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Jessica Malnik on August 27, 2021 (last modified on May 12, 2022) • 10 minute read
Which sales performance metrics should you be tracking and why? And how many is enough to get a complete picture of your team’s performance?
According to our survey, more than 50% of sales teams are tracking between 6-10 sales performance metrics.
The sales teams we surveyed ranged from solos to teams of 15+ salespeople. In fact, 59.3% of the sales team we reached out to had between 1-5 people in their team.
While most sales teams are tracking no more than 10 metrics in their sales dashboards, the metrics they are looking at vary considerably.In this post, we’re taking a closer look at the top sales performance metrics for kick-starting your sales analytics.
Let’s dive in.
This is the one metric that I suspect every sales team is already tracking.
Olivia Tan of CocoFax adds, “Total sales revenue is the most important sales metric that every sales team tracks from a broader view. It is because sales revenue helps you understand the overall performance of the team and the project individually.
However, if we look at it for the aim of market research, average revenue per customer is the most important metric that you must track. The reason is quite simple- you do not want to end up spending more money on acquiring and retaining a customer than what you are earning from them. Similarly, the conversion rate plays an equally important role in such cases. It helps you understand whether your sales project is making a difference to acquire more customers or not.” More importantly, with a sales dashboard software you can track this metric.
In addition to total sales, you might want to consider tracking sales trajectories on either a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis.
“A great sales metric you must have to set targets and forecast future sales performance is knowing precisely how many sales (In number or in value) you’ve made this quarter and your goal for the next quarter,” says Jonathan Aufray of Growth Hackers. “By knowing your sales KPIs, you will be able to predict or at least get a range of the number of sales you will be doing next quarter. Let’s say you’ve made X sales this quarter, aim for X+10% for next quarter and that’s how you can define a realistic sales goal.”
Monitor your sales goals, activities and growth at a glance using this sales performance dashboard.
Sales happen every day, and if you have an active sales team, they’re busy setting up appointments, making calls, creating and nurturing deals, and closing them to generate new revenue. It’s your job to monitor their performance and work with your team to improve it. To do that, you need up-to-the-minute information at your fingertips, including:
Now you can benefit from the experience of our sales experts, who have put together a great Databox template showing all the most important KPIs for your sales team’s performance. It’s simple to implement and start using as a standalone dashboard or in sales reports, and best of all, it’s free!
You can easily set it up in just a few clicks – no coding required.
To set up this Sales Manager KPIs Dashboard, follow these 3 simple steps:
Step 1: Get the template
Step 2: Connect your HubSpot account with Databox.
Step 3: Watch your dashboard populate in seconds.
Some sales teams may also find it helpful to track cumulative sales in a given time period.
“One of our favorites is sales to date, which lets us compare sales we have now with the same set of dates in the previous years,” says Petra Odak of Better Proposals. “It allows us to forecast trends and we usually see patterns when we have ups and downs in sales numbers. It’s a great way to make adjustments to your sales tactics because you’ll know when you need extra manpower.”
If you are in enterprise sales, average deal size is a must-track metric. “Average deal size is one that is super helpful when determining your upcoming sales forecast,” says Natalie Slyman of BenchmarkONE. “Knowing your average deal size and contract length within a certain period of time can be used as a baseline to track against, helping your sales team determine if their future efforts are exceeding previous performance (or falling short). It can also serve as a motivator and encourage your team to shoot for closing deals that are larger.”
Heidi Robinson of Because Market adds, “Knowing this can lead to more questions. Are people not following up quickly with responsive leads? Are they prioritizing big fish leads instead of combining several smaller ones? The data will tell you, but Average Deal Size will get you started. There are plenty of opportunities for coaching afterward, too!”
Get a snapshot of your deal flow and progress towards set sales goals using this business development dashboard.
Besides average deal size, enterprise sales teams should also keep an eye on their lead to close ratio.
“The quote-to-close is the best sales metric that gives insightful input in sales analytics,” says Harriet Chan of CocoFinder. “It talks about the efficiency of the team in closing a deal. This metric focuses on the quality lead and sales process. The conversion ratio between the quantity of prospectus engaged and the number of deals won is analyzed in this quote-to-close metric.”
Easily track this metric using this sales leads dashboard.
