With Spring Training in full swing and Opening Day quickly approaching, have you ever thought about your own “team” in terms of America’s Favorite Pastime? Long before Brad Pitt and Moneyball, baseball has been a game full of statistics and rankings.
Similarly, sales leaders and sales teams measure their success based on metrics and analytics. Too often, though, the computations used to measure sales get complicated- making it time-consuming for sales leaders and confusing for salespeople.
A batting average is a great statical measure because it’s simple. A single number that clearly represents a batter’s rate of success. Why not apply this effective and familiar statistic to your sales team and “gamify” your sales process? A sales team batting average is a perfect example of the concept of “Gamification” being adopted by many companies to increase productivity by adding an element to the workplace that is both fun and competitive.
How to calculate your sales team’s batting average
The specific components and weighted values may differ based on what success means for your company or your team. Here are some examples to get you started:
1. Simple Activity Score
- Perfect for high activity teams or leaders needing to improve top-of-funnel activity
- Key Stats: Dials, Connections Conversations, and Meetings/Appointments
- Assign each activity a point value:
- Dials = 1 point
- Connections = 5 points
- Meetings = 25 points
- Multiply the actual activity of each salesperson by the appropriate point value. For example, a salesperson that made 80 dials, had 20 conversations, and set 5 meetings would have a score of 305.
| 80 dials | * 1 | = 80 |
| 20 conversations | * 5 | = 100 |
| 5 meetings | * 25 | = 125 |
| Total Score | = 305 |
2. Activity Average
- Perfect for any type of sales team
- To create a comparable average from the above score, divide the Activity score by your minimum expected activity metrics.
- If you expect your salespeople to make 60 dials, have 20 conversations, and set 4 meetings each day, then your minimum expected score would be 260:
| 60 dials | * 1 | = 60 |
| 20 conversations | * 5 | = 100 |
| 4 meetings | * 25 | = 100 |
| Total Score | = 260 |
Activity average will be calculated as: (Activity Score / Minimum Expected Score) * 100
- In this example, the salesperson would have an average of 117 %
- ( 305 /260 ) * 100 = 117%
- Using an average makes it easy to compare each salesperson’s activity against the rest of the team and against your expected activity.
Change the points around to fit the activity goals of your company.
3. Close Rate
- Works great to measure closed revenue and success rate
- Key Stats: Number of Closed Opportunities, Number of Proposals Sent
- To compute the Close Rate:
- Divide: (Closed Opportunities / Proposals Sent ) * 100
- If a sales rep sends out 15 proposals and closes 3 opportunities, the close rate is 20%
- ( 3/15 ) * 100 = 20%
By assigning weights to each sales process activity, the batting average lays relative importance on all salespeople’s activities. It emphasizes all the cardinal activities of salespeople, and the scores help create a competitive spirit among the sales team members.