Let’s Get Real: If Activity Alone Could Drive Sales, We’d All Be Crushing It
Let’s face it, salespeople don’t necessarily jump at the idea of “adding more sales activity” into their daily schedule. Not making numbers? Let’s add more sales activity KPIs (we hear leaders say that). There are pitfalls of the “more is more” mentality and why this approach often alienates leadership, drives sellers to look elsewhere and often isn’t
So why are leaders stuck on the activity bandwagon?
Why Are Leaders Stuck on the Activity Bandwagon?
One word: control. Ok, that may be harsh, but time and time again, things have shown that not many sales leaders are open to change so they stick to what worked when they were in a seller’s seat. In today’s world, raw numbers alone don’t tell the story, we now have marketing, we have intent, we have (gasp) social selling and referrals, etc. When we force teams to do one thing over and over again – plus more – that doesn’t garner results, all we are doing is having them get on the hamster wheel daily and expect they make progress.
The obsession with activity can actually hurt your team’s performance, by forcing them to do repetitive meaningless motions. No one wants to burn through calls and emails without seeing results, yet many teams are pressured into exactly that.
The Pitfall of “Does More = Better?”
Does more activity equal better results?” The answer isn’t simple, especially when high-volume targets pressure sales reps to skip researching prospects and meaningful preparation. Instead of making impactful calls to the right people, they’re chasing numbers for the sake of numbers.
According to a survey by LinkedIn’s State of Sales, 77% of buyers prefer working with salespeople who act as trusted advisors, rather than those who simply hit activity metrics. But if your team is glued to a call quota without understanding the buyer’s problem-environment, how much credibility are they really building?
Recently, I spoke with two teams experiencing this firsthand. One team runs over 6,000 sales activities monthly, converting just 4% of their pipeline to closed/won. That’s a major red flag. This approach is exhausting their Total Addressable Market (TAM). Their CEO wants more calls, but at this rate, they’ll burn through the TAM in months. Then what?
Another team I talked to is facing a similar problem. With a 3% connect rate, their SDRs are burnt out, opportunity creation is scarce, and they’re scrambling to pull new leads from databases. They’re operating like a machine and not paying attention to what the data is telling them.
Data Never Lies, Humans Do
Humans lie, er, well, stretch the truth to see what they want to see. It often comes down to having to wave the white flag that what you have been doing is no longer going to get you where you want to go.
Being agile and leaning into change may get you where you want the team to go – but you have to address the root causes: what’s happening at the rep level, what training or lack there of exists, does your team know the unique business problems they solve, what does a coaching cadence look like, and lastly, what style works for EACH rep.
Pivoting to Metrics that Drive Outcomes
It’s time to shift from activity KPIs to outcome-based metrics like conversions per stage, opportunity creation, and quality over quantity. Focusing on these areas ensures that reps aren’t just doing “busy work” but making real strides towards revenue. Test it, try it out and be ready to abandon ship early if you are not seeing results.
Things to ponder….
- Measure Conversions Per Stage: Instead of asking, “How many calls did you make?” ask, “How many prospects did you move forward?” This metric tracks progress rather than motions, helping identify where reps may need additional support or strategy tweaks.
- Prioritize Opportunity Creation Over False Metrics: Fat pipelines that do not move – perhaps your team isn’t aligned on what a qualified opportunity is and they are adding fluff to the pipeline so leadership stays off their back.
- Develop Skills, Not Just Quotas: It’s tempting to rely on activity quotas to drive performance, but meaningful sales happen through a mix of research, curiosity, and consultative skills. Investing in skill development – like training reps to handle run a great discovery that is not only focused on finding a unique business problem you solve, but helping the customer to see what happens if they have massive impacts and choose to do nothing.
What we Know To Be True
There is no one way. One rep may excel at cold calling where another has doubled down on social selling. Identify WHICH metrics matter to your org as it relates to driving revenue attainment. It’s not always more sales activity, and if you keep hounding that and are not seeing the results, not only will you not get where you want to go, but you may also lose really great reps who want a freedom box.
If activity alone drove sales, we’d all be crushing it.
