Sales Metrics & KPIs

Sales Metrics To Help Teams Measure Their Performance

Modern sales teams are the driving force behind your business, and key sales metrics are top of mind for everyone. Sales teams drive revenue. And revenue is often top of mind for the CEO, the board, shareholders, and employees.

Top-performing sales teams are data-driven. Everything in sales is measurable. And the benefit of measuring your performance is that you can identify areas of improvement. Key sales metrics are a compass that keeps you on course to achieving the results you and your business are looking for.

This top sales metrics and KPIs resource is designed to help sales professionals like you identify and track the best sales metrics with examples you can track on your own dashboards and reports.

Sales Metrics Vs. KPIs and Why You Need to Track Both

Sales metrics and KPIs are both measurement systems. However, sales metrics and KPIs measure different things, and knowing what each refers to is the first step to understanding what these measurements can do for you. 

Sales Metrics

Sales metrics are sales-specific data. These measurements show where the business hits its sales-related goals, such as overall revenue or revenue growth over time. 

Sales metrics help you identify how you generate revenue and point to areas where you can focus on improvement. Sales metrics will reveal your company’s progress. 

KPIs 

On the other hand, KPIs or Key Performance Indicators measure a company’s strategic, financial, or operational goals. While sales metrics are sales-specific, KPIs can measure a wide range of varied and specific areas, such as:

• Software as a Service (SaaS) Sales
• Inside Sales
• Field Sales
• Sales Development
• Customer Experience
• Marketing
• Process Performance
• IT 
• Human Resources and Staffing

KPIs evaluate strategies and processes and identify if current tactics work efficiently and effectively toward attaining the company’s goals. 

Most Important Sales Metrics to Track

Here are some of the most important sales metrics to ensure your sales are on track and identify your company's areas of opportunity in sales. 

Total Revenue

Total revenue, also known as gross sales, refers to all the income your business generates from all activities across all products and services over a set length of time. 

This metric can be calculated by multiplying the quantity of all products or services sold by the price of those products and services. 

Total revenue gives you a big-picture baseline of how your business is performing, shows you where you are, and shows that you can generate income in the first place. This metric is also important because you can't come up with or track goals if you don't know the bottom line of how you're doing. 

Revenue by Product or Service

Revenue by product or service shows you how much revenue each particular product or service generates. 

This metric will identify the products or services that earn the most revenue, proving their value and importance to the company. 

This metric will point out which products or services aren't earning income. With this information, you can decide if services or products need to be discontinued, marketed, or upsold more effectively.

Revenue by product or service metrics also show how many products you rely on for income vs. how many you offer. 

Market Penetration

Compared with your total market potential, your customer base is your market penetration, and it shows how much you are penetrating the market versus your goal and potential. 

To calculate this metric, you first need to determine your target market size. From there, divide your total customers by your target market size and then multiply by 100 for your percentage. 

The market penetration metric shows your company’s market potential and helps you identify where you are in regard to your goal. If your percentage is low, it may indicate a need to go over your strategies. 

Percentage of Business from New Customers

It’s helpful to know where or who your business is coming from, so the percentage of business from new customers metric calculates how much of your income is from new or first-time customers. 

Simply divide revenue earned from new customers by your total revenue and then multiply that number by 100. 

This percentage shows your growth from acquiring new customers. Of course, a low percentage can mean slower growth due to a lack of new customers. Either way, it can be helpful to determine if your customer acquisition strategies are working. 

Percentage of Revenue from Existing Customers

This metric determines how much of your total revenue comes from existing customers through repeat business, cross-selling, or upselling. 

Following the above example, divide revenue earned from existing customers by your total revenue, multiply it by 100, and that is your revenue from existing customers' percentage. 

This metric will show you how your company is at retaining customers. Retaining customers is often more cost-effective than acquiring new customers. It also helps you see how fit your product or service is at attracting repeat sales or upgrades. 

Percentage of Revenue from New vs. Existing Customers

Once you’ve calculated your percentages of revenue from both new and existing customers, compare these percentages and see what they tell you. 

This metric will point you in the direction of how good you are at attracting new customers versus keeping existing customers. Once you know this, you can figure out strategies for things like marketing or evaluating customer satisfaction. 

Year-Over-Year-Growth

Year-over-year growth is a self-explanatory concept, and this metric compares the total revenue generated by your company one year to the following year or over several years. 

After figuring out how much your total revenue is for the two years you’re comparing, subtract the amount of the previous year’s revenue from the current year’s income, then multiply that number by 100. 

