20 most important KPIs for sales teams to track

Sales KPIs are the most important metrics for your team. Done right, they can provide valuable insights to optimize your sales process.

You can’t improve what you don’t measure, but choosing the right metrics for your goals can be challenging.

In this article, we cover 20 valuable KPIs for sales teams to track so you can determine which ones are right for you.

What are KPIs for sales?

Choosing the right sales KPIs

For the most accurate tracking, set specific goals and sales objectives and align your KPIs with them. A company with a goal like “sell as much as you can” will struggle to measure whether the team – and each rep – is achieving it.

Likewise, a sales manager only tracking “deals closed” will miss where the team is struggling if not also tracking activities, such as “proposals sent” and “demos held”.

Each company will have its own unique goals. Two companies may offer the same product, but one may focus on expanding its territories while the other aims to acquire more local customers.

Sales goals often fall into two categories:

• Activity goals. Goals based on your team’s actions, like increasing initial calls for a specific buyer persona.

• Performance-based goals. Goals based on results, like increasing annual sales revenue by 25%.

Once you’ve chosen your sales goals, make them even more effective and eliminate guesswork by creating a SMART goal (one that’s specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound).

The sales objective is the planned action to achieve that goal and KPIs are what you’ll measure to track progress.

Here’s an example of each sales goal and its objectives, including the sales KPI examples that match:

As mentioned above, the right objectives for your team will depend on your sales and broader business goals. They’ll also depend on your team’s performance.

For example, setting ambitious revenue goals doesn’t make sense if your team can’t achieve them. Figure out which short-term changes will impact your long-term success.

It’s also important to note that your sales objectives will vary depending on factors like industry, location and company size.

When you’ve specified your goals and objectives, it’s time to pick the KPIs that will help your team perform well and keep improving.

20 sales KPIs for sales teams

While goals and objectives will be unique to each company, there are several effective KPIs that can measure team performance toward objectives.

Here are 20 KPIs for sales managers to consider.

1. Monthly sales growth

Every sales manager must measure sales growth over time. Monthly sales growth helps sales leaders uncover problems quickly and remedy them.

For example, if a car dealership sees a dip in monthly sales after the holidays, offering significant discounts can attract more interested buyers.

Setting monthly sales growth targets also motivates sales team members to perform well, as it gives them goals to work toward in four-week sprints.

How to calculate monthly sales growth:

2. Average profit margin

Average profit margin focuses only on profits from sales revenue. It tells you whether sales efforts are contributing to company revenue and whether those efforts are sustainable.

Calculate your profit margin by subtracting your expenses from your sales revenue.

How to calculate average profit margin:

3. Average purchase value

Average purchase value is the average dollar amount customers spend on your products or services. It’s an ideal metric for companies focused on boosting revenue from current customers.

Measuring how much customers typically spend per purchase can provide insight into what drove bigger deals. If you separate this by customer segment, you can also identify which customers spend the most.

How to calculate average purchase value:

For example, if your total sales equal $3,000,000 and you have 3,000 customers, your average purchase value is $1,000.

4. Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

Customer acquisition cost is how much it costs to gain a new customer, including all sales and marketing expenses, salaries and overhead costs. It helps companies set budgets to make sure acquiring new customers remains sustainable.

How to calculate CAC:

5. Average customer lifetime value (CLV or CLTV)

Average customer lifetime value estimates how much revenue a company gains per account across the customer lifespan (how long they’re typically with the company).

CLV is an important data point to measure sales performance and determine which customer segments are most profitable. You can also see which segments need additional nurturing to make repeat or bigger purchases.

How to calculate customer lifetime value:

6. Customer retention rate and churn rate

Customer retention and customer churn rates are two sides of the same coin.

Customer retention rate is the percentage of customers who continue buying or subscribing to your product or service. It measures your sales team’s ability to nurture loyal customers and support recurring sales.

