Here’s a list of measurable items that belong in a weekly business development report:
1. Number of calls/emails or companies pursued: In some instances, you are pursuing multiple individuals inside a company which may impact the number of companies pursued because you’re digging deep inside an organization.
2. Number of qualifications made each week: This number is an indicator of how good the sales person is at getting someone to respond. Getting a “no” from someone is the next best thing to a “yes” because you can move on from that prospect if there is no current need or interest. A sales person with a good voice mail and email script should yield at least a 20% contact rate.
3. The number of inbound inquiries: This is important to recognize because like it or not, all of your new business efforts should not be the sole responsibility of the salesperson. If you have little outside interest, you need to beef up your marketing strategy and tactics. Market to your database frequently to support your sales efforts.
4. Number of inbound interest calls that are top tier prospects. If you are actively marketing to your database, you should have inbound inquiries and website traffic that gives you valuable information. Over time, track the inquiries and look for meaningful trends (are inbound interest calls and interest inquiries the same? If so, I think you should be consistent – use the same term throughout).
5. List of companies in the pipeline along with the potential revenue. This one’s obvious but it’s also important to know if they are buyers or just exhibit behaviors that make you think they are buyers.
6. Business closed YTD and also listed by quarter so you can see trends and patterns.
7. Information about business closed and the source of it, i.e., web inquiry, a reader of your online content, cold call, referral, etc.
