If you manage a sales team, you know the drill: endless metrics, pipeline meetings, and pressure to prove what’s working. It’s easy to drown in dashboards and still have no clue what your reps are actually doing each week. If you’re looking for a real-world way to use Clari to track sales rep activity metrics—and actually do something useful with that data—this guide’s for you. No fluff. Just what you need to get started, avoid common screwups, and make Clari work for you (not the other way around).
1. Get Set Up: What You Actually Need (and What You Don’t)
Before you start poking around in Clari, let’s make sure you’re set up to see what matters.
What’s worth tracking? - Emails sent/received - Calls made - Meetings booked and held - Notes logged - Opportunities touched
Most teams get lost because they try to track everything. Don’t. Pick 2–4 metrics that actually tie to selling activity. If you can’t explain why a metric matters in one sentence, skip it for now.
Connect your sources - Make sure your CRM (usually Salesforce) is piped into Clari. - Connect your email/calendar (Google or Outlook). - If you use dialers, make sure those are syncing too.
Pro tip: Test with one or two reps’ data first. That way, you’ll see if you’re getting garbage in/garbage out before you roll it out to everyone.
2. Map Your Metrics: Set Up Activity Tracking in Clari
Now you’re in Clari, but raw data doesn’t help unless it’s mapped to the right fields and shown in a way that makes sense.
Here’s what to do:
-
Define your “activity.” In Clari, not every logged email or call is equal. Decide what counts as a meaningful touch. For example: “Emails with at least one reply,” or “Meetings with decision-makers.”
-
Map activity types. Clari’s admin tools let you choose which CRM fields and calendar events count for each activity metric. Double-check these:
- Are emails really syncing, or just meetings?
- Are calls logged automatically, or do reps have to enter them?
-
Is there a clear owner for each account?
-
Set up activity rollups. Use Clari’s “Rollup” or “Summary” views to group activities by rep, opportunity, or week. Don’t just look at raw totals—look at trends over time and context (e.g., activity by deal stage).
What to ignore:
Clari offers a ton of “engagement” or “AI” metrics that sound fancy but don’t always mean much. If you can’t tie it directly to your sales process, skip it until you know what you’re looking at.
3. Monitor What Matters: Build (Simple) Dashboards
A dashboard shouldn’t make your eyes glaze over. Resist the urge to build 10 tabs—start with one or two views that answer real questions, like:
- Who’s actually moving deals forward this week?
- Are reps hitting their minimum activity targets?
- Where are deals stalling based on lack of touch?
How to build a useful dashboard:
- Use filters. Only show open opps, or filter by team if you manage a big group.
- Highlight exceptions. Color-code or flag reps who are below minimum activity.
- Keep it time-bounded. Weekly or monthly snapshots work best. Daily is usually too noisy.
Example dashboard widgets: - “Meetings this week vs. target” - “Opportunities with zero activity in 14 days” - “Top 5 reps by calls made”
What to avoid:
Don’t overwhelm yourself with “engagement scoring” unless you’ve already nailed the basics. Fancy doesn’t mean actionable.
4. Actually Use the Data: Coaching and One-on-Ones
Here’s where most teams fall down. They look at the numbers… and that’s it. Activity metrics are only useful if you use them to change behavior.
How to turn data into action:
- Bring a metric to every 1:1. Don’t ambush reps—send them their activity numbers ahead of the meeting.
- Ask “why,” not just “what.” If someone’s low on meetings, dig into what’s blocking them. Is it a process issue? Skill gap? Junk leads?
- Set one small goal. “Book 2 more meetings next week” is better than “Increase activity by 15%.”
- Celebrate improvement. If someone’s trending up, call it out. It’s easy to ignore small wins, but they matter.
What doesn’t work:
Using activity data as a weapon. If your reps think you’re just Big Brother, they’ll find ways to game the system or sandbag their numbers. Keep the focus on improvement, not punishment.
5. Track Progress and Iterate
No setup is perfect from day one. The real value comes from tweaking your metrics and views as you learn what actually drives results.
How to keep improving:
- Review dashboards monthly. What’s useful? What’s noise?
- Drop dead metrics. If you’ve been staring at “emails sent” for three months and it’s never sparked a good conversation, drop it.
- Add new metrics slowly. Only add something if you know how you’ll use it in coaching or pipeline reviews.
- Ask reps for input. They know where the data is wrong or misleading, and they’ll spot ways to make it more useful.
Pro tip:
Don’t chase the “perfect” dataset. Good enough, visible, and regularly discussed beats perfect but ignored.
6. Common Pitfalls (and How to Dodge Them)
Let’s be honest—Clari is powerful, but it’s not magic. Here’s what trips up most teams:
- Garbage in, garbage out. If reps aren’t logging activity in CRM, Clari can’t help you. Make it as automatic as possible.
- Too many metrics. More isn’t better. Focus on what you’ll actually use.
- Fixating on activity over results. Activity is a leading indicator, not the finish line. Don’t forget to track actual sales outcomes.
- Confusing quantity with quality. Ten pointless calls aren’t better than three real conversations. Use activity metrics as a starting point, not the whole story.
Wrap-Up: Keep It Simple, Keep It Moving
Clari can help you see what your sales reps are actually doing, spot where things are stuck, and coach more effectively. But the tool won’t do the thinking for you. Start with a few key metrics, use them in real conversations, and don’t be afraid to change what you track. The simpler your process, the more likely you’ll actually use it—and your team will, too.
If in doubt, focus less on fancy dashboards and more on real actions you can take each week. That’s how you actually improve sales activity—not just monitor it.