Demos - Measure What You Want to Impact

Too many organizations measure the number of demos delivered – without exploring whether these demos were needed or productive.  In fact, a number of sales organizations incent their teams based on the number of demos scheduled or delivered, under the belief that the more demos in the pipeline, the better the pipeline…  This generates a negative spiral of doing more unproductive and unnecessary demos, yielding forecasts that are increasingly inaccurate and consuming valuable resources that could otherwise be allocated to more profitable sales opportunities.

It is my experience that doing fewer, much more qualified demos results in higher close rates and more accurate forecasts.  Great Demo! practitioners report measuring:

-          Demos per $ of revenue
-          Close rates
-          Sales cycle length
-          Cost of sales (per revenue $)
-          Free vs. paid trials and evaluations (POCs, POVs)
-          Number of trials and evaluations required
-          Deal size and breadth
-          No decisions
-          % follow-up calls
-          Internally-circulated demo success stories

Other measurements to consider?