Obviously the principal objective of the technical sales professional is to drive revenue for their organization in the form of new products and solutions sold to customers. However, the first focus area of the Technical Sales Balanced Scorecard – the financial, or shareholders perspective – might also include other aspects of performance. There are many objectives, measures, and targets that might act as indicators of the organization’s financial success and therefore be important. Ultimately, the financial perspective endeavors to answer the question, “how do we look to our shareholders?” Some measures might include:

• Revenue – including not only new sales for a given time period (quarter, week, etc.) but also year over year and/or quarterly comparisons
• Profit- similarly, not only for a given time period but also with period comparisons
• Backlog – committed revenue to be collected based on contracts that have been signed but not necessarily yet performed
• Losses – aggregated value of opportunities lost
• Market Share – assuming the market for a given offering can be defined in economic terms, this indicator would demonstrate how well the organization is doing in penetrating that market

Each of the above might be further categorized based on established or “white space” customers as well as by customer industry, geography, product line, or any number of other relevant criteria. Like any company’s financial statements, these metrics will tell a story about how effectively the technical sales team is working with customers and whether their efforts are resulting in the revenue and profitability required to deliver value to the owners of the company. If not, it might provide insight into what product lines, geographies, or customer sets might require more or less focus.