In Atrium, setting goals is a key part of measuring, managing, and improving the performance of sales performance. But what levels should you set the goals for a given metric at?
Atrium's "Automated Historical Goal Recommendation" feature helps solve this problem.
- Historical Goal Recommendations
- How Historical Goal Recommendations Are Calculated
- Updating and Refreshing Existing Goals
Historical Goal Recommendations
Historical Goal Recommendations will automatically calculate a data-backed suggested goal based on the historical performance of the relevant goal subject - whether team or individual rep.
How historical goal recommendations are calculated
Goal recommendations seek to approximate the idea of "Set a goal that has historically been achievable by the comparable reps".
In order to do that, Atrium looks back at the data for the relevant metric using comparable rep types, across a certain time period.
Comparable Rep Types
Goal recommendations are calculated by first selecting all available data for the comparable rep types (e.g., if you're setting a goal for Mid-Marketing Inside Sales reps, Atrium will consider all the data for the comparable reps in your organization, current and past, if you're setting a goal for a single Outbound Enterprise Sales Development Rep, Atrium will similarly consider data for all comparable reps). This functionality uses Atrium's "discipline" and "segment" data from the employee org chart.
For example, when setting a "Calls" goal for an "Outbound Sales Development" (discipline) team in the "Corporate" segment, Atrium will look at all the reps, both on that team, and other teams, that match that discipline-segment combination.
Sampling Time Periods
The time period over which Atrium will sample to come up with a recommended goal depends in the interval for which you're seeking to set the goal - in order to get a good representation of what "normal" performance looks like - not too weighted recently, and not influenced by performance that is so long ago as to potentially not be relevant any longer.
These are the sampling time periods:
Weekly Goal - Last 12 weeks sampling period
Monthly Goal - Last 6 months sampling period
Quarterly Goal - Last 4 quarters sampling period
Percentile
Lastly, Atrium will take all the data from the above group of reps across that time period, and calculate a percentile.
Right now that percentile is the 50th percentile.
Updated Recommendations
As you change the goal period or add filters to modify a metric (e.g., "New Business" only new opportunity inflow, or "Initial Meeting" customer meetings), Atrium will re-run the calculation and generate a new recommendation.
Team Total Goals
Calculating Team Totals is a little trickier. In this case, Atrium will take the recommended goal for a single rep for the relevant time period, and then multiply by the current number of reps for the team, thereby approximating what a reasonable "Team Total" goal could look like for the current team.
"Now" Goals
"Now" Goals (e.g.. Opportunities Owned, Untouched Opps) look at the daily values for the relevant time period, and then averages that to get a viable "Now" goal for a Week, Month, or Quarter.
Updating and Refreshing Existing Goals
It can be useful to refresh goals from time to time, as business motions have changed, or even if initial goal levels were maybe more aspirational than realistic.
Automated Goal Recommendations can be used to quickly run through your goals and see.
This can be particularly useful if you have a goal that is being substantially missed or surpassed - in an aggregate team level, and also across reps. That can indicate a goal needing some cleaning.
Here's a quick demo video on how to do that: