One of the main goals of every business is to increase sales. But how can this be achieved in a company that already exists and does not have a clear sales process? We have compiled a list of 10 sales KPIs (key performance indicators) that, if analyzed correctly, will have a positive impact on your sales. This makes it possible to track the behavior of your sales staff and to optimize processes and procedures at any time. This isn’t about accumulating more sales metrics or data, you need the right ones.

What exactly is meant by this will become clear in the article – first, there are indicators that you define together with your team to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the work done.

Why tracking sales KPIs is important

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are becoming more and more important, and nowadays it is impossible to imagine any sales process without them. Without these sales figures, it is impossible to lead a company into a positive future in a targeted manner. It is therefore important to formulate concrete goals and to specify them for every sales manager. Your employees can use these to orientate themselves and check their progress. It is important that the goals are achievable and not utopian, but they must not be too challenging.

If a sales employee is busy with a few hundred phone calls a day, they can easily lose track and be unsuccessful. On the other hand, they can also be under-challenged. KPIs are the measuring tape with which one’s own work can be measured.

Trust is good, control is better!

Everyone knows this saying only too well and you have probably heard it before. Many people mistakenly believe that working with sales figures is a kind of control over their employees. However, this is a misconception. It is about pure statistics, about the collection of data, and the analysis of the customers. The aim is to create transparency, both within the company and for all external stakeholders.

To be able to make optimizations, transparency in the company is essential. This ensures open and honest communication, and the company goals are tackled together. The day-to-day business determines the turnover of a company. We have worked out exactly how this can be optimized with 10 important sales KPIs.

The 10 most important Sales KPIs

• Number of leads
• Conversion rate
• Turnover per employee
• Acquisition costs
• Churn rate
• Number of customers
• Repurchase rate
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
• Competitor analysis

Sales KPI 1: Revenue Targets

You have set sales targets based on a quarterly or annual period. So, you should periodically check your revenue to see if you’re making progress or not. A good indicator of this are reports that are created and analyzed weekly or even daily.

Sales KPI 2: Number of Leads

Here you should follow the credo ‘quality over quantity.’ What good are leads that don’t convert to customers in the end or don’t bring in any sales? A certain consistency is important. You can achieve this if you make specifications and determine how many leads you want to generate over a certain period. Then you must iteratively check whether the estimated number is realistic or not. Furthermore, the conversion rate of the leads is crucial. If there is a problem with this, it may be because your landing pages are not designed to be user-friendly enough and the call-to-actions are not appetizing enough. If your lead acquisition strategy is no longer up to date, get inspiration here, and consider hiring a custom web design company to ensure that your landing pages are visually appealing and easy to navigate, increasing the chances of converting leads into loyal customers.

Sales KPI 3: Conversion Rate

The lead yield is given as a percentage. It determines how many of the leads received have also become real customers. A conversion rate of approximately 3% is desirable and ideally should be exceeded, but not fall below. If your rate is below 3%, they should use lead nurturing and lead scoring. It is important to accompany the customer along the customer journey, and to enrich and optimize this “path” with relevant content for the respective target group. Interacting with the leads is important and should be considered. E-mail actions, for example, can be useful. We have already mentioned the target group. If your target group is not clearly defined and your sales team is not committed to it, it will be difficult to increase the conversion rate. The bait must taste good to the fish, not to the angler.

Sales KPI 4: Sales per Employee

Revenue per employee is one of the most important sales metrics for sales managers. In this way, it can be determined which employee is responsible for how much turnover. Sales KPIs serve the purpose of expressing personal and company-related goals in figures. These statistics provide information about the skills of the sales staff in individual cases. But long-term success depends on the intuition of a salesperson. The better he can put himself in the position of the target group, the more likely it is that a lead will become a customer. Therefore, it makes sense to look at sales KPIs with a particularly cautious eye, because true sales professionals trust instincts, experience, and interpersonal interactions.

Sales KPI 5: Acquisition Costs

To be able to determine acquisition costs, you need a few key figures. These result from marketing and sales costs, salaries, and other expenses that arise over a certain period. This sum is divided by the total number of customers acquired during this period. This sales KPI provides information about how well your sales marketing works and provides information about the quantity. Furthermore, with this sales indicator it is possible to understand the scalability of your company and to carry out process optimization.

