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Most sales reps live and die by their quotas. As a sales rep working for IBM, OpenText, and TELUS, I know that I did. But it’s difficult to measure an act that’s unfolding in real time. As a result, teams often track too many sales metrics without knowing which ones require action.
Sales metrics serve as guideposts that signal to management when it’s time to act and make changes, or to keep following existing strategies. By choosing the right ones, sales leaders, sales managers, and sales operations professionals can understand team strengths and weaknesses and lead their people to better performance.
This ultimate guide to sales metrics will help sales managers identify the top numbers to track and what they actually mean.
Table of Contents
- What are sales metrics?
- Key Sales Metrics to Track
- Leading and Lagging Indicators in Sales
- SaaS Sales Metrics
- Key SaaS Sales KPIs to Track
- Which sales metrics should you track?
- Sales KPIs by Team Type
- Sales Metrics Dashboard
- Sales KPI Template
- Frequently Asked Questions About Sales Metrics
- Track sales metrics to increase efficiency and grow better.
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What are sales metrics?
Sales metrics measure activities, pipeline movement, productivity, and outcomes. At their core, they are data points that represent sales performance at the individual, team, or company level. Sales performance metrics help teams track progress toward goals, prepare for future growth, adjust sales compensation and incentives, identify challenges, and optimize the sales process.
While this may seem like a dizzying amount of numbers, each of these sales metrics starts with an individual. These metrics range from a macro level (company-wide performance), to a team level, then to an individual level.
My best sales manager, Mike, was a great mentor and coach. He helped me understand many types of sales metrics and coached us to close several large deals. By starting small and coaching reps to know and improve their numbers, sales managers can lift the entire organization.
Key Sales Metrics to Track
Revenue and Growth
Total Revenue
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
Total revenue, also known as gross sales or turnover, is a crucial business metric in evaluating a company’s financial health and success. Total revenue is the entire income generated from all operational and sales activities across all products and services. Calculate total revenue using:
Total revenue = Quantity of products and services sold x Price of the product or service
Suppose a company sells 100 units of its product for $10 per unit. The total revenue would be $1000.
What I look for: A business’s total revenue objectively measures its ability to generate income. It helps sales managers monitor progress and make informed decisions to enhance profitability and optimize sales operations.
Michele Potts, Director of Sales at Zoe Marketing and Communications, told me, “Tracking sales revenue helps you understand the direct outcome of your sales efforts. It allows you to gauge the effectiveness of your strategies and make informed decisions to drive growth.”
Percentage of Revenue From New Business
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
The percentage of revenue from new business is the monthly or quarterly revenue generated by new customers. Calculate the percentage of revenue from new business using this formula:
Percentage of revenue from new business = (Revenue from new customers / Total revenue) x 100
If a company generates $20,000 in revenue from new business and has total revenue of $100,000, it generates 20% of its revenue from new business.
What I look for: New business transactions, such as new SaaS subscriptions or additional mobile device loads, are strong indicators of future increases in recurring revenue. It indicates your company’s growth and success in acquiring new customers, as well as your ability to generate income from these new relationships. Celebrate these wins, but watch other metrics in parallel, such as customer retention and revenue churn rates.
Market Penetration
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
Market penetration is your total customer base compared with the total market potential. Calculate the market penetration rate using the following:
Market Penetration Rate = (Number of customers/Total Target Market Size) x 100
If a company sells its product to 500 customers out of a target market of 1000, its market penetration rate is 50%. The higher the market penetration rate, the greater the opportunity for growth and revenue.
What I look for: A company’s market penetration rate is a metric that provides sales leaders with valuable insight into its market potential and helps them develop strategies to increase market share.
Year-Over-Year Growth
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Account managers, sales managers+
Year-over-year (YoY) growth compares revenue generated from year to year. Calculate YoY Growth using:
YoY Growth = ((Current Year Revenue - Previous Year Revenue) / Previous Year Revenue) x 100
For example, if your company had revenue of $100,000 in 2024 and $120,000 in 2025, it had 20% YoY growth in revenue from 2024 to 2025.
Sales managers and sales leaders can also use this formula for any specific sales period. For example, if a sales leader wanted to see quarterly growth, they would simply do (current quarter metric - previous quarter metric)/ previous quarter metric * 100.
What I look for: YoY growth is a valuable way to evaluate overall performance and success in growing your business and meeting your goals. YoY growth is also a metric sales managers can use as a selling point. When I worked for a Microsoft partner, I remember how exciting it was to represent a solution with a 40% growth rate and strong positive feedback from clients and partners.
Revenue by Product or Service
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps, sales managers+
Revenue by product or service is the income generated by a product or service. Revenue by product or service is vital for understanding the financial performance of different products and services. Reliable reporting depends on consistent CRM definitions and complete data. The best way to track this is in your CRM, since it’s typically tracked automatically.
What I look for: Tracking revenue by product or service lets sales managers identify a company’s most and least profitable offerings and optimize its product mix to drive growth.