This metric will show your business’s overall growth and performance. You can compare this number to your goals and use it to project and set goals for future years. It gives you a good idea of your business’s strategies' effectiveness. 

Average Revenue Per Customer/ Product/ Account

Knowing the average revenue generated by a single customer, account, or product will show how your business is weighted. Knowing if most of your revenue comes from a single customer or product is crucial. Relying too heavily on a single source of income is risky, and knowing this will help you strategize for your company’s benefit. 

This metric will give you a good idea of where to spend your attention and resources by allowing you to grow these relationships or products or learn from their success. 

Annual Contract Value (ACV)

ACV, or annual contract value, refers to a multi-year contract’s yearly revenue. 

Calculate ACV by dividing the total contract value by the number of years in the contract. 

This metric allows you to see which accounts generate the most. It’s also helpful information to have when re-negotiating or re-signing contracts. 

Average Customer Lifetime Value

Average customer lifetime value measures the total revenue your company expects to generate from a single customer throughout their business relationship with you. 

Factors used to identify this metric include customer behavior, average order value, and frequency of purchase or patronage. 

With this metric, you can understand your customer retention and satisfaction. You can also use this number to strategize ways to diversify or otherwise increase your sales longevity with repeat customers. 

Sales Expense Ratio

The sales expense ratio will show how much you spend to acquire customers in relation to your sales revenue. 

Find out this percentage by dividing net sales by operating expense, then multiplying by 100. 

Yes, you have to spend money to make money, but you must ensure you approach it in a balanced, profitable way and that you aren’t spending more than you stand to gain. 

Net Promoter Score

With the net promoter score, you can understand how likely customers are to recommend your business to other consumers, clients, or patrons. 

This metric helps you to understand your customers’ experiences, expectations, wants, and overall satisfaction, impressions, and relationship with the business. Information like this can help you better customer loyalty and drive growth. 

Quota Attainment

Sales quota attainment focuses on the general, big picture to a more specific part of that picture. This metric will tell you if a salesperson has made their sales quota and what percentage of that quota they’ve attained. 

This is a helpful measurement to use when evaluating issues with the sales team, including poor training, coaching, communication, etc. 

In addition, just as it can be essential to know your best customers, identifying your highest-earning salespeople can be beneficial. 

Pipeline Coverage

In sales, a pipeline is a tool that gives salespeople a visual representation and metaphor of all the stages of the sales process. 

Knowing your pipeline coverage means knowing how well your salespeople at all levels understand how the health of the pipeline relates to their quota attainment health. The pipeline, or every step from discovering a prospective client to following leads, and making sales, is vital to achieving quotas. 

Average Length of Sales Cycle

The time it takes for potential customers to go through the pipeline, or sales process cycle from beginning to a closed deal or successful sale, is known as the length of the sales cycle. 

Typical stages of the sales cycle include:

• Prospect
• Connect
• Research
• Present
• Close

It’s helpful to know the average length of the sales cycle, so you improve or streamline processes as appropriate for sales goals. 

Weighted Value of Pipeline

The weighted value of pipeline calculates the estimated value of a deal as it moves through the sales pipeline. 

This metric is calculated by multiplying the probability of a deal closing by the deal value amount. 

Knowing the weighting value of the pipeline can help you project generated revenue and forecast your cash flow. It also shows you which types of sales are most important and which ones need the most attention. 

Win Rate

Win rate refers to the number of successful deals out of the total number of deal opportunities. This metric can be calculated and evaluated at both the team and the individual levels. 

This percentage can be figured out by dividing the number of won opportunities or closed deals by the total number of opportunities and then multiplying that number by 100. 

Knowing the win rate can help you estimate your chance at success in individual deals or generally in deals overall. Win rate can also provide critical information about the team or individual effectiveness. 

Deal Slippage

Deal slippage measures the number of deals that don't close in the forecasted time period. For instance, a deal might be committed for Q1 but has to be pushed back to Q2 for some reason. The deal still closes, only the revenue hasn't come in when it was expected to. It's important to know what your annual deal slippage rate is so that you can be prepared.

Churn Rate

For businesses with a subscription model, churn rate refers to the number of customers who cancel or choose not to renew their subscription within a certain time period. 

To calculate the churn rate, find the number of “churned” customers and divide that by your total number of customers. 

If your company relies on a subscription model, you must ensure you're not losing customers as fast as you're gaining them. The churn rate helps you see your growth and will also point out problems with retaining subscribers. 

KPI Categories

KPIs can measure and evaluate many different types of metrics and information. Each category presents a different framework for looking at and utilizing the information.

