Dear SaaStr: What Should I Do in a Sales Audit?
A sales audit should be comprehensive and focus on identifying strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities across your sales process.
Here’s what to include:
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Pipeline Health: Review the pipeline metrics—deal velocity, win rates, average deal size, and pipeline coverage. Are there enough opportunities at each stage to hit your targets? Are deals moving through the funnel at the right pace? AI tools can help flag bottlenecks or anomalies here.
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Sales Process Efficiency: Analyze how well your sales process is working. Are reps following the playbook? Are there inefficiencies in deal progression? Tools like Gong can provide insights into call quality, follow-ups, and adherence to best practices.
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Forecast Accuracy: Evaluate the accuracy of your sales forecasts. AI can reduce forecasting errors by 20-50%, so if you’re still relying on guesswork, it’s time to upgrade your approach.
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Rep Performance: Dive into individual and team performance metrics. Look at quota attainment, activity levels (calls, emails, demos), and conversion rates. Identify top performers and those who need coaching. Reps who get just three hours of coaching per month can increase close rates by 70%.
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Customer Segmentation and Targeting: Are you focusing on the right customer segments? Review lead quality, conversion rates by segment, and the effectiveness of your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). AI can help refine your ICP and prioritize high-propensity leads.
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Deal Quality and Close Rates: Examine the quality of deals entering the pipeline and the close rates at each stage. Are you losing deals at a specific stage? If so, why? Metrics like time spent in each stage and reasons for lost deals can provide clarity.
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Churn and Expansion: For existing customers, analyze churn rates, upsell/cross-sell performance, and NRR (Net Revenue Retention). AI can help predict churn and identify expansion opportunities.
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Sales Enablement and Training: Assess the effectiveness of your sales enablement efforts. Are reps equipped with the right tools, content, and training? AI-powered tools can provide personalized coaching and identify skill gaps.
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Technology and Tools: Audit your tech stack. Are your CRM, AI tools, and other platforms being used effectively? Are there gaps in your tech stack that are slowing down your team or creating inefficiencies?
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Competitive Analysis: Review how your team is handling competitive threats. Are they losing deals to competitors? If so, why? AI tools can analyze call recordings to identify mentions of competitors and provide insights into how to counter them.
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Customer Feedback: Incorporate customer feedback into your audit. Are customers satisfied with the sales process? What objections are they raising? This can help refine your approach and improve win rates.
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Alignment Across Teams: Ensure alignment between sales, marketing, and customer success. Are leads being handed off smoothly? Is marketing supporting deals throughout the funnel? Are customer success teams equipped to drive renewals and expansions?
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Compliance and Documentation: Check that all deals are properly documented and compliant with company policies. This includes contracts, pricing approvals, and any legal requirements.
Especially in the founder-led days, or even with a stretch head of sales, a lot of times these steps are skipped. Things stay too qualitative and “best efforts”. Do the sales audit right, you’ll close more.
A good sales audit isn’t just about identifying problems—it’s about creating a roadmap for improvement. Focus on actionable insights and prioritize the areas that will have the biggest impact on revenue growth. And remember, the more data-driven you are, the better your results will be.
A related deep dive here:
