New Research - Sales and Marketing Metrics - Are Your Marketing and Sales Processes Working?

By Paul DiModica

Marketing and selling products and services is a metric game and time management business model. In this economy, success is all about knowing your numbers and managing your time — number of leads generated; the number of qualified prospects generated from those leads; the number of leads that progress through your sales cycle steps; and ultimately the number of deals closed.

Do you know your metrics?

How do you compare?

Every lead that is not qualified distracts from your available time to find and sell product and professional service prospects that are in the buying cycle now.




Speed is a business success tool.

When your sales pipeline is small, your sales forecast accuracy and lead quality diminishes.

To increase the size of your sales pipelines and time management success, focus on making your targeted prospects take action steps with you during your sales cycle to prove that they are qualified. The world is full of professional lookers that will waste your time . . . and ultimately reduce your revenue capture success. The faster you qualify a prospect based on the action steps they take . . . the more you will sell.

“There are a lot of things that go into creating success. I don’t like to do just the things I like to do. I like to do things that cause the company to succeed. I don’t spend a lot of time doing my favorite activities.” –Michael Dell

To be more successful, do what you don’t like doing first.



What kind of action steps should prospects take to prove that they are qualified?

1. Have your prospects confirm their targeted date of purchase and when they want to be operational – to make sure it is within your normal selling cycle time.
2. Have them tell you who will be signing the contract.
3. Get them to verbalize how your offering will fix their business issues. If they can’t, then you may have incorrectly communicated your business value.
4. Get your prospects to talk to your existing customers earlier in your sales cycle. Customer referrals communicate your value three dimensionally through the eyes of others.

In sales, you work for yourself and you are an entrepreneur. You own your business. Accelerate your speed, improve prospect lead qualification and apply perseverance and you can sell more even in today’s crazed economy.

“I’m convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance.“ –Steve Jobs

I welcome your comments.

To your success!

Rick Erling

About Rick Erling and The CxO Group


Rick Erling is CEO and Founder of The CxO Group, LLC. We are a managing partner of the Value Forward Network and have business coaching partners in five countries making us one of the world's largest management consulting groups focused on helping companies increase corporate revenue capture.


We work with senior executive teams to integrate sales process, marketing methodology, corporate strategy and financial management into one outbound revenue capture program to increase corporate revenue. We do this by assessing the value your customers see and the value you think you have and then measure the "value variance" gap between the two. Once we have identified the "Value Variance" between the two, we then make appropriate strategic and tactical recommendations on your corporate strategy and marketing programs to close the gaps. When this is completed, we then train your sales team to sell to management more effectively using techniques that are linked to our recommendations.


Top-performing organizations are increasing their companies' revenue, within a constricted economy by investing in business growth acceleration strategies. For more on increasing your revenue capture effectiveness, subscribe to my Email Newsletter, follow me on Twitter, connect to me on LinkedIn, or friend me on Facebook. If I can help you or your firms revenue growth acceleration strategies, check out my coaching and consulting firm, The CxO Group, email me, or call me at (972) 727-6880.