Here is a wonderful story about the power of Sales
Engineering Metrics and how they can truly make a difference to your business.
My client (who wishes to remain anonymous for both
competitive and embarrassment reasons) has been collecting numerous metrics for
7-8 months. In preparation for their first ever Worldwide Sales Engineering
Quarterly Business Review (QBR) a standard set of Metrics and PowerPoint slides
were constructed for each of the major geographies and/or countries. Summary
versions of the decks were sent out ahead of time – so that more time could be
spent analyzing and discussing, rather than presenting and listening.
However – one item really stood out from the initial decks.
They had recently released a brand new product, and the primary sales
methodology for selling it was “try it and buy it” through a Proof of Concept
(POC) / Trial-Evaluation system. The POC conversion rate from Trial to Buy was
a rather low 45%, which they attributed to a 1.0 release, some nasty bugs and a
learning curve for the SE’s. Except .. one region .. ANZ (Australia/New
Zealand) had a 15/16 success rate.
Rather than wait for the meeting, the somewhat surprised VP
of Global SE’s called the ANZ team to discover the reason for their success,
and received a typically blunt, but honest answer.
“Oh, we thought the marketing approach and the customer prerequisites
were a crock of $%&^! So we changed those documents and also created a
step-by-step guide for new customers to explore the product which would work
around those bugs.”
“Don’t you think it would have been a good idea to share
that information?”
“It was so obvious we figured everyone would do it!”
The guide and updated docs were quickly distributed
worldwide – including back to product marketing.
The outcome was that 9 POCs in process were saved from
disaster in the next 10 days and the following quarter the POC conversion rate
increased to over 70%. The revenue impact was amazing.
If you can't measure it - it tough to improve it! For more details about SE Metrics, and why they can turn a reactive team into a proactive one - check out the MTS Leadership Page. 