6: Churn Rate

If a subscriber or customer has changed his mind after a certain time and wants to leave you, this is known as churn. The churn rate, also known as the customer churn rate, represents the percentage of all customers or subscribers who have changed their mind during use. If this rate is high, this is a first indication that your product or service is not satisfactory. Here, too, it is important to initiate optimizations and to rethink the sales process for existing customers. Especially in the subscription area, and especially with SaaS, the churn rate is decisive for the economic success of the company and should always be kept in mind.

Sales KPI 7: Number of Customers

There should not be a big discrepancy between regular customers and new customers. You should always understand how effectively you are selling your product or service. Both to new customers and to existing customers. If you tend to win a lot of new customers, this can be an indication of problematic customer retention. Conversely, this stands for a high number of returning customers. This is generally a good sign, but it may also be the case that you should reconsider your orientation when it comes to acquiring new customers.

Sales KPI 8: Repurchase Rate

Customers who buy a product or service from you at certain intervals are shown with the repeat purchase rate. Usually, a period is determined here and the so-called repurchase rate is then calculated based on this. If the rate is positive, keep going. You are selling the right products or services to the right target group. If the rate is negative, you should perhaps identify it with a new target group analysis or, if necessary, reconsider the area. When all else fails, you should reconsider your product or service.

Sales KPI 9: Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

This key figure shows the contribution margin that a customer realizes during his entire “customer life”, discounted at the time of observation (see Wikipedia). This number is important insofar as it is decisive for the acquisition costs. Only if you put the two key figures in relation do both make sense. It doesn’t seem like much to spend 150 euros for a paying customer, but when the CLV is just 50 euros, the investment is not worth it at all. On the other hand, you can pay an average of 5,000 euros for a new customer and then make an average turnover of 50,000 euros afterward. Then the bill goes up.

Sales KPI 10: Competitor Analysis

Classic benchmarking provides for analyzing the competition and drawing conclusions about your own products and their pricing. Check what your competitors are asking their customers to do. What are their customers willing to pay for their product or service?. If prices of the competition are higher, you should try to undercut them. If this is not an alternative, there must be a clear USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that clearly differentiates your product or service from those of the competition.

Sales KPIs: Conclusion

Now you are well armed and can get to work. Create realistic KPIs tailored to your business and salespeople. Basically, it is important that the goals set are achievable and not too challenging. These should only serve as crash barriers and must be readjusted. The use of such sales KPIs is very important for the future of every company. The better these are used, implemented, and adapted to current circumstances, the more likely it will lead to sales success and thus to long-term corporate success. Check your current sales figures.

Which of these do you actively use? Which of these are realistic and useful? Do you have your target group in mind? And always consult with your sales team, because they are the ones who are responsible for the company’s success and sales in day-to-day business. Get the team on board and steer them into a strong future together.

Relevant articles:

Key SaaS KPIs and How We Optimize Them

B2B Lead Generation: The Five “Forever” Techniques for More B2B Leads

Website Visitor Identification — a Low-Cost but Powerful Lead Machine! The Ultimate Guide

21 Sales KPIs for Sales Teams to Track in 2022

The post 10 Important Sales KPIs appeared first on Leadrebel Blog.

Closing sales in B2B may be quite challenging and time-consuming. However, with the help of professional B2B sales consultants, businesses can hit their sales goals and optimize operations much faster. Consultants know how to convert new customers to high-value recurring clients. 

B2B lead generation consulting opens up more opportunities for businesses and provides all the needed tools for them to reach their sales quota for a given period. The B2B consultants mentioned below are market leaders and trusted among numerous B2B companies. 

Why Hire a B2B Consultant?

One of the key reasons you should hire a B2B lead generation consultant is to differ from the competition. A sales consultant knows how to strategically set you apart from your competitors when it comes to sales. After an evaluation of your offerings, they come up with a streamlined approach to engage clients. 

