What's your strategy for choosing sales metrics and KPIs?

Choosing the right sales metrics and KPIs (key performance indicators) is crucial for sales management. They help you measure, monitor, and improve your sales performance, align your sales team with your goals, and motivate your sales reps. But how do you decide which metrics and KPIs to use and how to track them? Here are some tips to help you develop a smart strategy for choosing sales metrics and KPIs.

1 Understand your sales process

Before you select any metrics or KPIs, you need to understand your sales process and how it relates to your sales cycle, your target market, your value proposition, and your sales goals. Your sales process is the sequence of steps that your sales reps follow to move prospects from awareness to purchase. It should be clear, consistent, and scalable. Your sales process will determine which metrics and KPIs are relevant and meaningful for your sales team.

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Andrew Hatfield

GTM Optimisation for B2B SaaS | Product Marketing & Growth | Founder of Deepstar Strategic
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The 4 key indicators of revenue are Num Qualified Opportunities, Win Rate, ACV, Length of Sale. With these four data points, you can calculate your pipeline velocity, ie how quickly money is moving through your pipeline. Keep track of this on a quarterly basis to see trends over time while removing seasonality. Everything else is related to these four revenue levers.

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2 Choose metrics and KPIs that align with your goals

Your sales metrics and KPIs should reflect your sales goals and objectives, both short-term and long-term. They should also be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. For example, if your goal is to increase your market share in a new segment, you might choose metrics and KPIs such as number of leads generated, conversion rate, average deal size, and customer retention rate. If your goal is to improve your sales efficiency, you might choose metrics and KPIs such as sales cycle length, win rate, sales velocity, and sales productivity.

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3 Balance leading and lagging indicators

Leading indicators are metrics and KPIs that predict future outcomes, such as number of calls made, number of appointments booked, and pipeline value. Lagging indicators are metrics and KPIs that measure past results, such as revenue, profit, and customer satisfaction. Both types of indicators are important for sales management, but you need to balance them. Leading indicators help you identify potential problems and opportunities, and take corrective or preventive actions. Lagging indicators help you evaluate your performance and compare it with your benchmarks and targets.

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4 Use a dashboard to track and visualize your metrics and KPIs

A dashboard is a tool that displays your metrics and KPIs in a simple and visual way, using charts, graphs, tables, and other elements. A dashboard can help you track and analyze your data, spot trends and patterns, and communicate your results to your sales team and other stakeholders. You can use a dashboard to monitor your overall sales performance, as well as your individual sales reps' performance. You can also use a dashboard to create reports and presentations that showcase your achievements and challenges.

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Andrew Hatfield

GTM Optimisation for B2B SaaS | Product Marketing & Growth | Founder of Deepstar Strategic
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Look at the four key revenue indicators - Number of Qualified Opportunities, Win Rate, ACV, and Length of Sale and Pipeline Velocity and perform a Split the Funnel analysis to identify which pipeline sources are generating revenue. This enables you to prioritise opportunities as well as adjust campaigns.

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5 Review and update your metrics and KPIs regularly

Your sales metrics and KPIs are not static. They may change over time, depending on your market conditions, customer behavior, competitive landscape, and business strategy. You need to review and update your metrics and KPIs regularly, at least quarterly, to make sure they are still relevant and accurate. You also need to collect feedback from your sales team and other stakeholders, and adjust your metrics and KPIs accordingly. By doing so, you can ensure that your metrics and KPIs are always aligned with your goals and expectations, and that they provide you with valuable insights and guidance.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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What's your strategy for choosing sales metrics and KPIs?

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1 Understand your sales process

2 Choose metrics and KPIs that align with your goals

3 Balance leading and lagging indicators

4 Use a dashboard to track and visualize your metrics and KPIs

5 Review and update your metrics and KPIs regularly

6 Here’s what else to consider

Sales Management

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What's your strategy for choosing sales metrics and KPIs?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 Understand your sales process

2 Choose metrics and KPIs that align with your goals

3 Balance leading and lagging indicators

4 Use a dashboard to track and visualize your metrics and KPIs

5 Review and update your metrics and KPIs regularly

6 Here’s what else to consider

Sales Management

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