2024 sales metrics: 15 KPIs to track for better performance

In sales, the goal is to consistently hit (or exceed) your team's targets and drive revenue, right? 

Behind this kind of consistency in performance in any field or industry lies one thing: data. Without knowing what works and what doesn't, you won't know how to adjust your sales strategy. That's why tracking the right key performance indicators (KPIs) for your sales team is crucial.

And although there are dozens of sales metrics to consider if you’re evaluating a revenue-focused team, we've narrowed the list down to cover just the 15 most important ones.

What are sales metrics?

Sales metrics are quantitative data points used to measure the performance of an individual sales rep, sales managers, a sales team, or an entire organization. Often metrics are a good indicator or benchmark of progress against predetermined sales goals and objectives.

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Sales metrics by category

To see the full picture of your sales team's performance, you need to track sales metrics that align with the different stages of the sales funnel. Here's how they break down:

Activity metrics

Sales activity metrics measure the volume of sales activities a sales rep does in a given timeframe. If your sales reps are spending most of their time on non-sales-related activities, then it's time to reduce their administrative burden.

Here are some examples of activity metrics:

• Calls made
• Emails sent
• Proposals sent
• Follow-up emails sent
• Social media interactions (particularly LinkedIn connection requests and InMail invitations)
• Sales demos held

Performance metrics

Sales performance and sales productivity metrics take activity metrics one step further and measure how effective those sales activities are. That's because it's not enough to have your sales reps busy; ultimately, you want them to close deals and bring in revenue.

Here are some examples of performance-based sales metrics:

• Email response rate
• Email click-through rate (CTR)
• InMail response rate (for LinkedIn invitations)
• Percentage of calls resulting in a meeting
• Percentage of LinkedIn connection requests accepted

Lead generation metrics

Lead generation metrics measure the effectiveness of your team's lead acquisition efforts. If you're not getting enough leads in your sales pipeline, it means that either your sales reps are not targeting the right prospects or their activities are in vain.

Here are some examples of lead generation metrics:

• Percentage of qualified leads
• Number of sales opportunities created
• Number of deals in the pipeline
• Number of closed deals
• Quota attainment rate
• Conversion rate
• Win rate
• Average deal size
• Number of cross-sells and upsells

Customer satisfaction metrics

The best sales teams don't stop at closing the deal. They value post-sale interactions with their customers just as much as pre-sale interactions.

Measuring customer satisfaction metrics empowers sales leaders with intel about who’s delivering the best service and which reps need further development and support. Here are some examples of customer satisfaction metrics:

• Customer survey response rate
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
• Customer Retention Rate
• Churn Rate
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

What are the most important sales metrics to track (and why)?

Now that we understand how the performance of each metric affects different parts of your sales process, let’s take a closer look.

Here are 15 sales metrics to keep a close eye on. Together, these metrics can provide visibility into how well your team is performing and spot areas for improvement on a macro level.

1. Total revenue

Total revenue is one of the most important sales metrics to track, giving you an idea of how much money the company has made from overall sales activity. This can be measured on a monthly (MRR), quarterly, or annual basis (ARR). Annual recurring revenue (ARR), specifically, is a great metric for predicting future revenue when reps are closing multi-year contracts.

Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)/Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) = Total Contract Value/Contract Duration (Years, Months)

2. Customer lifetime value (LTV)

Customer lifetime value (LTV) measures the total revenue that's expected to be generated by a customer over the entire course of their relationship with your business.

A high LTV will indicate that customers are likely to stay loyal and generate more value for the company in the long run — making it a very important metric to track for better sales performance by identifying which customers should be getting the majority of your marketing spend and post-sales attention.

LTV = Average ACV * Retention Period (Years)

3. Quota attainment

Quota attainment — or the percentage of quota achieved compared to the total sales goal set out at the beginning of the month, quarter, or year — is an important sales metric for measuring how well reps are performing against their sales targets.

Quota Attainment = Closed Revenue/Target Revenue (Quota)

4. Conversion rate

In sales, the conversion rate measures how many prospects or qualified leads become customers. This metric is important for tracking how well reps are doing at turning leads into closed deals and can flag if the overall sales process needs to be tweaked or if there's a lack of qualified leads.

