It’s time to move away from traditional presales KPIs.
What do I mean by traditional KPIs? I mean activity metrics that measure things like:
- What have your people done?
- When did they do it?
- What effect did they have?
Traditional KPIs are shortsighted. They often focus on low-value activities that take up a large portion of presales time without much benefit. Attribution is hard to calculate due to all the factors involved, and misallocating time leads to burnout and drained resources.
Instead, focus on these updated KPIs, which show a better picture of how your Presales team impacts revenue. These new KPIs focus on the things that actually matter and present a buyer-centric approach. Buyers want and need Presales support throughout the entire buying process, and these top five KPIs will help you capture the impact your team makes at every stage.
Top 5 Presales KPIs
Here are the best KPIs you can monitor that will directly impact and measure success.
I tested these with my CEO. While pipeline Coverage is more often a metric to gauge whether you have enough pipeline to meet your sales targets, demos now actively play a role in covering the pipeline with self-service content. We switched the KPI to ‘Pipeline covered by self-service demo automation’ to calculate how tools like interactive demos impact sales.
- Demo Qualified Leads or ‘Watch a Demo’ Conversion Rate. This is the percentage of viewers who enter their contact data into our lead form on our website CTA demo. Having customers view an interactive demo leads to a decrease in the amount of live demo resources that go to unqualified leads.
- Views Per Deal. Pay attention to who is watching the automated demos you send out. We found 12+ demo views mean a 72% deal close probability, proving the link between growing buyer stakeholders and meeting their needs.
- Pipeline Covered by Self-service Demo Automation. This KPI is the number of deals that are moved through our sales cycle by watching one or more demos. Deals in our pipeline that don’t have demo views are at risk. Knowing what percentage of deals are watching demos lets us know where to focus our attention.
- Demo Automation Effect on Revenue Growth. Total revenue influenced by official automated demo content. Similar to Views Per Deal, this KPI references how many demos were viewed in the deal that closed. There may be one-off demos that were created for specific buyers, so be sure to exclude those when tracking this metric.
- Gross Revenue Retention & Net Revenue Retention. The impact of self-service automated demos built by Presales and CS teams. Buyers who feel supported post-sale are more likely to stay. Demo automation is a great way to scale CS efforts. % of each CS rep’s BOB (book of business) that has watched an automated demo in the previous 90 days.
Measuring Deal Momentum
In addition to the KPIs we outlined above, we keep a close eye on the deal momentum for each deal. We track momentum by assigning a point value to certain buyer actions and adding the points to the deal’s overall score as they occur. A deal with a score of 120 is likely to close.
We can’t reveal all our secrets, but some of the actions we track include the following:
- Has there been a meeting in the previous seven days?
- Is there a meeting set for the next seven days?
- Have they watched a demo in the previous seven days?
By consistently tracking each deal out of 120, our sales leader can know at a glance which deals are moving themselves through or which need help.
Better KPIs for Better Outcomes
If you’re still focusing on traditional Presales KPIs, then you’re missing the true impact of your Presales team on revenue. Shifting the focus to a buyer-centric approach will not only allow you to better support your customers but will help you close deals faster.
For more presales trends you should watch, check out the Sales Engineer Compensation and Workload Report. You can also take the time to explore our massive resource center, view a webinar, or even watch your own demo on demand.
