OKR Examples

OKR Examples for Sales

Sample OKRs along with relevant discussions, organised by function

Sales

The sales function, traditionally goals & target driven, lends itself well to OKRs. These levels of OKRs are indicative & can be different for organizations, depending on the size, stage & maturity of OKR processes.

Company Level OKRs

Objectives	Key Results	Observations
Increase profitability by 42% every quarter for FY 2017-18	Monthly revenue growing at a CAGR of 20% every quarter Number of customers increased by 35% every quarter 55% region of the nation covered by Q4	Increase profitability by 42% every quarter for FY 2017-18 Observations A variation of this objective is common among the top 3 objectives of various companies. Similarly, the first KR will simply calculate the profitability based on sales occurred for a particular period. The second and third KRs are responsible for the increase in sales, and they lend to the calculation of the first. This way, various teams work together so each one contributes as per its function even though their KRs may appear unconnected at first glance.

Objectives

Key Results

Observations

Increase profitability by 42% every quarter for FY 2017-18

Monthly revenue growing at a CAGR of 20% every quarter
Number of customers increased by 35% every quarter
55% region of the nation covered by Q4

Increase profitability by 42% every quarter for FY 2017-18 Observations
A variation of this objective is common among the top 3 objectives of various companies. Similarly, the first KR will simply calculate the profitability based on sales occurred for a particular period.

The second and third KRs are responsible for the increase in sales, and they lend to the calculation of the first.
This way, various teams work together so each one contributes as per its function even though their KRs may appear unconnected at first glance.

Team level OKRs

Objectives	Key Results	Observations
Increase sales funnel by 35% by Q4 2017-18	Number of salespersons increased by 2.5 times by Q2 2017-18 Monthly 12000 active prospects in sales funnel Daily 30 lead conversions Reduce the number of leads lost by 15%	The objective here can be common for most companies, but the KRs may not necessarily be same. For example, not everyone goes on a ‘Salesperson hiring spree’ to increase sales. Some rather prefer to increase the efficiency of the sales process than increase further costs. Apart from the first KR, the remaining three do provide a way to determine if the team has achieved its goal.
Increase nationwide reach of product by 35% by Q4 2017-18	Distribution channel expanded to become 2nd largest in the nation Sales expanded to 1 new state every month E-commerce website created to expand reach of product	For this particular objective, the Sales team needs to collaborate with the Marketing Team to make sure that every channel, actual and digital, is tapped into. Only then will they be able to cover more ground, in a lesser amount of time. The third KR provides an example of how the 2 teams can collaborate.
Improve distribution network by 35% by Q4 2017-18	Incentives for distributors on exceeding sales by 10% every month Commission rate increased by 8% Easy on-boarding of distributors, leading to addition of 25 new distributors every month
Improve inbound leads processing by 35% by Q4 2017-18	All website enquires answered within 12 hours 70% signups given product demos within first 24 hours Ensure Landing Page has minimum questions to fill to avoid customer losing interest	This instance also shows where 2 different teams should work together. The 3rd KR is primarily the responsibility of the marketing team, which then passes on to the sales team to make sure appropriate action is taken to handle these prospects.
Improve efficiency of Salespersons	2 Training sessions conducted per month to handle each stage of customer lifecycle Conversion rate increased by 40% overall Positive feedback from 85% of customers about efficiency of salespersons	The first KR should be facilitated by the HR department in consultation with the Sales Head or Manager. These sessions could be conducted by external authorities as well as experts from within the organization.
Increase efficiency of the sales analytics process by 35% Q4 2017-18	Daily update of CRM to reflect new prospects, MQL to SQL conversion led to 90% reduction in errors Automate all sales activity to be reflected in CRM	While this is a Sales environment, the KRs (and even the objective, to an extent) that are being set must be for the IT Department of the company. The second item is simply a task while the third KR needs to define ‘sales activity’ clearly.

Individual Level OKRs

Objectives	Key Results	Observations
Increase prospect to lead conversion by 20% by Q3 2017-18	Target 2000 MQLs per salesperson per month Daily 40 positive reach outs per salesperson Daily 2 lead conversions per salesperson	The first KR, while doing its job, can be phrased better – where the emphasis is on ‘Achieve’ rather than ‘Target’. The second KR is phrased better, where the word ‘Positive’ encourages employees to log only impactful reach-out attempts.
Get insights from customers for previous quarters sales	Customers value feature X of product over others Company Product ranked in the top 3 among competitors 65% of customers’ request for additional feature Y to make it a comprehensive product
Get insights from prospects by Q4 2017-18	15% of website traffic received through weekly newsletter 20% of total demos scheduled through newsletter CTA 15% click through on average for every newsletter	The link between the objective and corresponding KRs is tenuous at best, even though the KRs are providing valuable information about the effectiveness of newsletters campaigns. The objective Might work better as ‘Get insights into the effectiveness of company’s weekly newsletter by Q4 2017-18’. The KRs would support the objective very well.
Increase efforts on cross-selling by Q4 2017-18	2 related products promoted to every customer 60% customers identified who need related products Revenue from cross selling increased by 35%	Instead of basing the objective on an unquantifiable element like effort, ‘Increase revenue by re-engaging with existing customers’ helps the individual consider alternatives to re-engage with existing customers which earlier would have been limited to only cross-selling, increasing chances of generating more revenue from them.
Maximize sales efforts for every region by 35%	Identify 100 prospects in one region every week Set meetings and demos for 15 prospects every week Convert 2 prospects to leads every week
Increase customer retention by 50% Q4 2017-18	Address all complaints within 24 hours and resolve them within 48 hours Seek regular feedback after product sale to understand whether it is satisfying needs Delight customers with extension of license period or additional feature	The first KR aligns itself well against the objective, but the 2nd KR needs to be detailed – like ‘85% customers are satisfied with product’, making it easier to identify what the remaining 15% is not happy about. Instead of being vague, the third KR can be, ‘Remaining 15% customers’ problems addressed by providing relevant solutions’
Increase quality of prospects identification process	90% prospects moved on to next stage in the cycle 70% of remaining prospects converted to leads 25% leads converted to regular customers
Participate in 5 trade events in 2017-18	Give product demos to 20 prospects per day Set meetings with 4 prospects Get contact information of at least 60 prospects per day