Another reason to hire a consultant is to have them set the right price for a deal. Prices often impact a client’s decision. A sales expert will help your company determine the right price before introducing it to the customer. This will also increase your net price, crossing out the negative effects of prices on sales.

Just as importantly, have your B2B expert become your spokesperson. Businesses want to purchase from companies who listen to their troubles. B2B sales consultants understands such clients and creates relevant content for them which helps with closing more high-value deals. 

The Main Services of a B2B Sales Consultant

Here is what you can expect from professional B2B sales consultants:

• Automation of sales. B2B sales consultants can help you drive your organization’s digital progress and automate steps in the sales process. 
• Predictive analytics. The professionals will point out possible shifts from customers and adapt your sales approaches responsively. 
• Competitor analysis. B2B sales consultancy services include an in-depth analysis of your competitor organizations and how they attempt to secure a competitive advantage. 
• Pricing strategy refinement. A sales professional will advise on how to control and initiate new goals and objectives of your B2B pricing.
• CRM implementation. With CRM, you can follow every contact point with your customer and increase data gathering and sales performance tracking. 
• Sales optimization. A sales consultant shares tips and insights on how to better consolidate your organization and boost the team’s efficiency. 

The Best B2B Sales Experts on the Market

Here we put together a list of some top B2B sales consultants, with some information about them and their contact information. These consultants are professional and have expertise in sales training and coaching. 

Browse and find a consultant that best fits your training and coaching needs. This list is presented randomly with no ranking implied. 

1. Mor Assouline

Mor Assouline assists B2B SaaS companies in closing more sales demos. He uses optimizing strategies to improve the sales processes. Like most consultants, he also offers training for salespeople, with a course he created called FDCT university. 

As Mor Assouline states “I advise SaaS startups and founders on how to build a GTM account executive sales team, closing an average of 50+% of their sales demos, reducing the average sales cycle, and achieving >100% sales quota.” 

2. Winning by Design

Winning by design is a B2B revenue consulting and training company that empowers teams to architect sustainable growth. As the company states, they apply scientific frameworks and proven models to help sales, marketing, and customer success teams at B2B companies and global enterprises achieve impact. 

The company Winning by Design was founded in 2012, fully remote, with 600+ leading organizations as its clients. 

3. Rose Garden Consulting

Rose garden consulting provides sales strategies, development, and consulting for growth-oriented companies. Their technique is to assess your entire process of the sales system, starting with hiring and onboarding to management and positioning. T

his is a way of applying unique processes, strategies, and insights to develop custom solutions tailored to customer needs. 

4. Mark Boundy CEO, Boundy Consulting, LLC

Mark Boundy focuses on value which wins more, better customers at the right place, and creates winning, rewarding cultures. His technique includes focusing on critical, widespread performance gaps: creating customer-perceived value.

The area of his expertise includes value selling for differentiated products/services, value pricing/discounting reduction, and business acumen for the trusted advisor sale.

5. Nigel Green  

Nigel Green is a sought-after sales advisor, who is widely known for improving sales team performance. As a consultant and advisor, he only works with executives who want to improve sales team performance. With his 10+ years of experience, he can help any sales team with big sales goals. 

6. Jeff Solomon

As a founder of 6 different startups, Jeff Solomon has helped many B2B companies with building sales teams, funding, SaaS development, and product development. With a long-term career, he has done just about every role possible, from CEO to Chief Janitor, Head of Product to Marketing Lead. 

7. Eithiriel DeMere

Eithiriel assists executives with running qualitative and quantitative experiments for early-stage B2B SaaS companies to help launch strategies and tactics with data, for both new and existing products/features. 

Nichole says “As a product marketer, I establish high-level marketing strategies and work closely with product, marketing, sales, and other customer-facing teams to execute those strategies.”

8. Skaled

Skaled is a B2B sales consultancy with the right observations to create the future of sales. Its main mission is to change the strategies organizations use to sell and partner with customers and create a lasting effect on clients that is meaningful. Experience strategy and talent in every engagement with Skaled due to their 100,000+ hours of sales leadership experience. 

