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Building a high-performing sales team is all about establishing a system of learning, consistency, and accountability for sales reps. We need to know that new concepts and skills have been adopted, applied, and coached on across the sales org.
This system starts with rock solid sales KPIs (key performance indicators) that you can use to measure your sales team’s effort and output, as well as how effective your enablement is. When we track the right KPIs, we can actually understand what’s working and what’s not every step of the way.
KPIs are metrics that function as S.M.A.R.T goals for your sales reps. They provide clear, concrete, and time-bound benchmarks for success and help you hold reps accountable to expectations on things like daily activity level, follow-up timing, and pipeline stage conversion rates.
Let’s dive into the top 23 sales KPIs you should be measuring..
The Top 23 Sales KPIs to Measure and Coach
The sales KPIs listed here run the gamut from top-of-funnel cold outreach to broader sales funnel performance metrics.
As a general rule of thumb, these sales KPIs are most applicable to B2B sales reps, although many are relevant to B2C sales reps as well and should be measured as a part of each rep’s performance evaluation.
Take a look at the full list below.
- Outbound calls
- Email Reply Rate
- LinkedIn messages sent
- Text messages sent
- Talk time
- Activities completed
- Touches per prospect
- Follow-up response time
- Call Connect Rate
- Discovery meetings set
- Discovery meetings held
- Sales qualified leads created
- Prospect to SQL conversion rate
- SQL to opportunity conversion rate
- Opportunities created
- Average opportunity size
- Pipeline revenue
- Opportunity to closed won conversion rate
- Closed won deals
- Average sales cycle length
- Average deal size
- Closed won revenue
- Closed won lifetime value
Let’s dive into each KPI to understand its function in measuring sales performance.
Outbound calls
It doesn’t matter how many new communication channels are out there. The phone is still your sales team’s greatest weapon and best way to get in front of new prospects.
Emails sent
The second most popular outreach channel for over a decade, tracking the number of emails your reps are sending is a must in 2023.
LinkedIn messages sent
LinkedIn messages are great for top-of-funnel outreach…
Text messages sent
… and text messages are the ticket for bottom-of-funnel activity once you’ve built credibility and rapport. Use both sales KPIs for reps managing a funnel top to bottom. Pro-tip: leverage an SMS marketing platform like Textla let you do this with ease).
Talk time
Ninety phone calls that lead to ninety voicemails don’t do much for your business. See how much talk time your reps are generating in their outbound prospecting activities. Pro tip: you can use a telephony platform like RingCentral or Dialpad to automatically log talk time for your reps.
Activities completed
How stacked are your reps’ days? Activities completed measures volume of activity such as calls, emails, meetings, and messages. This is a great way to ensure that your reps are actually reaching out to prospects.
Touches per prospect
How actively are your reps working leads? Are they giving up after one touch or proactively pursuing prospects and turning “no’s” into “yes’s?” Track touches per prospect to assess rep tenacity.
Follow-up response time
Are your reps charged with responding to inbound leads? Then “Speed to lead” is a valuable metric for you to be tracking. Track how fast your reps are responding to inbound inquiries.
Call Connect Rate
Is your data good? Are you spending your time coaching to the right behaviors? Connect rate is simply dials to conversations, where the person you intended to call picked up. If you have a killer on the phones you want to give them as many at bats as possible, monitor this rate and make sure it’s 3% +
Discovery meetings set
Disco is not dead! Your business still relies on the discovery meetings your reps are setting. Track how many discovery meetings each rep is setting and reap the pipeline benefits.
Discovery meetings held
Setting a discovery meeting with a prospect is great. Setting a discovery meeting with a prospect who actually shows up to the meeting? Even better. Be sure to track how many disco meetings your reps are setting that actually turn into meetings held.
Sales qualified leads created
Every sales organization defines sales qualified leads (SQLs) differently, but my guess is your organization is referring to an SQL as a lead that actually is a real person with genuine buying potential for your product or service. Track the SQLs your team is creating (especially if you have SDRs committed to this) and hold your team accountable.
Prospect to SQL conversion rate
Are your reps working a small target account list or a giant pool of thousands of potential leads? The distinction will factor into their performance evaluation, so be sure to make prospect to SQL conversion rate one of your sales KPIs.
SQL to opportunity conversion rate
Okay! Your prospect is an SQL who is now ready to become an opportunity and talk contract terms, etc. Track your conversion rate from qualified lead to opportunity to ensure your team is managing these deeper funnel leads effectively.
Opportunities created
Opportunities are the lifeblood of your business. Without viable sales opportunities, there’s no hope for meeting quota in the months and quarters ahead. Continuously track how many opportunities your team is creating and whether they cover the ground you’ll need to hit quota.
Average opportunity size
The second component to your opportunity metrics is tracking your average opportunity size. Are your opportunity volume and average size strong enough to lead you to the promised land of quota? Track your average opportunity size to make sure.
Pipeline revenue
How much total revenue is in your pipeline? This is a standard sales KPI that can reveal whether your team or individual reps are on track to hit quota or fall short.
Opportunity to closed won conversion rate
Let’s talk efficiency. Are your reps converting opportunities to closed won deals? Or are they getting bested by your competitors in 9 out of 10 deals? Figure out your opportunity to closed won conversion rate to see who your clutch closers are.
Closed won deals
A must-track sales KPI. I shouldn’t have to explain this one to you. Moving right along. 😉
Average sales cycle length
How long is it taking your reps to close a deal? 30 days? 3 months? 6 months? A year? Your average sales cycle length will start giving you indications about how best to manage your sales pipeline going forward and where potential training and coaching opportunities lie.
Average deal size
How much is an average closed deal worth to you? The average size of the deals you close will give you a good picture of how many you’ll need to get to quota.
Closed won revenue
Another no-brainer you should be tracking already. You should be tracking this metric per rep as well as across a variety of different groupings (segment, team, industry, geography, etc.) to learn who your buyers are and where your money is coming from.
Closed won lifetime value
How many customers become loyal high spenders with your company? If an average closed won deal generates 3X the original contract value before it churns, you’re tracking that metric to get a true understanding of your customers’ lifetime value.
What Are Your Top Sales KPIs to Measure
What sales KPIs matter most to your organization this year?
How are you holding your team accountable and measuring enablement and sales success?
To find out how Ambition can help you track, visualize, and celebrate when you hit your sales KPIs, book time with an Ambition expert here.
