We posted on this topic in our old blog (predates The Hire Sense) and it is worth bumping up to this version. Paul DiModica writes in BDM News about one of the best sales tools around, the Lost Sales Analysis. I will warn you that this article is quite theoretical but I found it captivating.
The lost sales analysis is more effective than percent of quota attainment as a measurement tool, because it measures not just the sales success of an account manager against some predetermined sales quota, but it also measures their success against competitors based on lost sales.
The example he provides is excellent – even a numbers-challenged person like myself can understand the approach. I’ll leave that information for you to read. He bolded point to end the article:
The key to successful sales forecasting is understanding where the sales numbers are, where they need to be, and where they came from.