9. Belkins

Belkins helps B2B companies fulfill their sales potential to the max extent by facilitating their lead generation processes. This agency is considered top-rated and drives results for businesses in 50+ industries worldwide. With a world’s top-performing digital marketing agency award, Belkins has worked with over 700 businesses. 

10. Victory Lap

Victory Lap helps individuals and companies realize their potential through high-quality sales development offerings. The company has built a platform and talent community that is transforming careers and changing company strategies for hiring sales talent. Both small and big companies leverage Victory Lap to develop, build and upskill their sales teams.

11. Alice Heiman, LLC

Alice Heiman is widely known for her expertise in elevating sales to increase valuation for companies with a B2B sale that has growth potential. As a Chief Sales Energizer, most of her time is spent strategizing with CEOs, and their leadership teams to build strategies that find new business and grow existing accounts. 

12. Big Swift Kick

Big Swift Kick with Andy Miller as CEO, is a sales strategy and sales performance firm that helps middle-market companies accelerate sales. Andy Miller’s areas of expertise include recruiting and selecting sales reps, sales managers, and sales leaders; sales team analysis, effectiveness, and optimization; as well as sales strategies. 

13. SalesFuel

C. Lee Smith the CEO of SalesFuel is an expert in developing high-performing sales teams. He created AdMall, a sales intelligence company that uses psychometric assessments to identify high-potential sales candidates and evaluate an organization’s current team strengths, weaknesses, and job fit.

14. Protagnst

Protagnst is a consultative sales consultancy firm with Brazilian and American roots. The company specializes in prospecting, strategic planning, positioning, and growth. At Protagnst you can find experts with vast expertise in analyzing B2B sales funnels, who can help you generate qualified B2B leads with inside sales consultancy.

15. Kevin James Culp

Kevin Culp has victoriously supplied hundreds of start-ups with assisting with CRMs, digital strategy, marketing, product development, channel sales strategies, and funding acquisition. An experienced, dedicated, passionate sales professional that is constantly demonstrating proven sales methods, marketing, lead generation, B2B, B2C, and advertising experience. 

16. Asher Strategies

John Asher the CEO of Asher Strategies, a business providing sales advisory services to clients ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies. He’s an expert in training, assessments, and consulting, his company has assessed the sales aptitude of over 50,000 salespeople and trained over 80,000 salespeople in 22 developed countries.

17. Mark Cox, In the Funnel Sales Coaching 

Mark Cox has negotiated some of the largest single-sale transactions in North America. He founded In the Funnel Sales Coaching with a mission to dramatically improve the performance and professionalism of B2B sales teams. His focus is targeted on strategy, process, tools, and discipline. 

18. SALESDOCk

SALESDOCk builds departments that deliver results. A B2B agency focusing on sales prosses and metrics, and a hands-on approach and sales technologies expertise. The agency delivers complex sales education, helps identify and prospect ideal customers, turns opportunities into business, teaches companies to use tools to automate, measure, and predict their sales, and more.

19. Factor 8

Factor 8 is a sales rep and management training company focused on helping sales teams sell in the virtual world. The company consists of a team of expert sales leaders who spend time developing people. They got you and can ensure your team hits higher revenue goals faster. 

20. Bain & Company

This B2B consulting firm can help you improve your sales productivity by 10-20% and increase ROI per marketing dollar up to $10 through its well-structured three-phase approach. It includes a detailed assessment of your current state, progresses through design and testing, and culminates in full implementation and results tracking.

Image source: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/1592878

The post The Top 20 B2B Sales Consultants to Check Out in 2022 appeared first on Leadrebel Blog.

Translated from German by FabForward Consultancy.

As a young IT project manager back in 2009, I read about SaaS for the first time. In those days, this subject was brand new: software that doesn’t need to be installed—that sounded almost futuristic. But times have long changed. There is an outright oversupply in the SaaS industry. According to Statista, there were 25,000 SaaS companies globally in 2021, of which 7,000 were in the marketing industry. All the more reason to be aggressive, efficient, and structured in your approach. The beauty of SaaS is that you can measure everything across the funnel. But, in the end, SaaS is just plain math—either the numbers fit, or they don’t. This brings us to the topic of SaaS KPIs.

