Take Command of Your Win Rate Today!

How to Identify Your Win Rate in Insightly

Commonly referred to as the “win rate,” this datapoint is among the most fundamental performance indicators for any sales organization.

If you’re using Insightly, the data is actually available at your fingertips. You just have to know where to look. To identify your win rate, navigate to the reports section of your Insightly account. Click on the “new report” button and select “opportunity type,” which will serve as a starting point.

Next, you’ll want to create a filter that removes all open opportunities. (Remember, you’re only interested in determining the percentage of deals won.)

Run the report, and Insightly instantly tallies up the total number of opportunities that meet your criteria. In this simple example, there are only two closed opportunities: one won and one lost. Some quick math determines that the “win rate” currently stands at 50%.

To save yourself a few steps in the future, consider saving this report in Insightly. The next time you want to check in on your win rate, the information is easily accessed from your personal reports.

Develop a Process for Nurturing Lost Opportunities

Most companies lose more opportunities than they win. Assuming even a healthy 40% win rate, more than half of all deals still fall flat.

As you expand the flow of new leads into your CRM, you could eventually end up with thousands of contacts who turned down your initial offer. This does not mean, however, that they’re a lost cause for life. Staffing and organizational needs are constantly changing, which could present new opportunities for your sales team. However, if you never circle back, you could be missing out.

Here are a few ideas for keeping the door open with lost opportunities.

Continue to nurture them – Do you offer a printed or email newsletter? Including past contacts in your distribution list can be a subtle way to stay top-of-mind. As their needs evolve, you’ll be positioned to capitalize.

Call them back in the future – Sales reps spend most of their time engaging new leads. However, it can be wise to set recurring tasks and occasionally reach out to former leads. A friendly follow-up call can go a long way.

Extend a special offer – Would a special promotion entice past leads to re-consider your products or services?

Develop products specifically for them – Do you notice a trend with lost opportunities? Perhaps your current product mix does not serve the given niche. This could be a catalyst for future research and development work.

Your team worked hard to cultivate these relationships. Constantly look for new ways to maintain engagement.

Common Sensor

A team at the University of California, San Diego, has come up with a tattoo that uses special ink imbued with a chemical called pilocarpine, which brings sweat to the surface. Then, sensors noninvasively—and accurately—read the user’s blood alcohol concentration, sending a readout to a mobile app.

“We’re always looking for new and interesting applications of these tattoo biosensors,” says Professor Patrick Mercier, codirector of UCSD’s Center for Wearable Sensors. The tattoos are still in the research and development phase, but Mercier says in a few years they could come to market. And they would be cheap, too, because his team is screen-printing the sensors. Find out more at jacobsschool.ucsd.edu/wearablesensors. (By Kate Pavao)

Know Which Sales KPIs to Focus On

We’ve established that win rate is obviously an important metric. But, what other KPIs (key performance indicators) should a sales-focused company track?

While there are dozens of possibilities, Adam Honig at the Spiro blog points out two others:

• Opportunities created per week
• Average size of deals

Why are these two stats so important? It actually comes down to simple mathematics. Let’s assume that your company manufactures dental office examination equipment. You offer two main product lines, which are always sold together as a kit: a high-end exam chair and a lamp system. Although pricing fluctuates based on volume, your accountant provides the following historical sales averages:

• Exam chair: $5,000
• Lamp system: $3,500
• Average deal size: $8,500

This year, your company is on track to exceed $1 million in revenue for the first time ever. Since implementing Insightly a few months ago, your team has consistently averaged twenty new opportunities per week (or about 1,000 annually). Let’s do some quick algebra to determine win rate (yes, you finally get to use math skills learned in 8th grade!).

This year’s sales equation

[$8,500 average deal size] x [1,000 opportunities / year] x [Win rate]  = $1 million

Win rate = 11.76%

Looking ahead, you’d like to increase next year’s sales by 50%. How many opportunities do you need to obtain? Algebra to the rescue!

Next year’s equation

[$8,500 average deal size] x [? opportunities / year] x [11.76% win rate] = $1.5 million

# of opportunities = 1,500 per year (or about thirty per week)