KPIs can measure and evaluate leading, lagging, functional, operational, and strategic information and strategies. 

Leading vs. Lagging KPIs

Leading vs. Lagging is the difference between seeing how you’ve done and how you’re projected to do. These KPIs help define the nature of the data and data utilization. 

Leading KPIs are metrics that measure past performance, while lagging KPIs are used to predict or forecast future performance.

Functional KPIs

Functional KPIs focus on specific departments or functions within the company. For instance, the finance department will track different metrics and numbers than the marketing department for department-specific information.

These metrics can be strategic or operational, but they provide the most value to a particular set of users. 

Operational KPIs

Operational KPIs are those that are focused within a set time frame. These measure how the company is doing year-over-year, month-over-month, week-over-week, or even day-over-day. 

These KPIs analyze different processes or segments of the business, different geographical regions of the business, or different company store locations. 

Operational KPIs are often used by managing staff and can help identify which products and locations are thriving and which are struggling or underperforming. 

Strategic KPIs

Strategic KPIs are high-level KPIs used mostly by executives. 

This category of KPI metric shows how a company is doing through a zoomed-out lens. Things evaluated here include return on investment, profit margin, and total company revenue. 

Most Important KPIs to Track

Between functional, operational, strategic, leading, and lagging KPIs, there are so many you can track depending on your departmental and whole company needs. 

Since we’ve already focused quite a bit on sales metrics, here are some examples of specific KPIs that are the most important ones to track in the other vital areas of your company. 

Marketing KPIs

Marketing KPIs measure the effectiveness of marketing and promotional campaigns. They can point to what’s working and what isn’t with the current marketing strategies. Knowing this is important because it can help you understand where to invest your marketing time and money. 

Marketing KPIs typically measure how often prospective customers perform certain actions in response to a marketing channel, marketing campaign, or promotion. 

The most important marketing KPIs to track include the following:

• Email Open Rate: This tracks the percentage of email recipients that open your company’s email. Use this metric to make data-driven decisions about future email campaigns, such as subject line, content, and timing.
• Email Response Rate: Look at this metric to discover the number of your email recipients who respond to a particular email campaign. Again this one helps with choosing content and subject lines and can help you find out what customers are more likely to respond to. 
• Click-Through Rate: Click-through rate is the number of clicks performed on emails. This metric tracks how many customers opened your email, clicked on a link, and made a purchase. 
• Email Engagement Rate: The email engagement rate is a little broader of a metric than the click-through rate. It measures an email recipient’s interactions with the email, from opening to clicking, links, playing videos, etc. 
• Website Traffic: The website traffic metric considers how many people are visiting the different pages of the company’s website. They can also show where the traffic is coming from, meaning how the prospective customer found you to where they are in the world. These numbers can be used to understand how online visits translate to sales. They can also help ensure that customers are being funneled properly. 
• Social Media Traffic: This metric tracks measurable interactions between the company’s social media profiles and customers, such as views, follows, retweets, likes, and shares. Knowing these numbers can show the effectiveness of one platform over another. They can also show which kinds of content and promotions are more likely to drive traffic and which are more likely to lead to sales. 
• Conversion Rate on Call-to-Action Content: This KPI centers around promotional programs that ask your customers to perform a certain action, such as ordering a sales product “right now.” To find this number divide the number of successful engagements by the amount of content distribution. This will help you see how successful these programs are and which are more successful than others. 

Customer Experience KPIs

Customer Experience KPIs focus on customer efficiency, customer satisfaction, and retention. Since revenue is dependent on your customers, you must ensure you have satisfied customers and do what you can to prevent and resolve issues. 

Important Customer Experience KPIs to track are:

• Number of New Ticket Requests: This is the number of new and open customer service issues and requests. Knowing this metric will give you a big-picture look at how many issues customers are experiencing. 
• Number of Resolved Tickets: This is the number of issues that have been resolved. You can see your company’s success rate by comparing requests to resolutions. It is critical to fix as many problems as quickly as possible, and this number helps you see if that’s the case for your business. 
• Average Resolution Time: This is the amount of time it takes to resolve a customer’s issue. This metric can be separated into different types of requests. With this information, you can see how quickly various departments can resolve problems and how that time might be improved upon. 
• Top Customer Service Agent: Tracking the metrics of your top and bottom three customer service agents can help you determine what is possible for the overall department. It can also show you areas for employee development. 
• Type of Request: Tracking the kind of customer service requests your company receives is crucial in understanding the types of customer problems customers are having and if those issues will keep them from being repeat customers or recommending the company to others. This metric will also help you pinpoint issues like incorrect information, inaccurate directions, or faulty product. 
• Customer Satisfaction Rating: This metric provides a snapshot of overall customer satisfaction and feelings about the company through a survey or questionnaire focused on the customer’s experience. 

Staffing and Human Resource KPIs

Staffing and human resource KPIs analyze employee-specific KPIs, including turnover, retention, and satisfaction. These metrics help you determine the costs and rewards associated with employee acquisition, retention, and other factors. 

Examples of KPIs that are Important to staffing and human resources include:

• Number of Applicants: How many candidates apply to different open positions? This metric helps you assess whether job listings are reaching enough applicants. It can also tell you if your job descriptions and postings are doing enough to create interest and attract top applicants. 
• Average Time-To-Hire: This is the average time it takes to fill an open position from the time of the opening to the hiring of the candidate. It measures the efficiency and effectiveness of the recruitment process. This is a critical metric to be aware of, as top applicants won’t often wait to hear back from a company before pursuing other opportunities. 
• Percentage of Hires From Various Sources: Knowing how many of your hires are coming from different recruitment channels is helpful. Once you know which channels are more successful, you can finetune your recruitment advertising to save time and money.
• Average Turnover Rate: The turnover rate is how often and how quickly employees leave your company. This metric can be broken down and focused on specific departments or teams to see if there is an issue in a specific part of the company. Knowing these numbers will give you the information you need to investigate hiring, training, and retention processes to lower turnover. 
• Average Cost to Replace Employee by Role: In business, costs are everywhere, and this includes replacing employees. This metric takes into account the cost of advertising, hiring, and training, as well as that of lost revenue or productivity due to the loss of the former employee. 
• Average Level of Satisfaction with Training: Distribute a survey to newly trained employees to gather data regarding training satisfaction. This metric provides valuable information to help spot holes in training. It measures overall training effectiveness and points out areas for improvement. 
• Absenteeism Rate: If you have employees, you need to know how many days per year or other set time periods employees call in sick or miss work. This metric helps you gauge morale, pointing to potentially unhappy or disengaged employees. 
• Amount of Overtime Hours Worked: This metric tracks the number of overtime hours employees have worked. Knowing this can help you spot potential burnout. It also helps to ensure your company and its departments are appropriately staffed. Understaffing can lead to burnout, low morale, and resignations. 
• Employee Satisfaction: This metric requires a survey to measure how employees feel about various aspects of the company and their general and specific employee experience. It’s a good idea to administer the same survey yearly to track any changes. Although changes from year to year might also depend on different factors, it helps to see if making changes is affecting positive changes in employee satisfaction. 

Partnership KPIs

Partnerships or collaborations with other companies can be an excellent way for a starting business to make sales and get noticed. When another company offers your products or services, you often find customers that wouldn’t have found you otherwise. 

To understand the value of your partnerships, track the following:

• Total Revenue from Partner Deals: This KPI tells you the total revenue your company generates through all of its partnership deals. If you're going to enter into partnerships or collaborations, you're doing it for visibility and profitability. This will give you a big picture of how the partnership works for your business.
• Revenue by Partner: Revenue by partner refers to the amount of revenue you generate from a specific partner over a particular amount of time, helping you evaluate which partnerships are the most valuable. 
• Margin by Partner: Margin by partner is focused not just on revenue but profit. This number enables you to understand, at the end of the day, which partnerships are bringing in the most profit after all associated costs.
• Retention Rate of Partner Customers: For long-term partnerships to continue to make sense for your business, you want to ensure customer longevity. This metric tracks the percentage of customers who made an initial purchase through a partner that then continues to do business with you. One thing this can tell you is the customer loyalty of your partner customers and how effective a partnership is in acquiring customers.
• Average Customer Satisfaction Score of Partner Customers: This is the rating or score customers give their experience with your company through your partner. While this score rates the customer service of your partner company, it is also rating the customers’ impression and feelings of your company. 

Knowing these scores will help you catch any negative customer impressions, feelings, or interactions. They can also help you determine which partners are most in line with your values in customer interactions. 

Conclusion

When you know what to look for and what you're looking at, sales metrics and KPIs are so much more than numbers, they are knowledge that gives you the power to succeed and grow your business, to learn what's working for you, and where you need to re-work. 

There are a lot of different sales metrics and key performance indicators you can track. Trying to understand which ones are important and how to use them can be dizzying. But with some knowledge and explanation, it's easy to start paying attention to the numbers and what they can do for you.