There are numerous articles concerning this subject. SEO copywriters and freelancers on Upwork write 90% of them, but you can kick those into the bin. Several informative articles have been published, which can be found at the end of this post.

Without claiming completeness or even being a guru, I will write honestly and transparently about which SaaS KPIs we track internally and how we optimize them.

SaaS KPI 1: Traffic

First off, every website needs reasonable traffic. We’ve often seen clients with hardly any traffic wondering why they don’t have website visitor recognition in LeadRebel. Something that does not exist cannot be recognized. Thank God we are blessed with traffic on our end. Our primary sources of traffic are:

• Google Organic (i.e., what comes through the search engines)
• Google Ads (Google Advertising)
• Display Ads (advertising on various networks, again mainly Google)
• Backlinks from other websites (mainly generated through affiliate campaigns)

The top two are far better for conversion rates than the remaining bullet points.

Our goal is to slowly and steadily increase traffic further. Despite fluctuations and seasonality, we have achieved this goal over the last two years. Here’s what we did:

• Our Google Ads budget is fairly consistent, with no significant changes over the last few years. We did increase the funding in parallel with our MRR. Yet, we discovered that increasing the budget does not improve the results (due to the low search volume in our niche).
• Search engine optimization is where we can make an impact and have invested a lot of work. We constantly build links and post content on our blog (sometimes very diligently, sometimes less J). We also try to keep the technical aspect of our website in good shape.

Example:

Permanent link building also increases referral traffic, but this only plays a secondary role for us. 

My recommendation: SEO is slow, and you don’t see the results right away, but over the medium to long term, “slow and steady wins the race.”

We’re not SEO specialists and put our pants on one leg at a time, but there is one takeaway:

• Building links
• Generate content (blog articles, new landing pages, etc.)

Both simply cannot be ignored. But, again, you don’t have to be an SEO guru to do that. Just pay for it with money or with time.

SaaS KPI 2: Traffic Conversion Rate

This is an incredibly annoying SaaS metric (but very relevant to e-commerce). This SaaS KPI fluctuates a lot and is hard to influence, especially if you try to do it part-time (and yes, that’s what we do ). There are numerous tools and services specialized in optimizing traffic conversion rates. The whole thing is a science in itself, and I admit we don’t always understand it ourselves. Nevertheless, we recommend the following tools:

• Personyze: a software that customizes your website (e.g., headlines) based on visitor data (e.g., city, country, or even industry). This software works best in combination with LeadRebel
• Hotjar: a software that analyzes visitor behavior on your website, creates heatmaps and records video recordings of visits (analogous to LeadRebel).
• Unbounce: a tool to create highly optimized landing pages
• Optimizely: best-suited for A/B testing

The traffic conversion rate is the rate of prospects converted into trial accounts. We’ve seen everything from 0.25% to 4% in recent years. That means there were months when only 0.25% of all visitors opened an account, and there were months when that number reached 4%! (correspondingly, July and October, plain seasonality). On average, we are at 1.4%, our target is 2%, and it is clear that we are still a long way off.

From our perspective, conversion rates are mainly influenced by:

• Seasonality (summer and December weak, as generally in B2B)
• Traffic Relevancy. It matters whether the traffic is relevant or irrelevant. For us, organic traffic and Google Ads traffic from the German-speaking region is relevant and converts well. So, you have to observe the traffic quality and conversion rate as a whole, not separately. Otherwise, you will get a distorted picture.
• Responsiveness and a nice-and-tidy UI, both in mobile and desktop view
• Clear and well-placed call-to-action
• Wording, clear messages
• Straightforward sign-up/order process with just a few clicks, easy-to-use user interface
• The trust factor, i.e., references, reviews, customer feedback
• Lead magnet: an offer on the website (not your product or service) which is free of charge to visitors, but in return, you receive an email address from the prospect (e.g., free consultation, a PDF document with “best practices from …”)
• We keep generating new leads via online chat
• We are also experimenting with exit banners, product-related landing pages, and primitive A/B testing
• website speed (critical). Here is what it should look like:

One thing that helps our clients and us with trial conversion rates is—you guessed it—LeadRebel! By deanonymizing visitors, we have an opportunity to proactively target companies that otherwise would not have contacted us themselves. You can read here about how it works and its effects.

