Sales KPIs – What Every Sales Leader Needs To Track

Sales KPIs from Tom Abbott, CSP

When it comes to tracking the effectiveness of your sales team and the sales-related processes you have in place, it’s important to keep track of and analyze key Sales Key Performance Indicators (Sales KPIs).

Whether you’re a sales manager trying to maximize your team’s results or a company leader looking for KPIs for sales staff, it’s important to understand which Sales KPIs and metrics you should be tracking and what to look for when reviewing the data.

With this in mind, we’ve collated a complete guide to the essential Sales KPIs for you to start implementing today to double down on what’s working, cut out what’s not and improve processes that need tweaking or updating. Don’t forget to check out our downloadable Sales KPI infographic!

What are Sales KPIs?

Sales KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are measurable values that show the relation of the sales team’s efforts to their results. Sales KPIs can highlight where the team is excelling or falling short and how likely they are to hit their targets.

The Importance Of Sales Analytics

All good sales leaders and sales teams know that meeting and exceeding targets involves fine-tuning processes and improving the skills of their team. It’s a dance between art and science. Sales Analytics is the science behind your sales process – to grow your pipeline, while the art is the skills of your sales team. With this in mind, you need to be able to identify, collect, and analyze the correct data.

Sales Metrics vs Sales KPIs

While Sales KPIs are the data you want to track to see how well your teams or processes are performing, Sales Metrics are the actual data points that represent your business performance.

The difference? Sales Metrics are a record of what has happened, whereas sales KPIs are actionable metrics attached to a goal or objective; they indicate if we’re heading in the right direction regarding what we want to happen.

Also Read:

• Sales Pipeline Management: How To Manage Your Pipeline And Shorten The Sales Process
• Agile Sales Methodology
• How to Accelerate & Optimise Your Sales Cycle

Tracking The Right Sales KPIs: The AQC Formula

Now that you know exactly what Sales KPIs and Sales Analytics are, let’s explore what you need to be tracking. A general overview of the different types of KPIs to track for sales staff can be found in the AQC Formula. This model divides Sales KPIs into 3 broad categories: Activity, Quality and Conversion.

Here are the 3 broad areas of sales data to track following the AQC formula:

Activity

What is your team doing daily? You should be recording:

• The number of daily inbound and outbound calls.
• The revenue generated per Sales Representative.
• Individual Sales Representative’s metrics.
• The number of onboarded clients.
• The number of booked presentations and demonstrations.

Quality

What’s the result of the above metrics? Record data such as:

• Email open rates.
• Email reply rates.
• Call reach rates.
• Call duration.
• The number of prospective clients onboarded to a trial package.
• The number of leads or new sales opportunities created.

Conversion

Finally, what’s the outcome? What have your team achieved in terms of:

• Average conversion time.
• Your sales per contact method (email, phone, social)
• Your quote to close ratio.

Now that we know the 3 broad areas to track let’s dive into the top Sales KPIs almost every team needs to be tracking and what they mean.

Sales Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to Track

Here are the 7 Sales Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that every sales leader needs to track to measure their sales teams’ effectiveness.

1. Lead to Opportunity Conversion Ration

The ratio of leads that convert to qualified opportunities.

Not all leads are qualified. Measuring how many leads turn into real opportunities allows you to check the effectiveness of different lead-generation activities.

2. Opportunities to Sales Conversion Rate

The ratio of opportunities that convert to orders.

Measuring how many opportunities your sales team converts to real orders helps identify improvement areas.

3. Sales Cycle Length

Time from lead to order.

By tracking the number of days it takes for a lead to turn into an order, sales leaders can look for areas to improve the productivity of their sales funnel and see which sales reps are taking longer than others.

4. Key Sales Activity

Number of calls, meetings or emails achieved each month.

By tracking sales activity, leaders can see if reps are doing enough of the right activities to reach targets. KPIs can be further broken down into whether the call was answered, the amount of time spent on the call, if the email was opened or replied to, and actual meetings/presentations delivered.

5. Estimated Value of Sales Pipeline

The estimated total value of current opportunities.

By regularly reviewing the total value of individual reps’ pipelines, leaders can identify possible gaps in reaching targets and create action plans to ensure they do.

6. Average Order Value

The average value of each order received.

By tracking average order value, leaders can see where there’s room for upsells and if certain reps consistently give large discounts.

7. Product Performance

Tracking how well some products sell over others.

Team leaders can notice trends in certain products and possible reluctance or difficulties reps might have to sell other products. This KPI can also point out the possible market competition or the positive effects of marketing efforts.

Sales Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are part of our Sales Force Management Mastery program. A system to train Sales Leaders to motivate and manage their teams to reach targets.

Hone Essential Management Skills & Build High-Performance Sales Teams