How to set Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) for Sales Engineering teams

Many Sales Engineering (SE) leaders face the task of setting goals for their Sales Engineering teams every quarter and every year. OKRs are a popular way for setting goals in the organization, which requires setting up Objectives and Key Results. This article is helpful if you are:

• Planning to implement OKR process in your Sales Engineering organization
• Looking to set new OKRs
• Looking for sample OKRs
• Looking for Launch Plan

Once OKRs are planned properly, it is not a complicated process. A successful OKR process requires planning, collaboration and commitment. The slide at the bottom of this article provides a good overview of some OKR examples.

Why Sales Engineering teams need different  strategy for setting OKRs

Sales Engineers have a commission as a major component in their compensation. Number of deals closed , deal size and renewals are the primary driver for Sales Engineers and Sales organization. Many organizations don’t have formal objectives, because they may use quota and commission as the primary objective for Sales Engineers. However, this is not the right strategy for setting objectives. SE teams still need their Objectives and Key Results in a holistic way that enables Sales Engineers and the whole Sales Engineering organization to be more effective in the field, which eventually results in closing more deals and earning more commission.

Metrics for OKR:

OKRs trickle top down from leadership level, starting from CEO. At the Sales Engineering level, the Objectives are a combination of individual SE objectives, holistic objectives for the Sales Engineering team and objectives for overall organization/company set by the CEO.

Here is a slide that provides some examples on: