Why Tracking Effort – Not Just Results – Is the First Step Toward Predictable Growth
Ask any underperforming salesperson why they’re falling short, and the answers often sound familiar:
“We need better leads.”
“I just need to close more.”
“I don’t have enough time to prospect.”
But ask them how many Proactive Calls or outbound touches they made last week, and the conversation tends to get quiet.
The truth is, most sales teams don’t have a performance problem, they have a visibility problem.
And it starts with a simple, repeatable habit: tracking the work.
If You’re Not Tracking, You’re Guessing
Too many teams rely on gut feel to forecast sales. But guesswork isn’t a growth strategy.
Sales doesn’t depend on better leads, it depends on more swings. And in the Outgrow system, swings mean Proactive Communication: calls, texts, check-ins, DYKs, rDYKs.
You can’t improve what you’re not measuring.
As Jim Collins wrote in Good to Great:
“You must translate disciplined thought into disciplined action.”
Tracking effort is that translation. It turns action into accountability, and accountability into outcomes.
Leading Indicators Drive Growth. Lagging Ones Just Describe It.
Most teams obsess over metrics like closed deals, revenue, and pipeline size.
Those are important, but they’re lagging indicators. They tell you what happened, not why it happened.
If you want predictable growth, you need to focus on leading indicators — the proactive behaviors that create momentum:
- How many Proactive Calls did you make?
- How many DYKs or rDYKs did you offer?
- How many follow-ups or callbacks were logged?
These are the behaviors you control. And when you track them consistently, you begin to shape the future — not just study the past.
Top Performers Don’t Track Wins. They Track Work.
The highest-performing Outgrow clients don’t just measure results, they measure effort.
They know that:
- Effort creates visibility.
- Visibility creates accountability.
- And accountability creates growth.
Tracking isn’t micromanagement. It’s how you build a revenue engine that doesn’t depend on hope.
As Simon Sinek puts it:
“You don’t hire for skills, you hire for attitude. You can always teach skills.”
Outgrow teaches teams the skill of measured action. And it starts with tracking.
How to Track Proactive Work (Without Overcomplicating It)
You don’t need enterprise software to start tracking what matters.
In fact, simpler is better because what gets recorded, gets repeated.
Start here:
- Pick a Tool That’s Easy to Use
Google Sheet, whiteboard, notebook…it doesn’t matter. If it takes more than 10 seconds to update, it won’t last. - Track Inputs, Not Just Outcomes
Log every Proactive Call, DYK, or follow-up, whether it leads to a sale or not.
Volume creates velocity. Consistency builds confidence. - Make It Daily
Sales, like fitness, compounds over time. A consistent five touches a day is more powerful than one intense blitz.
We’ve helped teams grow revenue significantly by tracking just five outbound touches per rep, per day.
That’s over 1,000 proactive actions per person annually and every single one builds pipeline.
Want Predictable Sales Growth? Track the Work That Drives It.
If your team is stuck in a cycle of unpredictable results, the fix isn’t magic.
It’s momentum.
And momentum starts with tracking the work not just watching the scoreboard.
Outgrow doesn’t just give you a sales philosophy. It gives you a system for execution; a way to go from reactive habits to proactive discipline.
Because growth isn’t an idea. It’s a behavior.
Let’s move from sales knowing to sales doing, one tracked behavior at a time.
- Read more about how Outgrow creates predictable growth at RunOutgrow.com
- Check out my Amazon review of the book here: Read the review
- Or pick up your copy of Outgrow and start doing, not just reading: Buy on Amazon
