[notahacker]

> "Salespeople are notorious for giving excuses when they don't meet the sales targets they agreed to."

This is the sister argument for "developers are notorious for giving excuses when they miss deadlines they agreed to"

The key point about metrics is having something to base them off; difficult with a new product unless you know the competition (and the basis on which their clients switch) very well. A better starting point would be to agree upon how the rep intends to make 5 sales. If they make them, all is well; if they don't, you look at a simple measure of performance like whether they attended the meetings expected of them and ask what the feedback was. Resist the temptation to micromanage KPIs if things aren't going so well: if you suspect your salesperson is failing due to laziness then either you're wrong, and you'll drive them away faster or you're right and you still won't make things any better.