Recruiting/Sales metrics in a down economy

Assuming you already know and have confidence that you have a team in place that was performing well before the recent downturn, their performance numbers probably stink right now.  Normally, this would be an alarm that there are problems with the person and not the situation.  So what do you do?

One option is to just ignore those numbers and wait for things to turn around.  But, what about dumping those: #of starts, %of margin etc numbers and change to something that can help you motivate them to build a stronger foundation for the future.

How about: # of new candidates in the data base, #of new requirements generated, # of new clients that give you requirements etc.  In the past, recruiters and sales folks that highlighted these numbers were said to be all fluff and not able to put together actual deals.

Now is the time to be creative and design business models that help you last through the storm and ready to gain market share when the market rebounds.