The Power Of Sales Engineering Metrics - A True Story

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.