SaaS KPI 3: Trial Conversion Rate

Again, that’s one of the SaaS metrics we like and can be proud of. It’s about what percentage of trial accounts convert to a paid subscription. We stand at 25% and reach over 30% in good months. But again, summer is terrible, while Jan-June and Sep-Nov are good.

What is the reason for our (relatively) reasonable rate? It’s first and foremost because of our excellent product. It seems complicated to convince people to sign up (see SaaS Metric Traffic Conversion), but once registered, customers like our product (except for those with low traffic). Yet, we also take additional measures to keep the rate at a decent level. These are:

• Offering product demos. Early in the funnel, we offer a demo session and try to better explain our product to our prospects or customers. Experience shows that such customers are more inclined to subscribe. To learn more about buyer’s journey and why it is important for your sales, read this guide: Buyer’s Journey: How to Target the Stages.
• Full-featured trial version. We do not hide anything behind a paywall but offer our product in full and free of charge for 14 days. This makes it easier to assess the product value.https://leadrebel.io/de/signup
• Keep customers happy with automatic email notifications. During the trial period, I will send several automated emails to them, and some chosen customers will receive extra personalized emails from us.
• Welcome call. We try to establish an interpersonal relationship with our customers early in the sales process. Of course, it goes without saying that this is important.
• Newsletter. All registered customers receive a standard newsletter from us in which we explain our product step by step, present various integrations, point out partnership opportunities, and so on. We create them using Sendpulse, but plenty of other automation tools are available.https://sendpulse.com/
• Implementing customer requests: We are probably one of the few companies implementing technical add-on requests from customers not yet subscribed. It positively affects the customers’ readiness to buy.

SaaS KPI 4: Average Ticket Size

The increase in average ticket size can at least partly offset failures elsewhere in the funnel. By average ticket size, we mean the average order amount per sales order.

One of the positive characteristics of SaaS is that this metric tends to increase over the years. There are many reasons, like improved product quality, increased willingness to upsell among the existing customer base, broader acceptance in the market, trust factor, etc.

We also saw a significant increase in the average ticket size over the last two years, either due to gradually increasing the package prices or charging per extra user. We also optimized our sales and focused mainly on high-ticket customers.

Interim conclusion: A mix of four SaaS KPIs

We intentionally focus on these four KPIs because everything else is based on them. 

• For example, the number of leads per month is calculated as a function of traffic and trial conversion rate;
• The cost per lead is calculated according to the monthly budget divided by the number of leads;
• The cost per acquisition (= paying customers) is a function of traffic conversion rate and trial conversion rate, in combination with advertising spend

In other words, you leverage the entire funnel by optimizing the key parameters. Calculation example:

• 3000 visitors/month * 1% traffic conversion rate * 20% trial conversion rate * 300 Euro Average Ticket = 1800 Euro MRR per month

If you increase each factor by just 10%, the result looks very different:

• 3400 visitors/month * 1,1% traffic conversion rate * 22% trial conversion rate * 330 Euro Average Ticket = 2635 Euro MRR per month (46% increase).

It all sounds simple in theory, but it involves a lot of time, trial-and-error, and learning. A sustained increase in all SaaS KPIs will be gradual, and setbacks often occur. So, don’t get discouraged!

Bonus SaaS KPI: Churn

What would an article on SaaS KPIs be without churn? That’s the metric that keeps us up at night J . Churn means how many customers or MRR one loses per period. Roughly speaking, if you have gained 100 customers and lost 10 per year, the churn is 10%.

We were in a privileged situation from the beginning; our churn was and remains relatively low. Naturally, we lose subscribers all the time. Still, such customers are mainly from the lowest package (Lite = 29 euros/month) and have a low impact on our MRR. Recently, however, we lost a customer whose MRR was almost 600 euros, which hurts. Here are our churn figures by package:

Churn can have many reasons. In our case, there are mainly two:

1. The customer has no traffic
2. The customer cannot integrate the results into the daily sales routine

Seldomly, a mean one occurs: technical churn. Technical churn often happens when a company’s credit card has expired. Customers are notified about this by the payment system and us but decide against renewing their subscriptions.

