Top 20 Best Sales KPIs to track

16/10/2024

Sales KPIs are the most important metrics for your team. 🤓 Used correctly, they can provide valuable insights for optimizing your sales process.

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

In this article, we’ll cover the 20 most important sales KPIs your sales team should track to help you decide which ones are right for you. 👏

What Are Sales KPIs? Definition

Sales KPIs (Sales Performance Indicators) are metrics used to track your sales team’s performance and overall business performance. 🚀 They are usually tied to company or team goals.

These metrics show you if things are going in the right direction or if you need to change direction. Sales KPIs are also sales metrics, but not all sales metrics are KPIs.

So, what’s the difference? 🤔

Sales KPIs vs. Metrics: How to track them?

Many teams use sales metrics and KPIs interchangeably, 🗝️ but there are some key differences:

On one hand, sales metrics are data points that track the sales performance of an individual, team, or organization and are essential to effective sales performance management.
Sales metrics are simply data points that state a fact. Example: “From December to March, our upsell revenue increased from $200 per month to $2,000 per month.”

On the other hand, sales KPIs (key performance indicators) are specific sales metrics that are tied to one or more company-wide goals, priorities, or objectives. 🎯
Sales KPIs tell a story. It’s a metric that’s tied to a goal and is more actionable.

For example, if you’ve entered a new market and want to measure your performance, you can track sales by region. 📍 Sales by region is itself a sales metric.

However, if you use it to track and optimize performance in the new market, it becomes a sales KPI. ⭐
It shows progress toward your company’s goals. It’s a slight difference, I know!

Sales KPI Dashboard for Teams (using Waalaxy)

For instance, with Waalaxy 👽 you can track your sales team’s metrics in the same Dashboard:

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Top 20 Best Sales KPIs to track: With Formulas

When it comes to sales KPIs, no one can tell you which ones are “best” for your business. 🤫

In fact, the best sales KPIs are those that enable sales reps to do their jobs in the best way possible, according to their specific goals.

That being said, here are some key sales KPIs for growing sales teams to consider when tracking performance, as well as the formulas you can use: 👇

1. Monthly Sales Growth

Monthly sales growth measures the increase (or decrease) in sales compared to the previous month. 🗓️ It’s one of the most important KPIs you can measure because if your business isn’t growing, it’s declining.

Why it matters: By tracking the results of your sales efforts, this sales KPI gives you actionable insights to further optimize your sales funnel, strategy, and product priorities.
Who can use it: Anyone. But it’s especially useful for startup and small business sales teams because it gives you short-term forecasts that help you make early corrections to your sales process.

Track it: To calculate monthly sales growth, use this formula:

💡

(Month 2 – Month 1) / Month 1 * 100 = Monthly Sales Growth Rate

2. Average Profit Margin

While salespeople are often focused on sales, profit is paramount to growing your business. 🤑 Track this KPI to determine your average profit margin across all products, services, packages, and sales channels.

Why it matters: Tracking and understanding your average profit margins can help you determine which products and offers are best for revenue. This is an especially important KPI if you sell multiple products, offer dynamic pricing, or allow your salespeople to offer discounts.
Who can use it: For SaaS companies, this metric can also help you identify growth potential and determine if your pricing is sustainable. 💰 B2B and small businesses benefit most from this KPI. But the reality is, almost every business needs to understand the true value of their services.

Track it: This formula will help you find this average:

💡

[(Revenue – Direct Expenses) / Revenue] * 100 = Average Profit Margin

3. Sales Opportunities

This KPI tracks the sales opportunities your sales reps generate, so you can predict future sales and determine which opportunities are most valuable. 🔮

Why it matters: Opportunities are the lifeblood of your sales team. Use this sales KPI to gain valuable insight into your sales process and answer the following questions: Is our outreach marketing strategy working? Are we reaching the right people? Are our offers effective?
Who can use it: This KPI covers the sales pipeline and sales process, making it a valuable metric for most sales teams.

