Killer Analytics: Top 20 Metrics Missing from your Balance Sheet

Chapter 6

The Opportunity Management Index

WHY AN ORGANIZATION MIGHT TRACK THIS

Questions Answered

• How many leads or suspects have we identified and what is the quality of each lead?
• How many suspects or leads turn into qualified leads?
• What is the strategic value of each opportunity we have identified?
• How many qualified leads have we converted to prospective customers?
• How many prospective customers turn into actual customers?
• How do we assess the quality of new customers to determine their value to the organization?

Why Is This Information Important?

Managing the sales or opportunity management process in an organization is a big cost to an organization and is a process that is often managed with anecdotal data. Salespeople are almost always optimists and every prospect is a potential huge customer. For leaders, it is really tough to get an accurate picture of how best to invest resources into opportunities and which ones to take a pass on. Sales calls, travel expenses, and proposals can all add up to big money that could lead to huge losses unless the outreach and business development process is accurately measured and managed. Forecasting is a very inexact process, and even the best salespeople are wrong more often than right when developing a forecast. That deal that they thought was never going to happen is the one that comes through, and the sure thing just does not materialize. The opportunity management index helps to track both the quality and quantity of suspects, ...