Leading, Lagging, and Alignment - A Playbook for KPIs
Success in sales, much like in football, isn’t just about showing up—it’s about having the right strategy and knowing what to measure. Just as a football team needs clear goals and roles, your sales team needs well-defined KPIs to stay focused and drive results.
Let’s break down how you can set up your sales KPIs using a framework inspired by a winning football strategy.
The content below is part of our KPI Building and Strategy Sessions. Sessions are conducted on-site and customized to your business.
NexStride offers a free sessions to review your current KPIs and discuss strategies to make your KPIs more impactful. Unlock your team’s full potential.
Understanding the Play: Lagging vs. Leading Indicators
In football, the final score (a lagging indicator) tells you the outcome, but it’s the stats during the game (like third-down conversions, a leading indicator) that predict success. The same goes for sales. Lagging measures reflect results like total revenue, while leading measures are the actions that drive those results, like the number of sales calls made.
But here’s the key—leading and lagging indicators need to be aligned across your entire organization. Think about it this way: if the head coach is focused on winning the game (a lagging indicator), but not achieving higher scores (a leading indicator), there’s a disconnect. In a sales context, if the CEO is focused on annual revenue (a lagging indicator), but the sales reps aren’t meeting their daily call quotas (a leading indicator), the company won’t achieve its long-term goals.
This chart shows how football teams and sales teams can both benefit from focusing on the right indicators at the right time. The owner might care about yearly revenue (a lagging indicator), but the sales team should focus on daily tasks that lead to those results (leading indicators).
Takeaway
By balancing both leading and lagging indicators, you make sure everyone on the team is doing the right things to drive success.
Role-Specific KPIs: From Strategy to Execution
Just like a football team, where each player and coach has a specific role and focus, your sales team needs to have KPIs that match their responsibilities and timeframes.
This chart outlines how each role within a team should focus on different KPIs:
Owner (CEO/Executive): Focus on long-term goals like multi-year revenue growth, similar to aiming for a Super Bowl win. Review these annually.
Football Operations (Sales Operations): Concentrate on seasonal goals, like hitting the annual sales targets. Review these every few weeks.
Head Coach (Sales Manager): Look at shorter-term objectives, such as monthly sales quotas. Review them weekly.
Offensive Coordinator (Campaign Manager): Focus on specific campaigns or “drives” and review them after each campaign.
Quarterback and Wide Receiver (Sales Reps): Zero in on daily tasks like making sales calls or closing deals. These should be reviewed daily.
Takeaway
Every role in your sales team should have KPIs that align with both their responsibilities and the overall company goals. Regular reviews ensure everyone stays on track.
Pro Insight
One of the biggest challenges in aligning KPIs is ensuring each role focuses on the right metrics for their level of influence. For example, sales reps should focus on leading indicators, like daily calls or meetings, while executives focus on lagging indicators, like quarterly revenue. The key is ensuring that every role’s KPIs feed into the overarching business goals.
The Power of Alignment: Making It Work Together
The real strength comes when every part of your team is working together toward the same goals. Just like a football team needs everyone from the owner to the players to be aligned, your sales team needs everyone focused on the right KPIs to win.
By adopting this approach, you’ll create a sales team that’s not just hitting its targets but consistently knocking them out of the park. Think of it as your playbook for building a winning sales team.