Monitoring & Performance Tuning Flashcards

A sales manager reviews a rep's pipeline and finds 80% of deals are marked 'Verbal Commitment' but few advance to 'Closed Won'. What is the most likely problem?

Answer: The rep is prematurely advancing deals in the CRM without genuine commitment

Bottlenecks at late stages combined with few closings typically indicate deals are being advanced optimistically in the CRM before true commitment is secured.

Which of the following is a direct consequence of poor CRM data hygiene on sales performance monitoring?

Answer: Inaccurate forecasts and flawed performance assessments

If CRM data is incomplete or inaccurate, all metrics derived from it — forecasts, pipeline health, rep performance — become unreliable and misleading.

A rep has a strong close rate but a very long sales cycle. What is the BEST performance tuning approach for this rep?

Answer: Analyze where time is lost and coach on accelerating deal progression without sacrificing quality

Identifying cycle bottlenecks and coaching on acceleration preserves the rep's strength (high close rate) while improving throughput.

What does a declining 'average deal size' trend over several quarters most likely signal?

Answer: Reps may be discounting too aggressively or shifting focus to smaller prospects

Shrinking average deal size often points to excessive discounting, downmarket drift, or reps gravitating toward easier, smaller deals to hit unit quotas.

Which sales monitoring practice helps ensure that coaching interventions are targeted to the areas of greatest impact?

Answer: Prioritizing coaching based on which KPI gaps have the largest revenue impact

Revenue-impact prioritization ensures that coaching time and resources are allocated where improvement will generate the most significant results.

A sales team's overall quota attainment is 72%. The manager wants to determine whether the issue is widespread or concentrated. What should the manager analyze FIRST?

Answer: The distribution of attainment across individual reps to find whether the gap is systemic or isolated

Distributional analysis reveals whether underperformance is spread across the team (systemic process/market issue) or concentrated in a few reps (individual coaching issue).

In sales performance tuning, what is the primary purpose of setting 'activity quotas' alongside revenue quotas?

Answer: To track and manage the behaviors that drive future revenue outcomes

Activity quotas provide visibility into and accountability for the leading-indicator behaviors (calls, demos, proposals) that generate future revenue.