If you ask a team building experts what’s the secret sauce to assembling and fostering high-performance teams, you’ll likely get some great advice about soft skills:
All are cited by Harvard Business Review as keys for team performance.
But we’ll humbly add two more:
- Solid data
- Actionable intelligence
6sense provides a solid foundation for upholding and fostering those soft must-have skills like honest communication and working toward the same goal.
Here’s how.
Data-Driven Decision Making
Reporting on a PwC survey of more than 1,000 senior executives, Harvard Business Review reports that “highly data-driven organizations are three times more likely to report significant improvements in decision-making compared to those who rely less on data.”
That’s because data and intelligent dashboards enable teams to:
- Identify trends
- Measure performance
- Make informed decisions
Robert Zimmermann, Chief Revenue Officer at Qualified and a recent guest of 6sense’s Revenue Makers podcast, shared a great example.
At Qualified, he uses what he calls the “cup of coffee” dashboard, which prioritizes high-impact activities for sellers, ensuring they focus on the most critical tasks.
The idea is that if something appears on this dashboard, it’s so important that sales reps should “drop their cup of coffee” and engage with it right away. It’s a practice that brings focus and enhances productivity.
Review KPIs and Goals on a Regular Cadence
A regular, consistent review process for metrics is crucial for fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement, a key feature of high-performing teams. Regularly scheduled meetings, such as weekly operational reviews, allow teams to track progress, identify trends, and take corrective actions when needed.
Robert specifically cited these big picture metrics as important ones to pay attention to:
- ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) and ACV (Average Contract Value), which provide a broad view of revenue generation and customer value
- NRR (Net Revenue Retention) and GRR (Gross Revenue Retention), which offer detailed perspectives on customer retention and satisfaction
- ASP (Average Selling Price), which helps in evaluating pricing strategies
- Deal Length, which sheds light on the efficiency of the sales process.
Regular Reviews and Candor
Quarterly reviews keep revenue teams agile, aligned, and accountable.
In the same Revenue Makers episode mentioned above, Robert goes over his approach to regular reviews at Qualified, which puts a huge emphasis on not just accuracy of the metrics, but also being honest about what the numbers reflect — especially if it’s not what the executives or the board hope to see.
“We are trying to make sure that we’re as accurate as possible,” he explains. “I’m a big proponent of delivering bad news early. For example, we may be off on a metric, and rather than wait until the end of a quarter, we’re going to communicate as soon as we find out, and we’re going to figure out a plan to get back to health in those areas.” This honest approach is, in Zimmermann’s opinion, a key way Qualified team drives business.
Thinking Both Long-Term and Short-Term
Another crucial aspect of Zimmermann’s strategy is the differentiating between long-term strategic goals and short-term tactical actions. Long-term goals often encompass broader objectives such as market expansion, product innovation, and building brand equity. These goals require sustained efforts and investments over time.
In contrast, short-term tactical actions focus on immediate priorities like closing deals, launching specific campaigns, or addressing customer feedback.
Distinguishing between these objectives helps maintain a balanced approach, Zimmermann says, by addressing urgent needs without losing sight of the overall strategic vision.
Finding Alignment and Focus
Aligning sales compensation with key performance indicators (KPIs) is a powerful strategy to motivate teams and ensure their efforts are directed toward the most impactful activities. It can be hard to keep sales reps’ eyes on the prize, however, when priorities shift rapidly.
The solution is simple: provide sales teams with clear, actionable insights and tools that highlight their most critical tasks.
One Common, Costly Disconnect
When tying KPIs to compensation, make sure you use KPIs that really matter.
When 6sense Research interviewed B2B marketers to understand how their companies measure the marketing organization’s contribution to the production of pipeline and revenue growth, we uncovered a startling fact: 78% of marketers practice account-based marketing, but only 21% or less are rewarded according to relevant metrics.
Marketers who aren’t compensated based on KPIs are more likely to report feeling that their performance isn’t measured fairly, but the difference goes beyond employee sentiment. It impacts the bottom line. The same research found that when organizations include ABM-centric KPI measurements in bonus calculations, those companies tend to have better financial outcomes.
Leveraging Technology and Tools
Tools like Account-Based Marketing (ABM) platforms, intent data, and AI are important technologies that enable high-performing B2B teams.
6sense combines all the above into a seamless platform. 6sense uses AI-driven insights to identify accounts showing buying intent and provides detailed information about their interests and behaviors. This allows sales teams to tailor their outreach and engage with prospects at the right time with the right message.
You can read about our dashboards and how they help revenue teams more efficiently drive pipeline here.
It comes with tools and dashboards for operations, too, which are essential for data visualization and prioritization. These tools help revenue teams track their performance metrics, visualize trends, and make data-driven decisions. Dashboards provide a comprehensive view of key metrics, allowing teams to monitor progress and identify areas for improvement quickly.
Having the right tools ensures that data is presented in a clear and actionable format, enabling teams to focus on strategic priorities and drive better outcomes
Conclusion
Soft skills like communication and collaboration are key for high-performing revenue teams, and those skills are best backed up by data and technology that keep team members informed, focused, honest, and united around the same metrics and business goals.
