The ultimate measure of success in sales is closing the sale, right? Not so, says our sales guru Tibor Shanto. The sale is the lagging indicator of success. Fortunately Tibor is here to tell us what those leading indicators are.

The natural instinct in sales is to focus on the revenue, after all that is the mandate. But I would argue that focusing strictly on that will limit your success and by extension the very thing you are trying to attain, that is revenue growth.

The fact is that the sale is the outcome, once you know what you have sold, or in ones you lost, what we haven't sold, it is too late to do anything about it. A sale, is a lagging indicator, an important one, but not one that is always useful since you cannot change the outcome.

Sure moving forward you can take lessons from it, repeat and improve on those things that worked; avoid or fix other things that didn't not work or well executed, but these are things that may pay dividends in the future.

This is why we work with our clients to focus on leading indicators. For two reasons, first, you can make adjustments before it is too late to affect the current sale. The other is that any lesson learned and adjustments made as a result, will be in place for future sales. So not only do you get the benefit of a post sale review, but you get to benefit from it now, rather than a point in the future.

What are leading indicators?

Active Prospects to Goal Ratio (coverage)

Average number of Days in a given stage of the process or the entire process

Active to Stalled

Stage to stage Conversion - for example, it is much better to deal with a lack of prospects when you still have time to prospect, than dealing with the lack of sales at the end of the month due to lack of prospects.

This is also true from a coaching stand point. I would much rather talk to a rep about their ability to convert appointments to real prospects, than to talk to that same rep about why the month turned out the way it did.