We recently wrote a blog post about why you should invest in a Sales Performance Platform in 2017. If you haven’t read that post yet you should definitely head over and give it a look, because this post assumes that you read it and have made the (very wise) decision to invest in a platform this year.

Now that you have made this decision you are faced with a new set of problems: what should you look for in such a platform? In this post we are going to share with you the five features you absolutely must have in a Sales Performance Platform in 2017.

1. Customizable, in-depth process tracking

According to the TAS group, “companies that follow a well-defined sales process are 33% more likely to be top performers” and “the win rate exceeds 50% for 2/3 of companies that have a defined process in place.”

Any Sales Performance Platform should be customizable to whatever your sales process is and should measure data relating to time in every stage of that process.

2. Gathers both sales and marketing data.

While we have been vocal proponents of aligning sales and marketingHubspot has recently reported that aligning sales and marketing data can add 25% quota achievement and a 15% increase in win rate.

This means that any platform you are considering should gather data coming from both your sales and marketing teams and present that information in way where you can spot the patterns between these departments easily.

3. Integration with overall strategy

Sales does not live in a vacuum. A recent TAS study showed that “quota attainment increases 15% when the sales organization contributes to overall company strategy” and “companies classified as High Performers (where average achievement of quota is over 75%) display this behavior 53% of the time.”

Before you make a decision about your Sales Performance Platform make sure that you are able to include, within the platform’s architecture, those larger, corporate goals and thresholds. This will ensure that your sales always fits within the overall strategy.

4. Time tracking

Many VPs and Sales Managers feel like they are walking a fine line between leading their teams and micromanaging them. That being said, time tracking is a great way to make sure your teams are performing efficiently without constantly looking over their shoulders.

Why is it valuable? According to studies by the Harvard Business Review “Time spent on pre-sales and post-sales activities are both up by 15%. Meanwhile, time spent on non-sales (i.e., admin) work is up a whopping 21%. And all of this has come at the expense of actual selling time in front of the customer, which is down a full 26%.” To make sure that your reps are spending  their valuable time in the most efficient manner, i.e. talking to clients, make your your SPP has sufficient time tracking capabilities.

5. Accurate pipeline forecasting

Everyone enjoys being in the loop and knowing that they are working out of accurate information. Yet a recent study by Salesforce found that “Only 46% of reps feel their pipeline is accurate” and these same reps “spend on average 2.5 hours per week doing their sales forecast. All of this effort wasted on inaccurate forecasts is a critical issue that should concern sales leadership.”

To fix this you should ensure that your Sales Performance Platform has the most accurate pipeline metrics and forecasting available. This usually means customizable stages with real-time adjustments.

If your Sales Performance Platform has the following five features then you can rest assured that you are making the smart decision and can move forward with confidence. If you would like to learn more about our powerful Sales Performance Platform, you can get started for Free Today!