As significant as identifying in which path to take your sales team is assessing whether you are actually getting there. Proper evaluation of the effectiveness of the company's sales force is vital in recognizing the strong points as well as the flaws of the strategies employed in the sales cycle. The question, however, is this: How do you rightly measure the success of your sales force?

Many would automatically answer conversion rates and revenue. Quantifiable measures. There is no more practical means to evaluate a sales department's performance than counting profit and knowing how much sales the team make. After all, business people look at results.

Imagine a sales manager assessing the effectiveness of his sales team. He looks at the pipeline and asks how many calls did the team make today? How many proposals were sent? How many meetings were set? What is the total number of leads generated? Expect him to continue the evaluation by asking how many leads are actually converted to sales? Were you able to reach your quota for this month? How fast are leads converted to actual revenue? How much revenue did the company gain?

Almost always, sales effectiveness and success are measured quantitatively. Ergo, if you follow this logic, you can bluntly say that sales teams that generate revenue are effective; those that do not are not. Those that close deals are a success; those that do not are a failure. This judgment we have to accept if and only if we gauge effectiveness based solely on figures. But do we? Is sales effectiveness only and entirely about generating revenue?

While quantifiable metrics do give an idea of a sales team's performance, it does not encompass other factors that contribute to sales effectiveness. It may be true that revenue matters and figures count, but there are more to sales success than just profit. Quantitative measures tell only a part of the whole story.

Sales effectiveness is also greatly reflected in the actual process undergone by the sales team. In fact, the probability of a team meeting quotas and bringing in income to the company is determined by the each step and activity in the sales cycle. The manner by which the team approaches the sales process tells much of the effectiveness of the sales force. How does the team gather information and identify prospect clients? Is there a strategic approach to lead generation? How do they initiate engagement with the leads? What are their efforts in relationship building? How do they proceed with meetings and negotiations?

Most of the time, glitches in the sales process are the main barriers to good numbers and revenue. An unnoticed sales practice or habit, for instance, may be responsible for low conversion rates. Or some small details that go unseen in a proposal do disappoint the client. Or perhaps, the way of communicating during meetings is what betrays sales success. There are a lot of things that could happen during the sales process and certainly, these have an impact on the bottom line. This is why in sales, we say that results matter, but so does the process.

If we will begin to take on a new perspective in evaluating the performance of our company's sales team, if we will take into account the activities part of the sales cycle and not only the revenue, then there can be a better means of assessing sales effectiveness. By bearing in mind that sales success is not only determined by the results but also by the process, companies will surely be able to see a complete and more precise picture of their sales performance.