resources, or call your Upscale Coach.
Time to talk to friendly prospects? It is usually so much easier to increase your sales with existing customers than with new prospects. But success here requires some particular skills. To improve your ability to do repeat business with existing customers, read “Get More Repeat Sales” in the Coach Me Online resources, or call your Upscale Coach.
The Average Results.
The averages in this part of your dashboard tell you about the results of your performance. Upscale is built on the premise that better performance normally leads to better results. But because that is not guaranteed, a professional salesperson measures results as well as performance. Results can motivate. Results are a form of feedback. Results are directly related to personal income. Results are important.
However, too often salespeople and sales managers focus almost exclusively on results and overlook the important link between the competent performance of critical selling activities and sales results. That is, they focus on trying to That’s why Upscale was developed for professional salespeople and their managers.
Upscale tracks both the value of your sales and the results-dependent earnings you have accumulated from those sales. Of course, some Upscale Members may not receive incentive-based remuneration; instead they are paid salaries or wages which do not depend on sales results. If that is your situation, then you can ignore the “Income Value” column. However, if you earn commission, bonuses or other incentives – any income which is directly dependent upon your sales results – then these “Income Value” numbers are useful.
How to use these averages?
- Firstly, these numbers can serve as a motivation when you’re struggling to get going. For example, if you’re struck by “call reluctance” as most salespeople are from time to time, then remind yourself of what each call is worth to you.
One sales pro has reported that when he first used Upscale he learned that every Call was worth $8 of commission, and he used that to inspire himself to pick up the phone. He knew that if he made 100 calls per week, he would on average earn commissions of $800 every week. And then, one day, he decided that $8 per Call was not enough, and 100 calls every week was too many. He focused on that one Selling Activity and worked hard to improve his performance. He read books on making Calls to get sales meetings; he consulted a Sales Coach, talked to high performing salespeople he knew, attended courses and conferences. He learned skills that worked and then he practised until he was effective. As a result, his Upscale Performance Ratios showed a steady performance improvement month by month until he was earning $27 per call and to get the same number of sales meeting he had to make significantly fewer calls per week. This also reduced his stress and gave him more time for other things.
- Secondly, these averages can be used for planning. You decide how much you want to earn in a given period, or how much in total sales value you want to produce. Then these averages can tell you exactly how many of each selling activity you should complete in order to achieve those goals. The Upscale team is currently working on the planning tools which will automate these calculations for you and make goal planning easier. Watch this space!
Upscale is all about coaching you towards optimal sales performance and so, if you have a question about how to use the feedback provided in your Upscale Pro Dashboard, check out the FAQ section, or contact us by email. We’ll be happy to help you.