How to minimize churn:

1. Permanent product improvement (the competition keeps on improving either)
2. Key account management, especially for customers with bigger tickets
3. Early warning system (user has not logged in for some time)
4. Educate customers, i.e., explain how to use or integrate the product into the company’s processes.

In short, your product must deliver on the promise that won your customers (added value, problem-solving, etc.). Only then will customers remain active or migrate sooner or later.

SaaS KPIs: Summary

This article is not exhaustive, and there are all kinds of metrics and calculation methods. There are many blogs and experts that focus exclusively on the SaaS KPIs topic. You will find some of them which we recommend you for reading below. In contrast, we tried to show which KPIs are essential in our day-to-day SaaS operations and how we optimize them. We hope it will make your business life a bit easier.

Here’s the promised list:

https://databox.com/metrics-every-saas-company-should-track

https://www.invespcro.com/blog/saas-metrics-kpis/

https://accelerateagency.ai/saas-kpis

https://neilpatel.com/blog/5-metrics-for-saas/

Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/182229932@N07/48545113627

The post Key SaaS KPIs and How We Optimize Them appeared first on Leadrebel Blog.

Disclaimer: This article provides your with GDPR checklist for sales. It is not legal advice. This article about the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), applicable from May 25, 2018, is for informational purposes only.

Why is GDPR important in sales?

Especially in times when violations of data protection are being prosecuted and punished more intensively than ever before, this topic should by no means be taken lightly. For companies that focus on outbound sales – i.e., actively collect data – compliance with this basic regulation is very important.

This article serves as a checklist for outbound sales and informs you about the application rules of the General Data Protection Regulation.

GDPR Checklist for Sales: How exactly you should proceed in sales

Ask yourself the following question: Which of the following sales channels do you use?

• Email Marketing
• Social media (LinkedIn and co.)
• Cold calls
• Letter marketing

If you are already actively using one of these sales channels, you will find a handy list at the end of the article. It shows what you must consider.

Not let’s move to the do’s and don’ts of the respective niche.

GDPR checklist for sales via e-mail marketing

E-mail marketing is one of most popular outbound sales activities. However, not everything that is technically possible is also allowed. First, you absolutely need the explicit consent of the potential customer.

The so-called “opt-in procedure” is usually used for this, i.e., a box that you can click to agree to receive the newsletter. It is important, that the customer actively decides in favor of your advertising.

Furthermore, some information about you and your company must be included in said checkbox with boxes:

• The identity of the sender
• the purpose of the data processing and the free right of withdrawal, which can be exercised at any time.

This information should also be picked up and addressed in your privacy policy. According to Art. 7 Para. 2 of the GDPR, everything must be written in easily understandable language.

Finally, in the footer of your e-mail, you should offer the recipient the opportunity to unsubscribe from your newsletter and thus from your database. This goes hand in hand with the free right of withdrawal at any time.

GDPR checklist for sales via social networks

Social media distribution is on the rise. If you want to remain visible, use should use social networks. Even in the B2B sector, social media is one of the most sought-after sales channels today. Here, too, you must stay compliant with the GDPR.

Ensure anonymity

You are allowed to collect and use social media data if you keep it anonymous. You can also place ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Co. without having to worry about a breach of data protection. Facebook keeps all personal data anonymous. They indicate according to the target group, but do not learn any names.

Agree to the appropriate data processing

On the other hand, you may not process any data if it leads from your homepage to your social networks. From a legal point of view, this already constitutes processing of personal data and requires consent, like e-mail distribution.

You can solve this leak with two clicks, by first agreeing to the appropriate data processing and then connecting to the social network.

GDPR checklist for outbound sales in cold calls

In the case of cold calling over the telephone, i.e., so-called cold calls, you must first and foremost distinguish whether you are calling private customers (B2C) or whether the acquisition is taking place in the business customer environment (B2B).

