Sales Quota Planning

Sales quotas are at the heart of sales function in almost every company, but what’s the most realistic way to set them?

Sales quota planning should consider factors like the hire date of the sales representative, the company’s targets, its territory mapping, and the go-to-market strategy for the product/service being sold. The first part of planning is to get agreement on those elements. But until you make sales quota management a consistent, repeatable process, free of human error, you run the risk of frustrating your sales representatives and confusing your new hires. How can you set attainable quotas that are aligned with company targets and apply them continually — without manual intervention?

Analytics Solution

Establishing a centralized source for sales quota management involves automating the process of aggregating data and applying business rules. Fairness in sales quota planning depends on including as many relevant variables as possible, and automation is the only practical way to make the process accurate, adjustable, and repeatable. Instead of depending on spreadsheets or manual calculations to determine sales quotas, analytics pulls information like hire date, sales team, territory, and product from multiple data sources. The resulting models keep quotas aligned with the company’s targets and the direction of the business.

Alteryx provides the ability to connect with Salesforce, group opportunities based on various metrics, and then automatically push assigned opportunities to sales reps. It can also automate the manual process of building out account lists for new hires.