KPI and KRA - not able to get his key performance indicators. How to measure his performance?

Responsible for supporting sales activities, including technical sales, technical support, and customer communication. Preparing and developing technical presentations to explain our company's products and services to customers. Researching, developing, and modifying products to meet customers' technical requirements and needs. Helping customers who have problems with installed products and recommending improved or upgraded materials and machinery. Prepare a catalog of all devices and make videos for the company's YouTube channel for clients' better understanding. Give training to clients on the products at their office premises (all over India) and online. Manage all types of data regarding sales, such as device sales date, renewal date, firmware, APK files of the devices, etc. Prepare devices as per standard specs and tender specs from our backend software developer team. Design, configure, and test custom servers and various IP products as per the tender, install them on premises, and provide presentations and demonstrations. Support in achieving sales goals. Identify areas for improvement and communicate issues and possible solutions to upper management. Work with commercial/government clients to identify their technological and software needs. Provide training on the technical aspects of the company's products and services to other members of the marketing, sales, and support team. Collaborate with the product development team to develop sustainable and commercially viable products. Identify bugs and share them with the developer team for modifications. Solicit and log client feedback and evaluate the data to improve products and create new sales and marketing strategies to target customers.

These are the responsibilities of a pre-sales engineer in our company. I am unsure how to determine his key performance indicators and measure his performance.

Dear Shruti Arora,

Just by reading the Job Descriptions (JDs), the KPIs and KRAs cannot be designed. To do so, one is required to sit with the employee and his or her HOD to understand the job. During the discussion, we need to understand what is the input to this position and what output he or she gives. Based on the drivers of KRAs, the output is measured. This is a long-drawn exercise and it could take more than two hours.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Dear Shruti Arora,

To measure the performance of a pre-sales engineer, you can develop Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that align with their responsibilities and the goals of your organization. Here's a set of KPIs that could be relevant:

1. Technical Knowledge and Expertise
Number of Technical Presentations Delivered: Track the number of successful technical presentations and demos provided to customers.
Training Effectiveness: Measure client satisfaction with training sessions (through feedback surveys) and the number of client issues post-training.

2. Customer Support and Communication
Customer Satisfaction Score: Collect feedback from customers after technical support interactions to gauge satisfaction levels.
Response Time to Customer Queries: Measure the average time taken to respond to and resolve customer queries or issues.

3. Product Development and Customization
Product Customization Success Rate: Evaluate the success rate of customized products meeting customer needs (measured by customer feedback or repeat orders).
Bug Identification and Resolution Rate: Track the number of bugs identified and successfully communicated to the development team for resolution.

4. Sales Support
Contribution to Sales Goals: Measure the impact of pre-sales activities on achieving overall sales targets (e.g., percentage of sales influenced by pre-sales engineer).
Lead Conversion Rate: Evaluate the percentage of leads that convert to sales after pre-sales engagement.

5. Data Management
Accuracy and Timeliness of Data Management: Assess the accuracy and timeliness of managing sales data, firmware updates, and other relevant technical data.

6. Innovation and Continuous Improvement
Implementation of Client Feedback: Track how effectively client feedback is used to improve products or develop new features.
Number of Process Improvement Suggestions: Measure the number and quality of suggestions made to improve processes or products.

7. Collaboration and Teamwork
Internal Training Sessions Conducted: Track the number of internal training sessions provided to sales, marketing, and support teams.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Evaluate the effectiveness of collaboration with the product development team (measured by project completion success, timeliness, etc.).

These KPIs can be tailored to your specific business needs and used to create a balanced scorecard that measures the performance of your pre-sales engineer across different dimensions.

Thanks

Dear Shruti Arora,

This post is a follow-up to my previous post. To clarify the concept of PMS, I uploaded videos on YouTube several years ago. The links to the videos are as below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTe8Pu6yioo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMEj...s&t=1s

Designing KRAs may appear simple, but it is not so. One has to seek guidance from an expert. Implementing half-baked ideas does not yield full results. The important thing to keep in mind is to measure the output and not the input (which is effort). When measuring the output, one has to consider the costs and ratios associated with the business or the department.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

Dear Ms. Shruti,

KRA/KPI is based on what you want him to achieve. Your job description above has a wide range of activities. You need to decide which of them are important and measurable and use those as KPIs. For others, you will need to find a way to get him to focus/execute also as he will not bother with things that do not contribute to his KPI and therefore his bonus/increment.

Mostly, it is going to be based either on the number of meetings/connections/demos he conducts, or it could be linked to sales that come from his demos and meetings.

His bosses and the company management together need to decide on this. And remember, it can be changed from time to time as the focus and requirement of the company changes.