Stop the random social selling—Use sales KPIs to measure your team’s success.
There’s a lot of truth in the old saying, “You Can’t Manage What You Can’t Measure.” The use of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is vital to the success of most sales activities, but especially for LinkedIn. If you aren’t defining and communicating clear expectations of both the activity and results, you will simply get random acts of social. Before you begin establishing your team’s sales KPIs, consider three things:
- What are the outcomes I want from the social selling efforts?
- Do I have access to data that supports those outcomes to measure success?
- Am I tracking, sharing and coaching to the data that will have a direct impact on the sales reps’ performance?
There are many social selling KPIs that can be tracked and measured. Here are five specifically focused on LinkedIn, which, if implemented correctly, will have an immediate impact on guiding your reps to focus on the activities proven to convert to business:
1. Growing Their LinkedIn Network with the Right Stakeholders – This KPI is simple to measure, yet powerful. It provides insight into whether or not your reps’ activities are targeting the right connections.
- In each sales rep’s LinkedIn profile, create a Search containing all the criteria that match their ideal prospect. Then choose the 1st degree connections filter.
- Save the search on LinkedIn and/or copy the search’s URL and save it where you can retrieve it.
- Record the number of connections as a baseline.
- On a set schedule (weekly or monthly), revisit the search and compare the number of connections with the baseline you originally recorded. Note the difference and determine how many new connections are the right stakeholders.
2. Converting New Connections to Phone Calls and/or Appointments
- Did a new connection take a call or accept an appointment? Great! It should be tracked in your CRM with LinkedIn as the lead source.
- Take a look at the ratio between new connections from the saved search and the number of calls, to determine if the right activities and/or messaging are taking place.
3. Getting Engagement on Shared Content that Converts to New Connections
- Sharing relevant content is a powerful way to get the attention of your target market, but it is important to identify if that information is effectively attracting and engaging your prospects.
- Even more importantly, it is essential that you track how many of those prospects your reps are connecting with.
4. Client Referrals to Appointments
- Make sure your reps know how to mine their client connections to identify targeted prospects and ask for introductions through email.
- When an introduction is made, they should then schedule phone calls or appointments.
BONUS: Download 5 LinkedIn Templates that Get Engagement and Results!
5. Number of Introduction Requests to a LinkedIn Connection that Convert to Phone Calls
- Similar to client connections, reps can identify people they know who are connected to their prospects, but by using company search, advanced search or by simply visiting the Connections section. Then they can ask for introductions.
- When an introduction is made, phone calls or appointments can then be scheduled.
Achieve Better Outcomes With a Digital Selling Program
These are just five of the many sales KPIs available for sales managers to measure. But when you do, you could use the findings to improve your sales strategy. You are also equipped with quantitative insights on how to effectively coach your team to better success.
Achieve higher win rates with your sales team. Read our 10-Steps to Launching a Digital Sales Program to learn how.