Annual Contract Value (ACV)
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+, SDRs, BDRs, account managers
Annual contract value refers to the amount of revenue a contract generates per year. Calculate annual contract value using this formula:
Annual contract value = Total contract value / The number of years in the contract
If your company signs a five-year contract for $50,000, the Annual Contract Value is $10,000.
What I look for: Calculating ACV helps me identify accounts that generate the most revenue, letting me know which accounts require strategic customer retention strategies and support.
Total Revenue From Partner Deals
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: BDRs, SDRs, account managers, sales managers+
Partnerships are a fantastic way to grow a business. Total revenue from partner deals is the amount earned from partnerships or collaborations with other companies.
Total revenue from partner deals is generated from agreements with other companies to offer products, services, or solutions to their customers. The partner company typically earns a commission or a percentage of total sales generated through channel sales.
What I look for: As a sales rep, I collaborated with partners and enjoyed having an alternative sources of leads. Knowing how much revenue comes through direct sales versus partner deals helps sales leaders understand the effectiveness of partnership programs. This metric is important for monitoring channel partners and supporting them in their marketing, business development, and sales efforts.
Revenue by Partner
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: BDRs, SDRs, account managers, channel/partner managers, sales managers+
Revenue by partner refers to the amount of money your company earns from each partnership or collaboration. It provides a detailed view of the revenue generated from each partner, allowing sales leaders and managers to understand which partnerships are the most profitable and valuable.
What I look for: By calculating revenue by partner, sales managers can decide which partnerships to keep, grow, or discontinue, and which partners should be rewarded with market development funds (MDFs), awards, and opportunities to achieve higher certification levels.
Margin by Partner
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: BDRs, SDRs, account managers, sales managers+
Margin by partner refers to a company’s profit from each partnership or collaboration.
Why I recommend tracking it: It provides a detailed view of the profit generated from each partner, allowing sales leaders to understand which partnerships are the most profitable and have the highest margin.
Free Sales Metrics Calculator
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- Average Deal Size
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
- And more!
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Pipeline and Conversion
Conversion Rate
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps for personal performance (BDR, SDR, etc.), and sales managers+
Conversion rate is the percentage of leads that turn into customers. Sales teams rank this as the third most important sales metric that they track.
Conversion rates define the level of success. Higher numbers mean reps are well able to convert customers and can continue with the current process. If conversion rates are lower, sales managers can optimize the sales cycle to better target and speak to leads. Calculate conversion rate using this formula:
Conversion rate = (Total number of won deals / total number of opportunities) x 100
How I increase it: It can be difficult to move the needle on conversion rates. If conversions are low, recycling the same pitch over and over won’t work. As a sales rep, I learned to personalize my sales pitch based on the information I had about my prospect. This could be information the rep gleaned from conversations or rich intelligence from your CRM data.
Win Rate
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness.
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Any individual sales rep (BDR, SDR, etc.), and sales managers+ for team performance
Win rate in sales is the percentage of final stage prospects that closed and became customers divided by the total number of deals in a given period. It can be evaluated at the team and individual levels, providing valuable insights into performance and effectiveness. Calculate the win rate using this formula:
Win rate = (Number of closed-won deals / closed-won deals + non closed-won deals ) x 100
If the sales team closes 40 deals out of 100 total opportunities, leaving 60 non-closed won deals, the win rate is 40%.
What I look for: Win rate is a true bellwether sales metric as it’s highly indicative of future growth. Win rate helps sales managers identify pipeline bottlenecks, improve forecast accuracy, and benchmark team and individual performance. It’s worth distinguishing win rate from a quota or target: a rep’s quota tells them what they need to hit, while their win rate benchmark tells them how their performance compares to the team or their own history.
Targets define desired results, while benchmarks provide context. If a company can sustain a healthy win rate long-term, it bodes well for YoY growth. Once sales managers understand a team’s win rate, the next step is improving it through better sales processes, training, and resourcing. Sales Focus Inc. outlines five strategies to increase sales performance, from tightening your sales metrics to leveraging outsourced sales teams.
Average Length of Sales Cycle
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps assessing personal performance, sales managers+ for team performance.
The average sales cycle length is the time it takes for potential customers (leads) to progress through the various stages of the sales process until they become a closed deal. Calculate the average length of sales cycle with this formula:
(Total number of days to close all deals) / (Total number of deals) = Average Sales Cycle
What I look for: Knowing how long it takes to convert a lead into a customer helps with forecasting, resource allocation, and planning. Chris Percival, Founder & Managing Director at CJPI, tells me, “Tracking the sales cycle more closely helped us to identify bottlenecks that extended our cycle and helped us refine our approach. We continue to streamline steps that are not improving the customer experience and are dragging deals out. We now close more deals faster, boosting our revenue and allowing for better forecasting.”
Number of Deals Lost to Competition
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+, business development reps, sales development reps
Number of deals lost to competition is the number of opportunities sales teams failed to win due to competition from direct competitors.