Track it: Create a clear sales pipeline that you can track, and manage it from of your CRM. 🧠

4. Pipeline Value

‎What is the total value of all the deals in your pipeline? 🤔

The Pipeline Value KPI tracks the expected revenue from all active sales opportunities over a given period. 📅 It gives you a “best case” view of the deals you negotiate, so you can see if you’re on track to hit your sales goals.

Why it matters: You won’t hit your sales goals if there aren’t any deals in progress. You can forecast revenue and track your progress toward your goals with a quick read of your pipeline and deal status.
Who can use it: Sales managers and sales reps (especially in SaaS) use this KPI.

Track it: You need a CRM tool with a Pipeline view, where you can see the actual and expected values at each stage in your pipeline as point-in-time, monthly, or annual. 👀

5. Lead Conversion Rate

One of the most important questions for sales teams is, “How many leads did they convert into customers?” 🧐 There are many ways to further segment this data, but an overview of your lead conversion rate is a key performance indicator for your entire team.

Why it matters: Tracking how many leads become customers gives you a proven plan for attracting future customers. You can use this KPI to find out where your current customers come from, understand why (and where) you lost other customers, determine if your leads are properly qualified, and tailor your sales offer and outreach accordingly.
Who can use it: Lead conversion is a top concern for most companies in most industries. Lead conversion depends on both sales and marketing, so it’s a KPI used by multiple teams.

Track it: To calculate your conversion rate, use this formula:

💡

(Total Conversions / Total Leads) * 100 = Lead Conversion Rate

6. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

Do you know much it cost to acquire a new customer? 🤔

Then you need this sales KPI, as it tracks all costs (both sales and marketing) associated with acquiring a new customer, from sales rep salaries to online advertising, overhead, and even tools and PR costs. 💸 Tracking this metric will help you increase profits while continuing to grow your customer base.

Why it matters: Reducing costs is one of the best ways to increase sales. ⏬ Understanding this sales KPI can help you determine which customer segments are valuable, while critically analyzing the costs involved.
Who can use it: CAC is a key KPI for any kind of business (small, large, B2B, SaaS, dropshipping, etc.) that wants to create a profitable and scalable sales process.

Track it: To calculate CAC, use this formula:

💡

Sales & Marketing Costs / Number of New Customers = Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

7. Customer Lifetime Value (LTV or CLV)

On the other end of the customer acquisition cost (CAC formula) is knowing the value of each customer. 🤩 On average, how much revenue do you receive from the time they start paying until the time they stop? CLV measures this number per customer, while LTV measures the overall lifetime spend of your customer base.

Why it matters: Customer Lifetime Value teaches sales teams to spend more time attracting, converting, and nurturing high-value customers. It provides a better understanding of return on investment (ROI) and future revenue forecasts, as well as the real impact of losing customers.
Who can use it: Particularly useful for SaaS and businesses with long sales cycles (like B2B), sales managers use this KPI to track the overall sales health of their company.

Track it: The CLV formula is relatively complex with several components, including annual customer revenue, relationship length, and acquisition cost. 🧮 It’s best to use your software analytics tool to calculate it.

8. Average Purchase Value

Furthermore, there are many ways to increase sales. 🚀 One of the most effective ways is to sell more to each customer, for example through upsell and cross-sell opportunities.

This KPI tracks how much each customer spends (on average). 🪙 By integrating this information into your other sales strategies, you can find actionable ways to increase revenue per deal.

Why it matters: Sales teams are focused on driving more sales with less effort. Increasing the value of each purchase multiplies the success of your sales efforts. Plus, higher purchase values can offset higher CAC, justifying investing more time in acquiring high-value customers.
Who can use it: Small businesses tend to have lower sales volumes, so it’s especially important to track and maximize this KPI. B2B companies also track this metric regularly.

Track it: How to calculate this indicator:

💡

Total revenue / Number of Purchases = Average Purchase Value

9. Sales Per Rep

This performance-based KPI for sales reps helps set sales goals. 🎯 It tells you how many reps are selling on average during a certain period, such as the average sales per rep in January. For example, if January is quieter than December, you will know how to set more realistic goals.

