Fish Story
I just returned from a short visit to the sport fishing capital of the U.S., a place also known for its limes. We were pretty much the only ones at the marina hiring out a boat and not taking fishing poles along. Our preference is to catch fish on camera while paddling along with the aid of a snorkel rather than the use of a hook. However, the whole fishing thing got me thinking.
When we return from a vacation we all invariably get bombarded by co-workers and friends with the same necessary question – “how was your vacation?” And this polite behavior requires that we have to have an answer, and mine is always based on how much enjoyment I experienced. So for me, when it comes to skin diving, the criteria for success is measured by things such as the number of unique fish I got to see, or the quality of underwater pictures I managed to take. So, my answers to these inevitable inquiries include things like – “Great, I got to see my first school of spotted eagle rays!” Then, the fishing thing came back into my head and I thought, if I had been fishing I would rate my vacation on how many fish I caught or how big of fish I caught – such as my co-worker’s sister who landed a 7 foot sailfish! That is a serious success.
But then my warped mind kept pondering this and I wondered if I would rate my fishing vacation on something like how many times I cast my line into the water. Yes, I know this sounds pretty weird. And what is even weirder is that I then pondered the connection between fishing and selling, or, more specifically, the comparison between the measurement of fishing success and the measurement of selling success.
No. Fishermen and fisherwomen do not measure their success on the number of casts unless the measurement is something like how many strikes they get per cast. Otherwise it is all about snagging the fish on the lure.
On the other hand, there are quite a few companies that think it makes sense to measure how many sales calls a rep makes – the equivalent of the fishing cast. For the most part I think this is a mistake. If we measured fisherpersons on their casts, they would be motivated to drop the hook into the water as many times as possible, which would drive bad fishing behavior. They might not reel in the lure correctly, or leave the bait in the water a sufficient time to attract a fish. Maybe they would throw the line in the water too close to shore so they don’t waste time puttering out to the right fishing hole. Rather, the measurements need to be fish strikes, fish brought to the boat, and whether the fish is a keeper.
My point in all this is that we need to measure sales folks correctly. While measurement has to be focused ultimately on the deal (how many keepers did you get), it can also be focused on whether they are using the right bait or fishing in the right spot. But measuring how many times they cast the lure into the water is truly a weak measurement.
If we have a good set of pipeline stages defined, we should be able to know what sales activities are needed to advance a deal. We should measure whether those activities are performed and whether the sales stages have advanced. Those are great measurements, just like how many strikes and how many fish make it to the boat to the type of bait used. The number of casts just doesn’t get us very far. It would be as if we did not trust the fisherperson to fish enough – maybe we suspect they are just sitting in the boat and drinking beer.
OK, there are exceptions. A green sales team may benefit from this monitoring. Sometimes sales visit targets for certain segments can help change call behavior so that higher value customers are being called. But these are limited situations and we should only wield this kind of measurement for this type of circumstance and for a limited duration. Otherwise, setting sales call volumes and measuring against those targets is fairly immature measurement approach.
So, yes – thanks for asking - my vacation was pretty good, and I did get to swim for a while with that pack of rays. It ranks below the outstanding trip where I dove with the 5 foot long leatherbacks one day and saw my first feather duster the day before. But, it ranks above the so-so trip where the water was murky and the only interesting fish were hungry barracuda.
Now, go catch some fish – you decide if you use a rod or a camera.
