Last week’s What are you counting? Activity – Results – False Indicators came up again in conversation… but about skiing NOT sales.
The question I was asked is “how many runs did you make?”
Now for an explanation on why that isn’t actually the right thing… for this particular instance, to measure.
The person asking the question lives where I grew up and is used to skiing at a string of ski areas that are measured like this:
Summit Elevation: 1,940 feet
Vertical Drop: 700 feet
Now I am living in the Adirondacks and skiing at Whiteface Mountain:
Highest Lift unloads: 4,386 feet
Vertical Drop: 3,166 feet
So 10 runs where I grew up = 7,000 vertical feet of skiing maximum vs. the 14,691 feet I actually skied.
What does that have to do with inside sales?
The same thing happens when we only look at a single activity measurement instead of the whole picture!
My ski app measures: Runs – Vertical – Distance. Inside sales organizations measure: Dials – Conversations – Phone Time.
The same analogy applies:
- measuring dials alone doesn’t tell you how many prospects and customer were reached
- looking only at phone time doesn’t tell you how many conversations (the UpYourTeleSales definition of a conversation is an exchange of ideas between people… not exchange, no conversation) someone had.
This week as you are looking at what you’re measuring for your own success, make sure you look at the numbers in the right context to get you the results you’re looking for.