Page 191 - engage workbook

19 worksheets and progress

Measuring progress

Begin with the end in mind. engage universe is all about deepening relationships; building
trust; creating value; and moving from a transactional, tactical relationship to one that
is more long-term and strategic. The end goal is more business, more referrals, higher
profits - and greater personal satisfaction.

Organizations use many measures to assess progress. Common measures include:

• % of target revenue achieved • New products / services sold

• % profitability • Ratio of revenue and margin of new buyers
vs existing buyers
• Win ratio
(# of conversations: # of assignments) • Elapsed time from lead to order
(length of sales cycle)
• Average revenue per buyer
• Input time from lead to order
• Average margin per sale / customer (acquisition effort)

These are valuable measures, but they lack a critical element in that they are typically
current or historic in focus; they lack predictive power.

Consider supplementing traditional measures with relationship measures that are more
future- oriented. Measures include:

• Number of touch-points in an organization • The number of our people who have
relationships with each buyer
• Number of face-to-face interactions
• People we’ve introduced to them
• Time spent when face-to-face – our people plus others who might help

• Referrals / Referred • People that they’ve introduced to us
(internal as well as external)
• Number of outcomes expressed /
• Frequency of conversations actions identified
– plus who initiates
• Understanding of individual / position /
• The quality of relationship project / organization goals
(Partner, Technical, Ad-hoc, Social)
• Testimonials – do they give them?
• The power and influence of each person (personal / corporate)
with whom we have a relationship

While these measures are more qualitative in nature, they are not difficult to monitor.
And, importantly, a healthy relationship today points to more assignments tomorrow.

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