Along with tracking conversion rates, you should also track which products are your bestsellers.
“Product performance is essential when it comes to evaluating your brand and analyzing its overall revenue,” says Dan Potter of CRAFTD. ”It enables companies to monitor the customer trajectory and interpret their buyer persona. In turn, we can use these metrics to initiate performance marketing which allows us to ensure we only invest in products worthy of results. Through proper analysis, we can then measure its scalability over time, and as a result, operate with greater cost efficiency.”
It is easy to chase more leads and revenue. However, if the deals aren’t profitable, you are going to run into a lot of problems.
Michael Sena of SENACEA Ltd. explains, “Average profit margin and average sales value are the two most useful metrics for sales performance forecasting.
Combined, they enable the business to understand how many sales have to be finalized to cover the fixed cost (break-even point) and how to optimally structure sales commission plans. They also allow informing pricing decisions such as volume discounts and competitive analysis.”
Some marketing teams rely on marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) to gauge the effectiveness of specific campaigns.
Brendan Hufford of ActiveCampaign says, “The most important metric to have is the MQL. Hands down. Often, marketing is the one that decides what qualifies as an MQL, in isolation. Without input from the sales team, the handoff between MQL and SQL can be *vastly* different.
It’s almost impossible to calculate revenue and set sales performance targets without a valid MQL calculation. Over and over I see sales teams trying to use MQLs in calculations and nearly 100% of the time, they fail to achieve the goals they’ve set.
Reverse engineering it, we saw that it was because of how the MQLs were calculated and how the marketing team estimated the maturing of a lead, versus how the sales team thought about it (sales teams were always more accurate here).”
Another metric to keep an eye on is the number of sales calls and meetings booked.
“Meetings booked is the big one,” says Alex Birkett. “Obviously, it should be with sales qualified leads – lead quality is incredibly important at any company, but especially a small agency like I run. But at the end of the day, we trust our sales process, social proof, and value proposition, so if we can simply get more people on calls, that’s the best leading indicator of our future sales performance.”
Use this sales team activity dashboard to measure and compare your sales team performance and productivity.
Related: 32 Prospecting Tips to Help You Book More Sales Meetings
In addition to tracking the number of meetings booked and deals closed, you should also keep track of your “at bats” or pitches sent.
Matt Seaburn of Rent A Wheel says, “Keep track of how many sales pitches you’ve been giving. Utilizing this information, you can gauge how many opportunities (on average) you will have to convert leads into customers.”
Related: How to Write a Sales Pitch: 15 Proven Tips to Get More Clients Right Away
It may also be helpful to keep an eye on all of the different places where you’ve made sales.
“Monitor which geographic locations bring in the most sales,” says Mary Berry of Cosmos Vita. “By analyzing these statistics, you can then consider targeting these locations more often in your marketing to ensure strong sales. On the other hand, you could also choose to do more marketing towards locations which have been bringing in fewer sales in order to help increase your brand awareness.”
One metric that can help you grow faster is to see how many customers are repeat purchasers.
“Revenue on its own is already an important metric to track but the percentage of revenue from new vs. existing customers will help you set targets and forecast future sales performance,” says Andre Oentoro of Milkwhale. “If your existing customers are making most of the revenue, then it might be time to focus on gaining new customers.”
Finally, if you have a SaaS product or subscription service, keeping an eye on your churn rate is essential.
“Customer churn rate is a crucial sales metric that allows you to gain insights into your customer retention strategy,” says Miranda Yan of Vinpit. “It is calculated using the formula – total customer at the start of the months divided by a total number of customers lost. This metric is especially essential for businesses that obtain monthly income for their consumers. Companies can opt for professional tools to monitor their custom churn rate and bring changes whenever it goes low. This metric lets you recognize the efficiency of a newly bought chain and tells you how many customers are liking the modifications or leaving your service after their introduction.”
Depending on the type of business you are in, it may make sense to prioritize a few of these metrics over others. For example, an ecommerce business might keep a close eye on product performance, conversion rate, and overall sales. On the other hand, an enterprise SaaS company might pay a lot more attention to average deal size, lead-to-close ratio, and churn rates. You can easily track the metrics that matter the most to your business or a specific department within your business using these performance dashboards.
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