Tag Archives: Metrics

Sometimes Unintended Consequences Are A Good Thing

April 15, 2010 – 6:57 am

Maybe the real lesson is to be aware that your actions always have unintended consequences.  The good news is that sometimes you get lucky.  Don’t miss it!  Here’s one example where what initially looked like a failure morphing into a big win.

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Metrics, Podcast | Also tagged | Comments (0)

3 Key Questions About Your Customer’s Decision Process

April 12, 2010 – 10:25 am

Knowing your customer’s decision process is critical, but not enough.  There’s also the requirement to understand decision criteria and what it is about those criteria that make them important.

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Best Practices, Value Propositions, Video | Also tagged | Comments (2)

Too Many Sales Reps Are Wimps

April 10, 2010 – 9:32 am

In general, sales reps represent themselves as a pretty tough, resilient, independent bunch. I’m not so sure about that.
Virtually every time I work with a sales team to continuously improve its sales process, I run smack into a “they’re too delicate for that” problem. It’s never phrased that way. It’s always couched [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Accountability, Continuous Improvement, Metrics | Also tagged | Comments (2)

Working Harder Makes You Luckier

April 5, 2010 – 8:54 am

Working hard to achieve a goal is always rewarding.  Even if you miss the goal, good things happen.

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Video | Also tagged | Comments (0)

Unintended Consequences

March 24, 2010 – 8:25 am

We’re all familiar with the “Law of Unintended Consequences.”  My personal favorite is still the plastic whistles that were packaged with Cap’n Crunch cereal back in the ’70s.  Blowing the whistle into your phone triggered a connection to AT&T’s long distance dialing AND by-passed their billing system.   Free calls!  Not exactly what Quaker Oats had [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Metrics, Process Thinking | Also tagged | Comments (1)

If only we knew what they know…

March 18, 2010 – 11:14 am

In getting prepared for a meeting with a client’s sales VP, I spent some time analyzing the performance numbers of their 64 reps.  There it was again.  The same lopsided bell curve I see over and over and over, and no sign of the 80/20 rule either.As always, most of the reps are below average; [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Best Practices, Continuous Improvement | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

Couldn’t have said it better myself

March 10, 2010 – 12:32 pm

Actually, I have been saying it myself; for over ten years now – for my whole career really.  “It,”  in this case being this blog post.  It talks about process, it talks about metrics, it talks about best practices, it talks about CRM – daily use of CRM, it talks about sales and marketing working [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in Best Practices, Continuous Improvement, CRM | Also tagged , | Comments (0)

E-Rep Shortens A Sell Cycle by 1,200%!!!???

March 1, 2010 – 7:11 am

The early returns regarding E-Rep impact on sell cycle time are really, really impressive.  We now have an example of a complex sale cycle time reduction of 1,202%!!!
More data will need to be collected before a statistically valid case can be made, but the anecdotal evidence is beginning to pile up.  Feels pretty compelling [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in E-Rep | Also tagged , | Comments (2)

H-Rep Sell Cycle Time: 16 Months. E-Rep: 37 Days

February 26, 2010 – 8:09 am

Average Sell Cycle Time:  16 Months
E-Rep Assisted Sell Cycle Time:  37 Days
I left something out of the E-Rep Success Story I blogged about recently.  Frankly, I was so focused on the fact that my E-Rep helped close a deal within the first 4 months of its existence that I completely lost sight of a [...]

By Todd Youngblood | Posted in E-Rep, Metrics | Also tagged , | Comments (4)