In the case of B2C contacts, the law generally prohibits calls without explicit consent. The same applies to all other sales platforms. You guessed it: for example, the e-mail channel but also SMS or WhatsApp.

In the B2B business area, you must also note that in addition to GDPR, unfair competition (UWG) also comes into play. This law provides, among other things, to prevent harassment and unreasonable burden by the advertiser. This applies to all market participants, i.e., competitors and consumers, i.e., suppliers and buyers.

The so-called balancing of interests also applies here across all distribution channels.

If you have not given your express consent to a call, you can assume that you have given us presumed consent. Here it is your responsibility or the responsibility of your company to keep the risk of an incorrect assessment as low as possible. You can ask yourself whether the person to be called expects a call from you or at least has a positive attitude towards it.

Is the form of acquisition customary in the industry?

There is also a clear interest, for example, if a producer absolutely needs a certain raw material that you produce for his production. Please note, however, that in such a case you may only use publicly accessible telephone numbers. Also think about whether the form of acquisition is customary in the industry or can at least be justified in this way. This can be of great use in the event of a dispute.

If you have observed all of this, according to the GDPR you are also subject to the information obligation for cold calling. Certain points in time must be observed here to make the procedure legally valid.

In theory, at the time of data collection, i.e., during the call, you must inform the person on the other end of the line about the collection and processing of their personal data.

This turns out to be difficult in practice. Especially if the potential lead is not interested in your offer. This can be remedied by transferring information in a temporal context, provided you have an e-mail address or postal address.

In such a case, you can direct the person to a website or send them the information in an e-mail. Unfortunately, there are no better solutions here.

GDPR checklist for outbound sales for letter marketing

Postage stamping is associated with costs but has advantages. Sending advertising letters to customers or leads takes time and effort but offers the option of addressing them personally and is highly suitable for customer retention.

Studies have shown that the average conversion rate for postal mailings is 3.9 percent. A study by Optilyzon postal advertising in existing customer marketing shows a similar value at 3.7 percent.

Some companies are of the opinion that such letter marketing is always permissible, after all you can just throw away the mail, right?

Unfortunately, it’s not quite that simple.

Keep this in mind according to the GDPR checklist for outbound sales

Basically, the address data of the potential leads must be collected properly. A balancing of interests must then take place. If the data owner has given his consent that the letter form or similar is generally permitted, the latter is of course no longer necessary. The required recital in the GDPR provides that the processing of personal data for the purpose of direct advertising meets with a legitimate interest and can therefore be justified.

Distinguish between your own addresses and third-party addresses. Own addresses have been collected by your company and can be used for self-promotion, but also for third-party offers – so-called “friend advertising”.

The balancing of interests already mentioned also applies here, but it is anything but clear. In many cases, this is also publicly accessible address data, which offers additional scope for argumentative justification.

It is often the case that data is collected by third parties. This refers to external service providers – mostly agencies. It is also possible to purchase data from large data pools, often for a limited period. If such data transfer to third parties is the case, then legal permission is required. The service provider is strictly bound by instructions and should act without its own decision-making authority.

The information obligation

Finally, the said information obligations to protect the data subject also apply here. Like e-mail marketing, you must properly inform about the right to information, correction, deletion, and restriction as well as the right to object.

In addition, you must be explicitly named as an advertiser. Inform that the right to object also includes and prevents the disclosure of your own data. This can be done using a multi-level approach, in which only the most important information is clearly displayed on the first level. You can then link to a website that contains more detailed information to make things easier to understand.

What you are allowed to do and what you should avoid – short and compact

Below is the quick GDPR checklist for outbound sales with the key points related to different sales methods.

What are you allowed to do? What should you avoid?

Bottom Line: Here’s what you can take away from this GDPR checklist for sales

A lot has changed since May 25, 2018. The General Data Protection Regulation has crept into the well-known distribution channels and made them more complicated.

This article has summarized the most important points for you so that you know exactly what to look out for in sales and marketing.

Just because it is now the case that you only must act subject to a legitimate interest, you should not shy away from sales channels, but acquire knowledge and use it properly. This is much more effective than following leads at random.

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