For sales leaders, keeping tabs on industry performance standards is essential to not only measuring internal performance but also comparing your sales teams to competitors. With the right sales KPIs, your team can forecast their performance and create a clearer picture of where your sales stand compared to where they need to be.
We’ve surveyed the industry and come up with five of the top sales KPIs your team should be measuring, why those particular KPIs offer value to your sales team, and how you can improve their usefulness.
Identifying Top Sales KPIs of 2024
According to the responses from the 2024 Sales Engineering Compensation & Workload Report, there are a few key sales metrics you should keep an eye on in 2024.
While you may be tracking some sales KPIs already, keeping up with industry trends can help you better understand and compare your team’s performance to the competition’s. In order based on frequency of measurement and reflected priority, the top five metrics are as follows:
1. Closed Revenue or ARR
In sales, money talks. That’s why the most commonly measured sales KPIs are closed revenue and annual recurring revenue (ARR). Closed revenue shows a clear picture of the impact your sales team had on your brand’s bottom line as a whole or on an individual basis.
Measuring this KPI shows teams how their sales are increasing or decreasing over time, however, that is only one piece of the puzzle. This KPI can be even more powerful when used in tandem with more qualitative sales metrics to get a better look into your process rather than just focusing on the bottom line.
Pro Tip: Identify which tactics worked best on your highest revenue deals to build a strategy that is effective for enterprise-level and high-value clients.
2. Feedback From Sales
Internal feedback offers a qualitative look at your team’s performance. Collecting feedback from your sales team gives you direct insight into ways you can improve your sales process for future interactions.
Encouraging open communication between sales and presales creates a more collaborative work environment, allowing you to highlight ways to refine how team members interact with each other and boost overall sales performance. By working together, these two teams can create a more cohesive overall approach to sales and discover new opportunities for improvement.
Pro Tip: Use sales feedback to inform employee reviews for a more individualized approach to boosting sales performance.
3. Demo or POC Activities
Demoing products is an essential part of the sales process, which makes demo — and proof-of-concept (POC) — related KPIs a clear indicator of team and individual performance. By comparing the number of demos performed and the results of those demos, sales managers can determine which representatives are producing both the volume and quality expected.
Pro Tip: Keep in mind that not all demos end in qualified leads. Demo automation can help separate out unqualified prospects, increasing the value and accuracy of this sales metric for your team’s performance.
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4. Sales Quota
A common practice among sales teams in every industry, sales quota measures a sales representative’s performance based on their ability to meet a set goal. These goals can be based on sales volume, deal revenue, number of interactions, customer acquisition, cost reduction, or a combination of several factors.
This KPI acts as a tangible goal to help motivate sales, but it can also be used to set benchmarks for future performance, determine compensation, and justify the allocation of resources.
Pro Tip: According to the 2024 Sales Engineering Compensation & Workload Report, a majority of brands use ARR as a basis for sales quotas. You can do the same to stay on par with the competition.
5. Percentage of Deals Won vs Lost
Much like a batting average, this metric, also known as a win-loss ratio, offers direct insight into how many of your sales interactions ended in success. Not only does this sales KPI show you how many sales you’ve won and lost, but it can also tell you why.
By using this data effectively, your team can analyze the methodology of won sales compared to lost and adjust your sales strategy to improve your ratio.
Pro Tip: Learn from the mistakes made in your lost deals and build a strategy around the tactics used in those that were won to create a comprehensive sales process your team can use moving forward.
Discover More About Sales Performance With Consensus
In today’s fast-paced marketplace, you can’t risk missing out on the latest information. To learn more about current trends in the sales industry and how you can adapt your strategy to stay ahead, check out our blog for expert insights and research.
