Sales Performance Management
💡TL;DR
SPM runs on short plan-execute-adjust cycles. Review quotas and territories quarterly, run KPIs and coaching weekly. SMBs should prioritize simple targets plus SPIFFs over complex incentives, showing progress and action guidance on the same dashboard. Route coaching tasks via the Action Feed and track completion.
Definition
Processes and tools to plan quotas, coach reps, track KPIs, and align incentives to revenue outcomes. It closes the loop between planning, execution, and adjustment through dashboards, scorecards, and coaching workflows.
🏢What This Means for SMB Teams
With limited HR/Ops, keep the system simple. Combine coaching and number tracking in one place.
📋Practical Example
A 90-advisor commercial insurance brokerage ($52M revenue) ran quotas and SPIFFs in spreadsheets. Managers spent 12 hours/week reconciling numbers, and only 54% of reps hit weekly activity targets. They deployed SPM with live dashboards, lead-to-quote SLAs, and auto-generated coaching tasks. After 90 days, reconciliation time fell to 3 hours/week, activity attainment rose to 78%, quarterly new business grew from $6.3M to $7.1M, and turnover dropped two points because reps saw real-time progress.
🔧Implementation Steps
- 1
Define the minimal scorecard (3–5 KPIs) tied to revenue: meetings, proposals, win rate, cycle time.
- 2
Set weekly targets and SLAs; auto-create coaching tasks when metrics fall below thresholds.
- 3
Centralize quota, territory, and incentive rules; sync with payroll/CRM to avoid manual calc.
- 4
Publish live dashboards for reps and managers, highlighting leading indicators and gaps.
- 5
Review weekly in a 30-minute pipeline + coaching meeting; adjust territories quarterly.
❓Frequently Asked Questions
How many KPIs should be on a rep scorecard?
Keep 3–5. Too many KPIs dilute focus. Prioritize one activity metric, one quality metric (win rate), and one outcome metric (revenue or margin).
Do SPIFFs complicate SPM for SMBs?
Only if overused. Limit SPIFFs to one per quarter with clear, simple rules, and show real-time earnings so reps trust the system.
⚡How Optifai Uses This
Optifai generates coaching tasks in the Action Feed based on KPI progress and suggests adjustments.
📚References
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Related Terms
Quota Attainment
Percentage of reps hitting or exceeding their sales quota in a given period. Often split by role, tenure, or territory to see where enablement or pipeline is lacking.
Revenue Per Rep
Total revenue (or ARR) generated divided by number of sales reps over a period. It captures productivity and reveals whether to hire, coach, or re-segment territories.
Sales Dashboard
A visual board showing pipeline, activities, SLAs, forecasts, conversions, and risks, ideally linked to actions so reps can work directly from insights. The best dashboards include drill-downs and one-click task creation.
Revenue Velocity Index
A composite metric that scores pipeline health by weighting deal cycle time, win rate, deal size, and active pipeline per rep. It tracks how fast revenue moves, not just how much exists.
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