Conversion Rate = Number of Leads Converted Into Sales/Total Qualified Leads

5. Win rate

Also known as the opportunity-to-win ratio, the win rate is the measure of successful deals or deals that close in comparison to the total number of opportunities created. These deals may be open, lost, slipped, or in another pipeline phase. Win rate is an excellent metric for monitoring sales effectiveness and the ability of a sales team to conclude negotiations.

Win Rate = Won Deals/Total Deals Made

6. Sales cycle length

The sales cycle length is the time it takes for a deal to progress from its initial creation to the close date — or, in the case of deals not yet closed, the current date. The shorter the sales cycle, the better, so measuring this metric can be a useful way to see where bottlenecks or delays are happening in the sales process.

Average Sales Cycle Length = Close Date - Deal Creation Date

7. Average deal size

Also known as “average contract value,” this is the average deal size of a won deal. This sales metric helps show how large the scope of each deal is and will vary depending on the products or services you’re selling. Average deal size is important for monitoring any changes in the value of deals that reps are closing, as it can suggest whether there's been a shift in product pricing or customer needs.

Average Deal Size = Total Revenue/Total Number of Deals Closed

8. Pipeline coverage

The pipeline coverage ratio is a measure of the size and health of a salesperson’s pipeline in comparison to their quota for a given period. It monitors whether or not there's an adequate number of opportunities for all reps to be successful.

Pipeline Coverage Ratio = Total Pipeline Size/Sales Target (Quota)

9. Sales by lead source

With leads coming in from different sources (web traffic, lead magnets, social media, etc.), it's important to track which sources are leading to the most sales. Determining how many of your sales come from each lead source will help you prioritize your hottest channels and strategize ways to more effectively reach leads on the lagging ones.

Sales by Lead Source = Total Sales/Lead Source

10. Deal slip rate

The deal slip rate is the percentage of opportunities that don’t close within the forecasted sales cycle. This is a useful metric for getting insight into deals that are lost to competition, or to identify areas where there's significant leakage in the pipeline.

Deal Slip Rate = Number of Deals Lost/Total Number of Deals Created

11. Average profit margin

Revenue is exactly the amount of money you bring in through sales, profit margin measures how well your company covers its expenses and produces income. Without it, you won't know how well your company is doing overall and whether its finances are healthy.

Average Profit Margin = Net Income/Net Sales

12. Market penetration

Knowing your market share is essential for understanding how well your company is doing in comparison to the competition. However, because it can be difficult to accurately measure, many businesses opt for measuring market penetration instead. Market penetration looks at how much of a total addressable market (TAM) your company has managed to capture.

Market Penetration = Total Revenue/Total Addressable Market ($)

13. Cost of selling

Equally important as revenue metrics is the cost of selling. After all, what's the point of making a massive sale if it costs more to make the sale than you actually earn? Cost of selling looks at how much money you are spending to get each sale and provides insight into how effective your ROI is.

Cost of Selling = Total Sales & Marketing Expense/Total Number of Sales

14. Net promoter score (NPS)

The net promoter score (NPS) is a measure of customer loyalty that focuses on how likely customers are to recommend your product or service to their network. You can measure NPS by asking customers a single question on a scale of 1 to 10: “How likely is it that you would recommend our company/product/service to a friend or colleague?”

NPS = (Number of Promoters-Number of Detractors)/Number of Responses * 100

15. Average revenue per user

Lastly, ARPU (average revenue per user) is an important metric for businesses that offer subscription services or products. It's the average value of revenue generated per user over a given period of time, and it can help you understand how well your user base is monetizing.

ARPU = Total Revenue/Number of Users

How to start tracking your sales metrics with Streak

Now that you know the right sales performance metrics to track, it's time to put your data into action. The first step is to have them available in an easy-to-view format that you can seamlessly track, and Streak can help with that!

With Streak, you can easily track and measure your performance against all of the sales KPIs outlined above in an organized way that makes sense for your business. With features like pipelines, customizable columns, funnel reports, and saved views, you can quickly access sales data that matters and better understand how your team is performing.

For example, pipelines empower you to track deals throughout the entire sales process, and columns let you input and track data like time in stage, deal size, industry, and more. Funnel reports give you an easy-to-read snapshot of your key data points like conversion rate through your pipelines, and saved views help you to quickly find custom segments of data within your pipelines.

Just by using these features in Streak, you can easily start tracking the 15 sales metrics above to get a stronger grasp on your sales performance and optimize it for success. Try it for free today.