9 Key sales performance metrics to track to keep your team as productive as possible

There is a huge variety of sales performance metrics out there, and it’s just not possible—or even advisable—for every sales team to be measuring each and every single one. More data isn’t always better. It is expensive and time-consuming to manage data overload, and often it isn’t necessary.

Depending on factors like the size of your company, the size of your sales organization, your sales cycle, and what you’re selling, the specific sales performance metrics you keep track of will be different (sometimes even when comparing against other competitors in your industry).

So, how can you measure the right sales performance metrics to uncover actionable insights into the effectiveness of your sales strategies, identify areas for improvement, and align sales efforts with overarching business goals?

Below, we’ll look at how to measure sales performance effectively, and some key metrics to consider that will help you make informed decisions that drive profitability and long-term success.

Understanding how to measure sales performance

Sales performance refers to the effectiveness and efficiency of a sales team or individual in achieving predefined goals and objectives.

The most common way to measure sales performance is by using metrics that quantify outcomes such as revenue generated and conversion rates. There are, of course, qualitative ways to assess performance as well. For example, our sales team uses Dialpad Ai Sales to gather conversation intelligence from our everyday sales calls.

Dialpad Ai can identify and track when certain keywords and phrases are spoken on calls with prospects, which is extremely helpful when we’re assessing how sales reps are performing at every stage of the sales process, from cold calling to closing.

For example, if I wanted to see how good an SDR is at booking demos for AEs, I can create a “Custom Moment” in Dialpad. A Custom Moment is a feature that lets you monitor how frequently a keyword or phrase pops up in conversations.

In this case, I could create a Custom Moment for keywords like “demo,” “booked,” or “discovery”:

Dialpad Ai will then track every time these keywords are said on sales calls. I can then see these instances in the sales analytics dashboard and click into those specific calls to either listen to the recording or read the transcript to get a sense of how those sales reps performed when trying to book demos.

In general, it’s good to have a mix of both quantitative or qualitative data when measuring sales performance because it gives you a more complete picture. When you’re assessing performance at scale, though, having the numbers to support your thesis or claim is vital.

What are sales performance metrics?

Sales performance metrics are quantitative measurements used to gauge the performance and effectiveness of sales efforts. Technically, they’re not the same as sales activity metrics, which focus on activities like calls made or emails sent, although sometimes a sales org will include sales activity metrics as part of its sales performance metrics. Your sales performance assessment should never just consist of sales activity metrics, though.

Sales performance metrics are also different from customer satisfaction metrics, which assess things like customer happiness and loyalty. Again, there might be a bit of overlap—your customer experience team might track customer churn, which could also be tracked as part of your key metrics for sales performance. (If your sales reps are selling to the wrong target persona, it may lead to high customer churn. In other words, it’s not just Customer Support’s problem.)

What are the benefits of tracking the right sales performance metrics?

There are a few key benefits of using and measuring sales performance metrics that are tailored to your sales org and business. These include:

• More accurate performance evaluation: Metrics help provide an objective assessment of sales team performance. You may have reps who are great talkers, but talkers aren’t necessarily closers—if they don’t close, the data will show it.

• Easier to identify trends: Metrics are also a good early indicator of things you may need to be worried about or opportunities to jump on. (Are we losing a lot of head-to-heads against Competitor X? Maybe that’s something we need to talk to the Product team about in case we’re lacking an important feature.)

• Identifying coaching opportunities: Performance metrics are incredibly helpful for pinpointing areas where sales reps can improve and excel. By analyzing the habits and techniques of top performers, you can identify key behaviors and strategies that lead to success, enabling you to coach other team members to replicate these methods.

• Better decision making: Sales performance metrics can also inform strategic decisions on resource allocation and process improvements. One region may be outperforming another drastically, which may be a sign that we need to take a closer look at training or hiring to bring the under-performing region up to speed.

• More alignment on goals: Tracking the right metrics is crucial for ensuring alignment on business objectives and sales targets. For example, if Marketing is overdelivering on its leads goal and hitting 125%, but Sales is closing on 13% of them, that’s a clear sign that the lead profile for our marketing campaigns is not the right fit and those leads are not going to be good long-term customers.

Again, the right metrics will differ from one business to the next, but regardless of which specific metrics you’re measuring, these benefits should carry through across the board.

Now, let’s look at the sales performance metrics themselves.

9 Key metrics to measure sales performance

There are many more sales performance metrics than this, like referral rates, upsell rates, and so on. The best thing to do is to do a close analysis of your team’s specific processes and which ones may need a little more help and more granular guidance.

In general though, here are nine sales performance metrics to consider tracking, along with calculations for each one. This will help you get started on the right foot with sales reporting—if, over time, you find that you’re not getting a ton of value out of measuring one or two of these, you can always replace it with another performance metric.

Company-level sales performance metrics

1. Total revenue

Total revenue refers to the overall income generated from sales within a specific period—typically monthly, quarterly, or annually.

Total revenue is a fundamental metric that’s relevant no matter what industry you’re in, because it’s a key indicator of the financial health and overall success of a business. It reflects the effectiveness of sales strategies, market demand for products or services, and business growth, which means that every team has a role to play in making sure this metric is healthy—not just Sales.

How to calculate total revenue

Add up all sales revenue generated during the defined time period.

2. Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

Net Revenue Retention, or NRR, is a SaaS metric that measures the percentage of revenue retained from existing customers over a specific period, accounting for upsells, expansions, and churn. If you’re not running a SaaS or subscription-based business, skip this one.

NRR is crucial for SaaS because it indicates how well the company is retaining and growing revenue from its existing customer base. A high NRR suggests strong customer loyalty, a good product, and effective upselling strategies.

How to calculate NRR

NRR = (Revenue at end of period from existing customers / Revenue at start of period from existing customers​) ×100

3. Average Customer Lifetime Value (CLV or LTV)

Average Customer Lifetime Value predicts the average revenue a customer will generate throughout their relationship with the company—which ideally will last for years.

LTV helps businesses understand the long-term value of acquiring a customer and guides decisions on customer acquisition costs (CAC) and retention strategies. For example, if it costs your business $150 to earn the average customer, but their overall LTV is only $35, then you’d need to significantly reduce your cost per acquisition—or make sure each customer spends a lot more with you over the course of their relationship with your company.

How to calculate LTV

LTV = Average Revenue per Customer × Average Customer Lifespan

Team or individual rep-level sales performance metrics

4. Win rate

Win rate measures the percentage of sales opportunities that result in closed deals.

Win rate indicates the effectiveness of the sales team in converting leads into customers. A higher win rate signifies strong sales performance, specifically effective lead qualification and good closing processes.

How to calculate win rate

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