Why it matters: Salespeople and situations vary, so remember to take that into account when tracking this metric.
Who can use it: Your best salespeople can sell significantly more than their peers, and field salespeople can sell higher-value products than inside salespeople.

Track it: it is an important metric for measuring growth and comparing sales over time. 🌟

💡

Total Sales over the Period / Number of Reps = Sales per Rep

10. Sales by Region

Do you want to know where in the world are your sales coming from? 🌍 This sales KPI tracks sales by region to identify the most profitable markets.

Why it matters: Do you know your ideal customer? Where they live can have a big impact on their behavior and receptivity to your product. Use this KPI to develop effective sales plans, optimize targeting, and measure campaign success.
Who can use it: B2B, B2C, and SaaS sales teams large enough to operate in multiple markets.

Track it: Use an analytics tool or CRM like Waalaxy, 👽 that allows you to tag the customer’s location for each transaction.

Discover Waalaxy 🚀

11. Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)

MRR tells a business how much they can expect to earn each month from recurring revenue (i.e., subscriptions). 🥸

Why it matters: MRR gives you the short-term picture of your recurring revenues. Therefore, you can also track ARR which is the Annual Monthly Revenue, to have a broader view.
Who can use it: It is widely used in SaaS companies that have a subscription-based business model.

Track it: use this formula to calculate the MRR:

💡

Total Number of Paying Customers in a Month × Average Revenue per Customer in that Month = MRR

12. Average Revenue per Account

Average Revenue per Account is essential when creating marketing campaigns targeting high-value audiences and using an account-based selling approach. 📣

Why it matters: It helps your sales team focus on new prospects that are similar to your existing, larger customers.
Who can use it: Sales teams large enough to operate with multiple accounts.

Track it: Here’s how to calculate average revenue per account:

💡

MRR / Total Number of Accounts = Average Revenue per Account

13. Average Sales Cycle Length

This KPI helps you understand the typical time between first contact with a prospect and making a sale. ⌚

Why it matters: Knowing the length of your sales cycle will help you set achievable sales goals, estimate revenue and sales forecasts, and develop a sales plan.
Who can use it: B2B sales and companies are known for their long sales cycles. But other SaaS and SMEs will also be able to better manage their goals and processes with this KPI.

Track it: Here’s how to calculate it:

💡

Length of all Successful Sales Cycles / Number of Deals in this Period = Average Sales Cycle Length

14. Average Cost Per Lead

Average Cost per Lead measures the profitability of marketing automation campaigns and gives marketing teams a reasonable amount to spend on generating new leads. 🏹 The goal is to keep the average cost per lead low while generating a high volume of quality leads.

Why it matters: Average cost per lead can be tracked overall across all marketing efforts or on a campaign-by-campaign basis.
Who can use it: When combined with average new deal size, marketing teams can assess which search channels are generating higher-purchasing customers.

Track it: Here’s the formula for calculating the average cost per lead:

💡

Total Campaign Cost / Number of Leads Generated = Average Cost per Lead

15. Customer Retention Rate

Customer Retention measures a company’s ability to retain customers and the revenue they generate over time. 🤗

Why it matters: Acquiring customers is expensive, so client retention is essential to a business’s long-term growth and reputation. It’s also a testament to your customer management and relationship skills.
Who can use it: Sales managers in any industry need to track customer retention, but it’s especially useful for SaaS.

Track it: Use this formula in order to tract this KPI:

💡

Number of Customers at End of Period – Number of New Customers / Number of Customers at Start of Period = Customer Retention Rate

16. Churn Rates

In SaaS, sales are not limited to acquiring new customers, but also retaining them. 🤚

This sales KPI tracks lost customers and revenue—people who tried your product and then decided it wasn’t worth paying for (or paying that much). 🙊 There are many ways to calculate churn, but the main thing is to know how many of your customers leave.

Why it matters: Healthy businesses need a strong customer base. Acquiring new customers costs more than retaining existing ones (5 to 25 times more), and repeat customers spend more than new customers.
Who can use it: Primarily useful in SaaS, customer retention and churn rates give executives a great indicator of a company’s overall sales health and growth forecast, and can guide sales managers toward better customer management.

