I do believe KPI’s have a place, but I do not feel you can run a strict KPI model on everyone. I feel that it needs to be used for people at varying performance levels to get the optimum or set the standard you expect out of your sales staff and for the business.

For me, I use KPIs whenever someone starts. It sets the expectation and gives them structure around what the business and I expect from them. I find it a great way to see who in the team is naturally self-motivated, who needs more help or where cracks could start to appear.

Once the KPI bar is set and the expectation is known, I tend to pull back and see who continues on the path, this allows me again to see who is naturally driven and who I’m going to have to manage more regularly to achieve results.

A good salesperson is one that is driven to succeed and doesn’t want to let themselves or others down. They tend to be the higher achievers, so setting KPI’s doesn’t work. They know what needs to be done, sometime a gentle reminder might be needed, but more often than not, I’ll need to help or support them in another way.

KPIs have worked well for me to manage the low to average performer. We all know KPIs are there to drive business, and it’s a numbers game. For example, the more client visits a consultant makes, the higher the return of investment. However, there are many factors that can reduce the strike rate, for example, clients may use another provider, they may have limited work on and some visit get cancelled, etc.

As a manager, KPIs can be used to really get into the detail and see what is going wrong and why and they can also highlight a need for further training or additional support. It can be time-consuming, but it’s worth every bit of effort to find the reason to get a result.