I was first introduced to the idea of Actions Precedes Results (APR) about 15-years ago. If you know what APR is you may have a negative view of it, but that view may be because it was never properly implemented or explained how it could be of benefit to you. APR is a component of data collection and validation as described in my “Leading a Partner Strategy” and “You Can’t Manage What You Can’t Measure” thought streams.
The idea behind APR is that there is a direct correlation to your actions and the attainment of your sales goals. If your APR is high, you’re likely meeting your sales goals; if your APR is low, you’re likely not. There’s a lot of truth to this. Let me put it this way…I’ve never seen a “President’s Club” winner with a low APR. You don’t have to look far to identify the correlation between APR and success or failure in hitting your sales goals.
What are actions? Actions are all communications you have with a prospect, customer, or partner. This includes emails, phone calls, conference calls, face-to-face meetings, webinars, etc. As stated in a prior post, “if it’s not in your CRM, it didn’t happen”. As an individual contributor this may seem like overkill and adding more administrative overhead to your already busy schedule. Companies that implement an APR policy typically create a scoring system. For example:
- Face-to-Face Meeting = 3 points
- Webinar/Demo = 2 points
- Conference Call = 2 points
- Call to = 1 point
- Call from = 1 point
- Email = 1 point
The purpose of this is to drive behavior and establish good CRM habits for your sales organization. Depending on your role, you may have a minimum target of APR points you must achieve over the course of a month or a quarter. Some companies make this a component of variable compensation. I’m not a believer in monetizing APR. I believe it’s inherently already monetized. If you are hitting on all cylinders and at 100% or above of your sales goal, you’re putting money in your pocket and likely hitting your accelerators; hence, there’s no reason to scrutinize your APR. However, if you’re under 100% and struggling to build a healthy pipeline, as a Manager the first place I’m going to look is your APR. The solution to an individual contributor underperforming can likely be found by analyzing their APR. The good news is that this is easily correctable with proper coaching. You have to be careful not make APR punitive, but make it rewarding and a key component to achieving sales goals. As a Manager, I would identify an individual contributor that demonstrates good APR habits and use them as an example to others. How do you make “President’s Club”? Do what “John Smith” does. Take a look at his APR and documentation practices. Empower “John Smith” to be a coach and mentor on your sales floor.
With that being said, APR/quota “overachievers” are not off the hook. The whole reason behind APR is so we have data that we can analyze to identify trends and patterns to improve our sales engagements and overall sales operations. It also provides transparency to the rest of the organization you may rely on to support complex sales engagements. As a Manager, nothing would drive me more crazy than seeing a full sales cycle go from “Demonstrating” to “Closed/Won” within 15-minutes according to the time stamps in the CRM. There are several stages and communications between the two that were never properly documented in the CRM. The argument from the individual contributor is, “What’s it matter? I closed the deal and I’m consistently at 100% or above in hitting my sales goals. Don’t fix what’s not broken.” As a Manager, this would be very concerning to me, but I’ve seen it a lot throughout my career. This tells me I have an individual contributor that is not a team player and believes the rules don’t apply to him or her. It sets a bad example for the rest of the sales organization. What if there’s an unexpected or long-term absence with this individual? Who’s going to step in and pinch hit? They wouldn’t have data or context to take the baton and keep the momentum moving forward. The prospect on the other end is going to be annoyed if they have to burn cycles educating you on everything they’ve already done with the individual you’re filling in for. You simply can’t manage from missing or bad data. As a sales professional you have individual sales goals, but you’re also a part of a team. APR is simply one of those things you do as a team player.
In closing, I like the idea of APR, but I don’t like the idea of making it a component of variable compensation. Directly monetizing APR through variable compensation can drive the wrong behavior in your sales organization. You may have reps entering bogus information or booking meaningless trips and meetings with the goal of hitting their minimum APR targets so as to secure their APR bonus. As a Manager, I simply don’t have time to validate every communication. Monetizing APR shifts the focus from quality of communications to quantity of communications. I do believe that “if you’re not top of mind, someone else is“. This simple statement should be enough incentive to drive good APR habits if you’re a good sales professional. There’s only one way to stay top of mind with your prospects, customers, and partners; and that is to have consistent and meaningful communications. If you do this and apply a little discipline in capturing those communications, everything else will fall into place and you’ll enjoy being a member of the “President’s Club” year over year.