More Is Not More: Rethinking the Sales Activity Obsession

Recently, I had a call with a team whose main focus has shifted to - yes - that's right, "sales activity". The thing is, the team has been meeting their sales activity for the last 6+ months with NO OUTCOME.

Yes, you heard me, no bookings, no pipeline, and no forward movement. Yet, week after week, leadership is hounding them to focus on more...."sales activity".

More and more we are hearing that the spotlight has been on activity-based "sales leadership" – the idea that sales leadership should set measurable activity targets for their teams, such as the number of calls, meetings, or demos.

When there is no correlation between activity and outcomes, it's time to pause and reassess, yet here we are with and increased focus on sales activity, why?

Who remembers Good Will Hunting? Matt Damon was a wiz at figuring out math problems and correlation. We can probably learn a lot from him.

More Is More - Except For Sales Activity

Doesn't more activity equal more success? It might be true in high-volume transactional sales, but in today's world of sales where a good bit of teams do not know what problems they solve or are missing the mark on calling the right ICP or Persona, an obsession with activity levels can lead us down the wrong path.

Take my friends that I talked to the other week. The whole US-based team has been booking 8+ scheduled sales calls per week plus 1-3 product demos month after month with no outcome.

That is the DEFINITION OF INSANITY in my book.

As a sales leader, at some point, you have to scratch your head and say....the math ain't mathing!

Here's the deal – raw numbers don't tell the full story.

They don't measure the quality or value of the activity, whether it aligns with revenue goals, or if it adds any value to the prospect.

Metrics should focus on actions that genuinely enhance the pipeline and boost the chances of hitting revenue targets. Bad metrics, on the other hand, distract or, worse, hinder good salespeople from reaching their goals.

Prospecting Pitfalls: Quality Over Quantity

Some organizations push their sales teams to make an unrealistic number of calls every day.

The problem?

A rigid focus on quantity can discourage salespeople from investing time in researching and preparing for calls or conversations with those whom they can truly solve a problem for.

(Don't know what problems you solve or how to help your buyers - start here.)

The solution?

STOP. Evaluate and take a hard look at what's working and what's not.
If you truly are invested in changing the outcome of your revenue organization, it's going to start with peeling back the onion layers to see where there is a disconnect.
Consider a shift in the focus from raw "top of funnel" metrics to outcome-based ones.

Areas to investigate:

• Talk to every single member of your sales team to get an understanding of what they are hearing and seeing. Is there a correlation?
• How realistic are the sales-qualified or marketing-qualified leads that have been added?
• Who is my team calling/engaging with when they outbound?
• What are the prospects saying?
• Has something changed? (economic times are now forcing a lot of decisions out of the C-Suite - if your team is still calling on an old persona, you may be up against a brick wall).

The Obsession On Sales Activity May Be Your Demise as a Leader

The facts are, that the unhealthy obsession with sales activity may make you feel in control as a leader, but ultimately may end up costing you your job or reputation.

Many years ago, I sat in a room of about 20 sales leaders. The senior ranking Sales Leader went around the room calling on each salesperson one by one asking them to report on their % of attainment of sales activity metrics for the year.

Needless to say, I saw an ENTIRE sales organization turn on that leader as a result of the meeting. The focus wasn't on the outcomes that mattered (revenue, market share, or growth), it was completely focused on the entries in the CRM.

Top-performing salespeople respect their time, can easily tie sales activity to outcomes, but when forced to hone in on sales activity for the sake of checking a box, usually they start looking elsewhere.

Choose Metrics Wisely

The overarching advice?

Choose your metrics wisely, and ensure they guide actions toward exceeding revenue targets or outcomes that matter to the entire organization.

Activities alone are irrelevant; it's their contribution to outcomes that truly matter.
Let's measure what counts and propel our sales teams toward success.