WHY TRACKING SALES ACTIVITIES (NOT JUST OUTCOMES) WILL SAVE YOUR QUARTER
Everyone loves celebrating the wins. But when the number isn’t hit whether it’s the week, the month or the quarter we often find ourselves scrambling. Suddenly, we’re asking how many calls were made, how many meetings were booked and where the pipeline went quiet.
If you’re not tracking activity from day one, you’re already behind.
Recently, we met with a sales leader who wanted to improve his team’s performance. He had someone in the team who’d been there six months, but results weren’t showing. There were no clear expectations set around activity. The focus had been purely on outcomes — book meetings, close deals. But with nothing in the pipeline and no meetings happening, he was left with questions and no data to back them up.
This is common. A lot of experienced salespeople are left to their own devices and while that works for self-motivated reps, it leaves no room for coaching, consistency or course correction. When a number is missed, the manager feels like they’re coming down hard. The rep feels blindsided. It’s not good for either of them.
Here’s the issue: when we only track outcomes, we rely on lagging indicators like revenue and closed deals. If the result isn’t there at the end of the quarter, it’s already too late to fix the problem.
What we need are leading indicators. These include activities like calls, emails, LinkedIn messages, event invites and networking efforts. These numbers show us if we’re on track well before the deadline hits. They help build consistent habits and give sales leaders early insight into who needs support.
When we onboard new hires for our Lead Development as a Service, we start simple. In week one, the goal is just to speak to ten people a day. Then we build up to sending collateral, booking meetings, and inviting people to events. It’s like going to the gym. You don’t lift 100kg on your first day. You start small, build up slowly, and create the muscle memory to handle more.
The same applies in sales. You can’t expect a new rep to close a deal in month one. But if they’re consistently making calls, engaging on LinkedIn, and having conversations, they’re building the pipeline that leads to long-term results.
Pipeline itself can be misleading. It’s often messy, outdated, or padded. Without regular check-ins and clean data, it’s hard to trust. That’s why activity tracking matters. It’s the engine that drives the outcome.
At Your Sales Co, we use a scorecard system across the business. Each team member has a weekly list of activity-based KPIs, not just outcomes. It might include number of calls, meetings booked, content delivered or the podcast going live. We review these together every Monday. That way, we never go more than a week without catching issues early and supporting each other to get back on track.
A few common objections come up when setting activity KPIs. “Isn’t this micromanaging?” “Will quality drop?” “I trust my team.” These are fair questions. But tracking activity isn’t about control. It’s about building rhythm and identifying where someone might need help. If quality drops, it’s not a tracking problem, it’s a training one.
Revenue is the reward. Activity is the engine. And if you’re only managing outcomes, you’re always on the back foot. To set your team up for success, start now. Get their input. Explain the why. Create a simple structure everyone can follow and make it part of your regular rhythm.
When activities are tracked, expectations are clear, and course correction happens early. That’s how you avoid surprises at the end of the quarter. That’s how you build a high-performing sales culture.