Relying on gut feeling or vanity metrics is no longer sufficient to scale and sustain a high performance B2B sales team. Measuring performance against the right metrics has never been more important.
We have compiled the 10 most crucial metrics that every B2B sales company should be measuring over time.
What are Sales Metrics?
Sales metrics are specific data points that are used to measure and assess the performance and effectiveness of a sales organisation. They provide valuable insights into various aspects of the sales process - from lead generation, conversion, customer satisfaction, team performance and employee experience. Businesses can gain a better understanding of their sales strengths and weaknesses, to make data-driven decisions and optimise their sales processes. Consistent tracking of sales metrics ensures that teams are meeting goals, addressing challenges proactively, developing skills and aligning efforts with the overall objectives of an organisation.
Top 10 Metrics
1. Number of Client Meetings
The metric serves as a tangible indicator of your sales team's activity and potential opportunities for securing new deals or nurturing existing relationships. The number of client meetings can directly correlate with potential sales opportunities.
Why you should track this metric: It offers a clearer picture of how engaged your sales team is with potential and existing clients. This metrics gives you a top of the funnel pulse check on the health of your business pipeline.
How to track this metric: The collection of this data depends on the processes within the organisation. Here are three typical methods:
- Compile it manually by reviewing calendars.
- Ingesting this data within the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as part of the administrative process.
- Using advanced analytics tools such as Culturate to combine disparate data across calendar and CRM to track this metric.
2. Pipeline Coverage
Provides an overall view of the health of your sales funnel by comparing the size of your pipeline to your sales goals. The rationale is that if you historically achieved a 25% conversion rate, you would want to have 4 times the number of deals in the pipeline to cover your sales goals. It allows organisations to proactively assess whether they have enough opportunities in the pipeline to meet revenue targets.
Why you should track this metric: Effective tracking of pipeline coverage lays the foundation for revenue predictability and sales stability, ensuring businesses remain sustainable in the dynamic B2B marketplace.
How to track this metric: Modern CRM platforms can automate the tracking of deals through the sales pipeline stages and provide visibility into each salesperson's activities and performance.
3. Total Sales
Monitoring total sales is fundamental for any B2B sales organisation as it provides a clear and immediate picture of future revenue and overall business health. Regularly tracking total sales is obvious and is the clearest link to revenue.
Why you should track this metric: Tracking of this information allows businesses to better align their sales strategies, resources, and efforts, ensuring they consistently meet or exceed their revenue goals and maintain robust financial health.
How to track this metric: CRM systems are at the core of tracking total sales for many companies. They allow companies to:
- Record details of each deal.
- Aggregate sales data across different time periods, product lines, and sales teams.
- Offer insights into sales trends and performance.
4. Win Rate
Monitoring your win rate is crucial for gauging the efficiency of your sales team. It reflects the percentage of opportunities that convert to actual sales, providing clear insight into the effectiveness of your sales strategies and tactics. A higher win rate indicates a more successful sales approach, while a sudden drop may signal underlying issues that need immediate attention.
Why you should track this metric: By consistently tracking this metric, businesses can make informed decisions to A/B test their sales processes, training programs, and customer engagement methods.
How to track this metric: Some companies use dedicated sales performance management platforms that specialise in tracking and analysing sales metrics, including win rates. These platforms offer:
- Real-time tracking and alerts for significant changes in win rates.
- Predictive analytics to forecast future win rates based on historical data and trends.
- Benchmarking against industry standards or past performance to set realistic goals and expectations.
5. Deal Size
Tracking deal size offers an insight into the average revenue your company can expect from each closed deal. By monitoring this metric, businesses can determine whether it has targeted the right customer segments and the potential financial returns from each deal. A consistent increase in deal size demonstrates effective up-selling or cross-selling strategies, while a decrease may prompt a review of your sales tactics or product offerings.
Why you should track this metric: Understanding deal size metrics enables companies to allocate resources more efficiently, prioritise high-value deals, and set more realistic and achievable sales targets.
How to track this metric: Advanced CRMs allow for the segmentation of deal size data, enabling companies to compare performance across different product lines, sales teams, or market segments. This analysis is crucial for strategic planning and resource allocation.
6. Sales Cycle
Monitoring the sales cycle is pivotal for understanding how efficiently your sales process converts leads into customers. A streamlined, shorter sales cycle signifies a well-optimised sales process, ensuring that your team is not wasting time on leads that are unlikely to convert.