Conversely, churn rates reflect the percentage of customers who don’t renew or buy again. This metric can signal problems with your product or offer; it can also indicate competition.

How to calculate churn rate and retention rate:

7. Monthly sales bookings

The sales bookings KPI calculates the value of a won sale minus costs over a specific timeframe.

In the SaaS industry, tracking monthly sales bookings helps quantify the value of wins. Sales leaders also use it to forecast and support sales strategies.

How to calculate monthly sales bookings:

8. Calls or emails per sales rep

If you’re measuring the performance of individual salespeople, cold calls or emails per day or month can help you track productivity.

When combined with success rates (like close ratios), you can gain insight into the activities that generate the best leads.

For example, say your goal is to get 10 demos scheduled per rep, per month and it typically takes 100 calls to do that (a 10% demo booking rate). Measuring the calls per rep tells you if a rep is struggling to schedule demos despite making the target number of calls, so you can offer your support.

9. Sales per rep

This performance-based KPI for sales reps helps managers set sales targets. It tells you how many sales reps sell on average over a given period, such as average sales per rep in January. If January is a slower period than December, for example, you’ll know to set more realistic targets.

It’s important to note that reps and situations vary, so be sure to account for this when tracking this metric. Your high-performing reps may sell significantly more than their colleagues and field reps may sell products of higher value than inside reps.

Still, it’s an important metric for measuring growth and comparing sales across periods.

How to calculate sales per rep:

10. Monthly demo calls

Keeping track of monthly sales demo calls helps companies predict how many customers will buy.

Customers in the demo stage are more likely to convert than customers in the early stages of a sales cycle. Knowing how many are meeting to learn about your product and then converting tells you how well this is happening in future periods.

For example, if you typically convert 10% of demos and your team schedules 100 demos this month, you can predict you’ll close around 10 sales. If that number is less the next month, you can assess the process to see what changed.

11. Lead conversion rate

Lead conversion rate, or lead-to-sale conversion rate, is the percentage of leads that convert to sales.

Focusing on sales-qualified leads helps determine your sales team’s win rate. You can also calculate it broadly to measure sales effectiveness and ensure marketing teams work together to convert leads.

How to calculate lead conversion rate:

For example, if you have 2,000 sales-qualified leads and make 200 total sales during a given period, your sales team’s win rate is 10%.

12. Sales opportunities

Sales opportunities estimate the value of a lead based on the odds of closing the sale.

Put prospects in different categories or stages, like proposal, qualification or negotiation, and then give them different weights based on how the opportunity progresses.

How to calculate sales opportunities:

For example, if you assign proposals with a 0.2 weighted value and estimate a $100,000 deal, the sales opportunity would be a $20,000 deal.

13. Sales target attainment

Sales target attainment allows you to track sales team performance compared to previous periods or against prior targets.

You can learn whether your team is meeting quotas, assess how revenue compares to forecasts and identify individual sales reps who need help.

How to calculate sales target attainment:

14. Quote-to-close ratio

The quote-to-close ratio compares the number of closed deals to quotes sent out. You can use it to assess the effectiveness of your sales reps by comparing it to historical trends or current targets.

How to calculate quote-to-close ratio:

For example, if your sales rep achieved 30 closed deals out of 150 quotes, their quote-to-close ratio would be about 20%.

15. Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and annual recurring revenue (ARR)

MRR tells companies what they can expect to make per month from recurring revenue (i.e., subscriptions). ARR calculates the recurring income generated from longer-term subscriptions or contract accounts, such as companies with two-year deals.

You can also use ARR for a broader image of your monthly subscription business; MRR gives you a short-term picture, while ARR gives you the long-term.

How to calculate MRR and ARR:

If your customer base remains constant or for a very rough figure, you can simply multiply the MRR by 12. If, like most businesses, your customer base varies monthly due to cancellations or other factors, ARR can get complex.

Ultimately, ARR comes down to this formula:

16. Average revenue per account

Average revenue per account is important when creating marketing campaigns that speak to high-value audiences and use an account-based approach to selling.

