Metrics & Goals

Goal-Based Success ManagementKristen Hayer

CEO, The Success League

August 6, 2015

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There

is no other route to success.” -Pablo Picasso

Goal-Based ManagementC

om

pan

y

Metr

icsThese are the

big-picture pieces of your company’s business plan and strategy. Ideally you drive the success-related components of the plan.

Su

ccess G

oals The goals you create for your team should push your team toward achieving the company metrics that are related to customer success.

Ind

ivid

ual

GoalsManage the

individuals on your team to the goals you have built for your group. A rep might be responsible for hitting both team and individual goals.

The more your team becomes accountable for company metrics, the more power your team has to help customers.

Ask Key Leaders:• What experience do you want our customers to have?• What functions should the success team be tackling?• What tells you the success team is doing a good job?

Success For YOUR Company

• Churn or Retention – companies call it different things, but this will always be a part of the financial plan.

• Expansion Revenue – depending on the stage of your company, this may or may not be a part of your financial plan.

• Professional Services Revenue – if you are a service delivery organization or if there is a service you can monetize, this should be in the plan.

• Referral Revenue – if the customers your team manages drive referral revenue, you should own this number

Financial Metrics

Tip: If you’re not familiar with Excel, take a class. It will help you understand and start to drive your company’s plan.

Building A Plan

You can break things down in a way that works for you and your team, just make sure they add up to what is in the financial plan.

Line items that are flat in the business plan are an opportunity for you to look for ways to improve performance.

Some metrics might not be in the business plan but are directly related to something that is. If you gain agreement that they are important to measure, add them to your plan.

When you’re done building your plan make sure it matches the financial plan and has the support of key leaders.

Metrics vs. Reality

1• Build a Realistic, Alternate Plan

2• Review your Plan with Finance

3• Review your Plan with Leadership

4

• Get Involved with Planning Next Year

When you’re new to a company or have been promoted from a front-line to leadership position, you probably didn’t have input into the plan. If the business plan is very different from what you can achieve, do this:

Be Bold. No executive wants to underachieve. If you have solid reasons for your alternate plan, you’ll gain support.

Specific – A goal to “reduce churn” is not specific enough.  A goal to reduce churn by 2% this quarter is.  Statements like “reduce churn” or “improve revenue” make great company initiatives but terrible goals.

Measurable – I’m going to tackle this one on it’s own slide, but basically if you can’t measure something, it shouldn’t be a goal.  For example, “improve customer engagement”, without a series of surveys and tools, is not a measurable goal.

Achievable – If your company has only ever had a 50% renewal rate, increasing to a 95% renewal rate in one quarter is probably not an achievable goal.  A goal to increase to 60% may be more realistic.

Relevant – This is where history sometimes gets in the way.  If you’ve always given your CSM team a goal of 40 calls a day, that’s great, but if that goal doesn’t help you achieve your metrics, maybe it isn’t relevant any more.  All goals should tie to metrics in some tangible way.

Time-bound – Goals should reflect the timeframe for the changes you expect to see in your metrics.  For example, you might want to have monthly goals related to expansion revenue and quarterly goals related to customer satisfaction.

SMART Goals

Goal What You Control

• Control – things like how many customer go through training, how many customers are put on agreements, how many upgrades are sold

• Influence – things like the overall churn rate, customer satisfaction scores, how customers adopt new features

What Is Measurable

Tip: Don’t go crazy with the goals. People can only really think about 3-5 goals at a time. Choose impactful ones.

Tools

-CRM (like Salesforce)-CSM (like Totango)-Admin System-Survey Tools-Finance System M

eth

od

s -Consistent with Company Metrics-Consistent with Industry Norms-Accurately Reflect Customer Health

Alig

nm

en t-Leadership

Support-Finance Support-Consistent with Internal Reporting

It is important to consider what and how you measure things as you’re creating goals for your team. Here are a few items to make sure you’ve thought about:

Clear Goals

Make sure you communicate clearly:

• What are the goals? How do they impact company metrics?• What is the timeline for achieving the goals?• Where can everyone see the team’s results?• What action plans are already in place?

The One-on-OneGoal: Drive Individual Achievement• Make reps bring you their results to date • Create an action plan • Pick a time and stick with it  

The Team MeetingGoal: Communicate Results and Changes• Share team and company results • Use this time to learn • Reward performance

Regular Meetings

I use 15Five for my one-on-one meetings. It is easy, guides the conversation, and lets you keep a meeting history.

Sharing Results

“When it is obvious the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” -Confucius

1. Visible and Up to Date – whiteboards, leaderboards, dashboards are all great vehicles

2. Tied to Company Metrics – it isn’t enough to communicate the results, you need to communicate why they are important

3. Unbiased – communicating unmet goals is tough, but if you have to be willing to take both the wins and losses.

4. Intelligent – it isn’t enough to say that you hit (or didn’t hit) your goals. You need to be able to explain why.

Tip: Communicate results both down and up within your company. Don’t assume people know how it’s going.

The Success LeagueKristen Hayer, CEOKristen@TheSuccessLeague.io

Q & A