­Putting your data to work: Metrics to measure with your CRM

We’ve talked about the importance of using a CRM as a single, central place for:

• Prospect and customer contact data
• Pipeline tracking and forecasting data
• Segment and firmographic information
• Notes from sales reps and customer service interactions
• Email tracking
• Downloads, clicks, and form data

Keeping all of these records, and keeping them in the same place (not scattered across three spreadsheets, an old Access database, and a few stacks of index cards) means anyone on your client facing team (CFT) can get to all the info they need when they need it.

Want to review the background on a prospect before making a nurturing call? Check! Need to see how long it’s been since a customer’s last order? Check! Trying to compile a list of all your clients in Omaha? Check!

Inputs and Outputs

The other reason for keeping an up to date and complete CRM is metrics. No matter what you’re measuring CRM metrics depend on entering every call, selecting the right stage, updating contact information, and completeness of everything else you record. Better data in your CRM gets you more accurate and complete data for KPI reporting.

Does the data really matter? As an analogy, consider a medical trial for a new drug. Results might look promising based on a study with 10 participants. But if the study follows 1,000, there are many more data points.

That means more chances to detect subtle differences in efficacy, evidence of placebo effect, and prevalence of side effects. Researchers also have to make sure they enter all the relevant information for each study subject, because gaps in data lead to imprecise calculations.

Metrics to Focus On

So what metrics should you be looking at with your CRM data? You could easily spend all day crunching combinations of numbers to study every aspect of your sales and marketing work, but these are the best ones for tracking progress and trends:

Sales and customer outreach

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC) – in a given time period, all of your sales and marketing costs divided by the number of new customers, also consider breaking this down by customer or account to see the distribution

• CAC payback time – how long it takes to recoup the cost of acquiring a specific new customer (or take an average for all new customers)

• Customer lifetime value – the amount of revenue generated over the entire time a company is your customer, calculated for a specific customer or an average

• Length of sales cycle – how long it takes a customer to get through your pipeline

• Churn and retention rates – how many customers are lost and retained in a given time period

• Close rate – calculate an average or track by each sales rep

• Average deal size – calculate an average or track by each sales rep

• Length of time at each stage – as long as you track stages consistently, this can show you where things tend to get bogged down or lost entirely

• Lost opportunities – consider this number for prospects as well as customers, and look for trends you may be able to address and reverse

• Lead scores and breakdowns by component – in addition to listing prospects by score, break it down to see how component factors are distributed to compare to others.

• Conversion rates like MQL to SQL rate and SQL to opportunity rate

• Customer satisfaction indicators, number of open or unresolved tickets, and first touch resolution rates – if you have a customer service team, these metrics can give insight into their effectiveness

Marketing and content engagement

• Percentage of marketing-originated customers – along with total marketing costs, this figure can help you determine marketing ROI

• Leads generated per channel and traffic per channel – we all know traffic doesn’t guarantee a lead, and these numbers can help you find and close gaps

• A/B testing – track how different versions of similar content performs, for example, email subjects vs. open rates, landing page copy and form submissions, or MQL or SQL rates based on calling scripts

Productivity and CRM user adoption

• CRM user adoption – logins and numbers/frequencies of entries by user can provide insight into how often and to what degree the CFT is using the CRM, which impacts the accuracy of your other metrics

• Number of outbound calls made in a given time period – outbound call volume indicates how quickly you’re getting through your calling lists and how often reps are nurturing by phone – each call representing a potential opportunity

• Open tasks (such as follow up calls or emails) – automated reminders to call or email keeps nurturing on track, and checking the number of pending or incomplete tasks helps teams stay accountable

• Net promoter score – like other customer satisfaction indicators, you must remember to ask and record it or you can’t track it - five scores of 10 looks great, but if you only asked 3% of your customers, it isn’t the full story

Metrics tell the objective story of your day to day operations and how successful they are. Use your CRM as a tool to identify what’s working and uncover areas that need tweaking.

If you’re new to CRM-based metrics or want to make data-based improvements, please contact us! We can help.