Why you should track this metric: Analysing the length and phases of your sales cycle allows you to pinpoint any bottlenecks or delays that may be hindering your sales performance. A clear insight into your sales cycle helps in more accurate forecasting, enabling better business planning and resource allocation, ensuring that opportunities are never missed.
How to track this metric: Companies can customise dashboards to display key metrics such as average sales cycle length, stage duration, and conversion rates, helping managers identify bottlenecks or inefficiencies.
7. NPS (Net Promoter Score)
Sales should not end once a deal is converted. Monitoring the health of the customer post the sale is just as important today. This metric is a crucial indicator of overall customer satisfaction and can highlight areas where improvement is needed to enhance the customer experience. A high NPS indicates satisfied and loyal customers who can become brand advocates, helping to attract new customers through positive word-of-mouth. On the contrary, a low NPS can alert companies to underlying issues, allowing them to take corrective actions promptly to prevent further customer dissatisfaction and potential churn.
Why you should track this metric: Regular monitoring of NPS aids in continually enhancing customer relationships, fostering loyalty, and increasing chances of advocates introducing leads.
How to track this metric:
- Email: One of the most common methods is to send NPS surveys via email. After a purchase or a significant interaction, customers receive an email asking the NPS question, often with an additional request for comments to provide context to their score.
- In-app or Website: For software companies or online services, NPS surveys can be embedded directly into the app or website, popping up at appropriate times based on user interaction.
8. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Customer Lifetime Value calculates the total revenue a company can expect from a single customer account, emphasising the pivotal role of customer satisfaction and loyalty in enhancing revenue. CLV is a function of total revenue, the retention and the profitability of that customer. By focusing on increasing the CLV, businesses can identify the most profitable customer segments and tailor their marketing and sales strategies accordingly, ensuring resources are optimally utilised.
Why you should track this metric: Monitoring Customer Lifetime Value aids in understanding the impact of customer service and product quality on customer retention, bolsters long-term customer relationships and profitability and how it impacts the sales process.
How to track this metric: The average customer lifespan is estimated based on historical data showing how long customers typically continue purchasing from the company. This involves analysing churn rates, cross-sell and up-sell opportunities. Depending on the industry, the algorithms can range from simple averages through to advanced ML.
9. Employee Engagement
Whilst not a sales or customer metric, tracking team engagement is just as important to the sales process. Engaged employees are not only more likely to remain with the company, reducing turnover costs, but they also typically demonstrate enhanced productivity, creativity, and commitment to achieving the company's objectives. They play a critical role in fostering customer satisfaction and loyalty, contributing directly to sales and growth.
Why you should track this metric: Tracking employee engagement levels helps companies identify and address issues proactively, ensuring that their team remains motivated, satisfied, and productive.
How to track this metric: Many companies use feedback mechanisms to measure employee engagement. Three common ways companies measure this metric are:
- One-on-One Meetings: Regular meetings between employees and their managers can provide valuable insights into individual engagement and areas of concern or improvement.
- Exit Interviews: Conversations with departing employees can reveal insights into engagement issues and reasons for turnover.
- Survey tools: Digital platforms or physical suggestion boxes where employees can anonymously submit their ideas, concerns, and feedback.
- Advanced analytics tools: Signals that demonstrate consistent changes in employee behaviours may identify when there are significant movements in employee engagement. Tools like Culturate enable data ingestion from a range of sources to generates these signals.
10. Employee Turnover
Employee turnover is symptom of engagement issues within the organisation. It imposes significant costs on the company for recruiting, hiring, and training new staff. A high turnover rate can signal underlying issues within your sales team, from dissatisfaction and burnout to a lack of adequate training or support.
Why you should track this metric: By actively tracking and addressing employee turnover, organisations can foster a more positive, supportive, and stable work environment which has a downstream impact on sales.
How to track this metric: Many companies use a combination of HR systems and Excel to manually calculate turnover. There are tools like Culturate that can automate the calculation of employee turnover amongst other metrics.
In summary
Businesses are changing the way they work by closely tracking key metrics such as pipeline coverage, total sales, win rate, deal size, sales cycle, net promoter score, and customer lifetime value. These metrics are crucial for making smart decisions and encouraging growth in businesses. While these metrics have traditionally been tracked through various methods and systems, emerging platforms like Culturate are starting to bring all this information together in one place. This holistic approach not only streamlines data management, but also amplifies the potential for actionable business intelligence.