Track it: Simply use this formula:

💡

(Customers Who Unsubscribe / Total Customers at Start of Period) * 100 = Customer Churn Rate

17. Sales Target Attainment

Sales Target Attainment allows you to track your sales team’s performance against previous periods or previous goals. 🧨

Why it matters: You can track whether your team is meeting quotas, evaluate revenue against forecasts, and identify individual sales reps who need help.
Who can use it: For all Sales teams and Managers who are goal-oriented.

Track it: Here’s how to calculate sales goal achievement:

💡

(Current Period Sales ÷ Sales Goal) × 100 = Sales Target Attainment

18. Quote-to-Close Ratio

Quote-to-Close Ratio compares the number of deals closed to the number of quotes submitted. 📊 You can use it to evaluate the performance of your sales reps by comparing it to past trends or current goals.

Why it matters: It lets you know how many quotes are actually closed and which one remain on the pipe, so you can double down efforts if necessary.
Who can use it: For all Sales Managers who want to have a full view of their closed deals vs actual number of quotes sent in a period of time.

Tract it: Here’s how to calculate the Quote-to-Close ratio:

💡

(Number of Deals Closed and Won / Number of Quotes) × 100 = Quote-to-Close Ratio

19. Monthly Calls and Emails Per Sales Rep

You need to know what your Sales Reps are doing to connect with new leads, including the number of sales calls and cold emails. ❄️

Why it matters: Tracking sales activity can show you when things are going wrong in your sales pipeline and where you need to make adjustments.
Who can use it: Sales teams looking to track productivity and progress toward sales goals based on activity.

Track it: For this sales KPI, take a look at our CRM Waalaxy, 💥 which provides powerful reporting metrics, including a breakdown of Team activity by emailing campaigns.

20. Number of Monthly Onboarding and Demo Calls

Not all leads will go directly from opportunity to customer. 👉 For SaaS companies in particular, this sales KPI tracks the number of trial initiations or demo calls your team makes.

Why it matters: Leads who make it this far into your sales process are more likely to convert. This KPI shows how your sales pipeline is doing monthly, and is often correlated with your closing rate.
Who can use it: Obviously, not all companies and industries offer product demos and trials. But for many SaaS companies, the insights this metric provides will improve their sales process.

Track it: This data point can be easily tracked through your CRM, by seeing the number of demo calls booked. 📞

Tracking Sales Performance Indicators With a Software

Like we mentioned before, Waalaxy is a CRM that helps you manage your sales pipeline, track leads, and automate your sales process. 🤖

Waalaxy Sales Dashboard provides real-time insights into which sales activities are generating the most revenue. 🪙 It can also help you identify salespeople who are hitting their targets so you can reward them for their hard work, thanks to the Team’s view.

For example, you can track response rates on LinkedIn or the number of Emails sent by Sales Rep, with just one look! ⚡

Try Waalaxy Now 🔥

Conclusion: KPIs for sales

Furthermore, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. 😓 To beat your competitors, you need to understand data.

Sales metrics and KPIs help you make informed decisions, track team performance, optimize processes, and close more deals. 👏 But they only work if you use them correctly. When determining the best sales KPIs for your team, remember to:

Choose actionable sales KPIs that reflect your business goals and priorities.
Select the right sales KPIs based on your business type, team size, role, and industry.
Track sales KPIs with simple, easy-to-implement tools.

Remember, tracking sales KPIs isn’t a guaranteed path to success. But without them, you’re flying blind. 🧑‍🚀

Sales KPIs FAQ

What are the best KPIs in sales?

Sales KPIs are sales-related performance measures used to track an individual, department, or company’s performance against predetermined goals. 🦾 Therefore, the best KPIs are the ones that allow you to track those goals, depending on your business and sales team.

How many sales Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) should I track?

More is not necessarily better when it comes to choosing the right number of KPIs for your team. 🤔 The ideal number of sales KPIs to track for most teams is between 5 and 10.

In fact, sales managers should have enough KPIs to successfully measure their team’s performance against established goals. 🏹