Episode 34: The Vanity of Win Rates

In this insightful episode of Some Goodness, host Richard Ellis challenges the conventional B2B sales metric of win rate, arguing that it can often be a vanity metric that hides inefficiencies. Instead, he introduces cycle yield (revenue generated per selling hour) as a more effective measure of sales productivity. Richard provides a detailed explanation and comparison of two sales reps' performance to illustrate how cycle yield can reveal true efficiency and guide better coaching and strategy. He also offers practical tips on how leaders can start tracking and utilizing this metric with existing tech stack data. 

A cycle yield calculator is available for download from this link.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction: The Truth About Win Rates

01:11 The Vanity of Win Rates

03:07 Introducing Cycle Yield

03:56 Case Study: Sarah vs. David

06:53 Measuring Cycle Yield

07:58 Implementing Cycle Yield Insights

09:22 Conclusion: Building a Scalable Sales Engine

Keywords

B2B revenue, sales organizations, win rate, vanity metric, sustainable growth, performance dashboards, board meetings, sales engine, sales leaders, cycle yield, revenue per selling hour, sales process efficiency, selling hours, qualification, prospecting, pipeline velocity, wasted motion, CRM, sales engagement tools, sales coaching, leaderboard, scalable process, profitable process, SMB motion, enterprise sales, data-driven revenue leader, cycle yield calculator, Revenue Innovations, Richard Ellis, Some Goodness

Soundbites

• “Win rate can be one of the most misleading numbers on your dashboard. It tells you what happened, but it tells you nothing about the incredible cost of that win.”
• “Everyone celebrated the logo, but no one calculated the cost. The win rate went up, but the business may have actually lost ground.”
• “Cycle yield connects sales activity directly to business value, turning the spotlight from ‘did we win’ to ‘how efficiently are we winning?’”
• “Efficiency, not just outcomes, is the mark of a modern data-driven revenue leader.”