It helps your sales team focus on new prospects that resemble your biggest existing accounts.

How to calculate average revenue per account:

17. Sales volume by location

Tracking sales volume by location reveals where the most significant demand for your products is and sets the stage for changing your sales strategy.

If there are high sales and demand somewhere, you can focus on optimizing your offering for that location.

This metric can also support A/B testing your sales tactics. Say both California and Florida see similar sales levels, you can use A/B testing to run a sale in Florida to see if the tactic drives more new sales than in California without the promotion or discount.

How to calculate sales volume by location:

18. Upsell and cross-sell rates

Effective upselling and cross-selling tactics are key to increasing revenue, as it is often easier to convince customers who already trust your business to buy.

In fact, McKinsey found that cross-selling accounts for 21% of the value companies derive from revenue.

Tracking your upsell and cross-sell rates can help you identify which tactics work best with specific customer segments.

For example, you may learn that a certain product feature upsells well with project managers. You can inform reps and encourage upsells with similar customers.

How to calculate upsell and cross-sell rates:

19. Average sales cycle length

Understanding the average length of your team’s sales cycle can help you optimize sales processes online and offline.

You can use it to compare how long each rep takes to close deals and how that impacts close rates and customer retention.

For example, if reps close customers fast but those customers churn quickly, your product may need longer sales cycles to ensure a good fit.

How to calculate average sales cycle length:

20. Average response time

Average response time is a measurement of the average amount of time it takes your sales reps to respond to new leads who filled out a form or perform outreach to qualified leads.

A response time KPI prioritizes quick follow-up sales efforts during the time period when a problem is most pressing for a lead.

How to calculate average response time:

KPI benchmarks for sales teams

Your team’s benchmarks will depend on your industry and current performance.

You can find benchmarks through industry resources, like this report from the Technology & Services Industry Association or government resources like the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statics.

There are also third-party tools like Industry KPIs from Insider Intelligence that can help.

Many sales teams, however, will start by measuring current performance against previous benchmarks.

For example, if your close rate was 10% last quarter, you could aim for 12% this quarter. If your team chieves this goal easily, aim for 15% in the next quarter. If that benchmark was challenging, stick with 12% and reassess your sales process.

Tracking sales KPIs using Pipedrive’s CRM sales dashboard

Pipedrive is a CRM that helps you manage your sales pipeline, monitor leads and automate your sales process.

Pipedrive’s dashboards provide real-time insights into which sales activities drive the most sales. They can also help you identify which sales reps are meeting their targets so you can reward them for their hard work.

You can set goals and create sales reports in the Pipedrive KPI dashboard to track benchmarks like win rate, number of deals in the pipeline and sales activities.

Creating Pipedrive KPI reports

Pipedrive reports provide insights on the performance of your pipeline, deals, leads and sales reps. You can also use the Insights feature to forecast projected revenue based on the deals in your pipeline.

Customize your dashboards to display your sales data in a way that works for you. There are five different chart types available in Insights:

• Column chart

• Bar chart

• Pie chart

• Scorecard chart

• Table chart

Arrange these charts to quickly spot opportunities and bottlenecks in your sales pipeline.

Tracking KPIs by setting goals in Pipedrive

To track your KPIs within Pipedrive, start by setting goals so you can monitor your progress and forecast projected revenue.

For example, if you want to generate $10,000 in monthly sales, you can track progress with the deals won vs. forecast report.

Alternatively, you can set individual reps with goals to keep them on track, as shown in the image below.

Revenue forecasting allows you to track sales funnel conversions to see if there’s a drop-off.

KPIs for sales FAQs

Final thoughts

Tracking sales KPIs is vital. However, it’s the actions you take after crunching the numbers that support an effective sales strategy.

CRMs like Pipedrive make analyzing sales data easy and efficient. Sign up for a free trial to see for yourself.