What I look for: Quantifying deals lost to competitors over time to monitor trends is a good start for competitive intelligence about what market players are the biggest threats to immediate and long-term revenue. Add context with a competitive analysis template to show which strengths of the competitive solution (or weaknesses of yours) influenced the customer to buy from the other guys. I’m always a fan of debrief calls, whether I won or lost a deal.
Weighted Value of Pipeline
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers, BDRs, SDRs
The weighted value of the pipeline metric shows the estimated value of deals as they move through the sales pipeline. Sales managers assign a value to each potential deal based on its position in the sales funnel and the likelihood of it closing.
Calculate the weighted value of the pipeline rate using the following:
Weighted value of pipeline = Probability of the deal closing x Deal value
Here, the probability depends on the stage of the pipeline. For example, the probability in the negotiation stage can be considered as 50%. HubSpot users can dive into their sales pipeline in the reporting feature.
What I look for: This sales metric helps take some of the guesswork out of forecasting and helps sales managers prioritize deals and allocate resources properly based on how likely they are to close. The companies I worked for standardized the percentage of likelihood of a deal closing based on defined events, like if a customer joined me for a personalized demo, I sent them a proposal, or a contract was in negotiations. Without these event-driven weightings, forecasting would feel like a shot in the dark.
Frequency/Volume of New Opportunities Added to the Pipeline
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+, BDRs, SDRs
This metric refers to the rate and number of new sales leads or potential customers added to your sales pipeline.
What I look for: Early in my career, I worked as an IBM sales development rep where we measured the volume of new opportunities added to the pipeline. I wasn’t on a commission plan at the time, but we had some fun competitions competing on opportunity revenue and volume. Similar to weighted pipeline value, it’s important to define the criteria (such as BANT qualification) that constitute an opportunity and thoroughly qualify them so sales teams aren’t filling the pipeline with low-quality leads.
Average Lead Response Time
Measures: Sales activities
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps, sales managers+, SDRs, BDRs
Average lead response time is how long it takes salespeople to respond to a new sales lead. The faster the response, the more likely it is to turn that lead into a customer.
Sales teams can calculate it by dividing the total time (minutes, hours, or days) spent responding to leads by the total number of contacts.
What I look for: Tracking average lead response time can lower response times and increase lead conversion. A delayed reply kills momentum, but it’s not just about responding fast — it’s about responding fast with a personalized, relevant response. The best reps combine speed with skill.
Percentage of Leads Followed Up With
Measures: Sales activities
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps, sales managers+
The percentage of leads followed up refers to the ratio of the number of leads actively pursued and contacted by sales representatives to the total number of leads generated.
What I look for: Percentage of leads followed up with shows sales managers a rep’s consistency, persistence, and respect for the handoff process. I always appreciated how hard the SDR’s job is. If I thought a lead might be low-quality, I tempered my expectations, but never missed a follow-up. Always follow up anyway — you might be the first rep who actually listens. I’ve turned “cold” webinar leads into six-figure deals because I asked, “What problem brought you to that session?”
Percentage of Leads Dropped
Measures: Sales activities
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps, sales managers+, BDRs, SDRs
The percentage of leads dropped refers to the ratio of the number of leads not pursued or contacted by your sales representatives to the total number of leads generated.
What I look for: This metric is crucial for understanding the quality of your leads. If sales teams see a high drop-off rate, leads are low-quality, and there is a need to change the overall marketing approach.
Percentage of Qualified Leads
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps, sales managers+
The percentage of qualified leads refers to the ratio of the number of leads that meet specific criteria and are deemed ready for the sales process to the total number of leads generated. The higher the percentage of qualified leads, the more likely a sales team is to close deals and achieve their sales targets.
What I look for: This metric gives me insight into the efficiency of a company’s sales and marketing efforts in attracting high-quality leads. Faton Sopa, Co-Founder & CEO of Superlinks, tells me that the most important metric at his company is qualified sales calls — even more than lead volume. “None of these matter if the person who shows up in front of you on your call is unqualified. That is a loss of time, resources, and investment.”
Featured Resource: Sales Metrics Calculator
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Sales Activity and Productivity
Cost of Selling
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
The cost of selling, also referred to as selling expenses or sales expense ratio, is the overall comparison of a sales activity’s expenses to the revenue it generates. It’s helpful to measure it as a percentage. Calculate sales expense ratio with this formula:
(Cost of sales) / (Total value of sales) x 100
What I look for: Understanding how much a sales team spends throughout the selling process lets sales managers know if you’re spending money in valuable ways. If a sales team has a lower ratio, you’re effectively generating revenue. If a sales team spends more money selling than it gets as profit, you’re overspending to bring in customers and can benefit from revisiting your sales strategies and optimizing your process so nothing goes to waste.
Email Open Rate
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps, BDRs, SDRs, sales managers+
Email open rate is a marketing metric that refers to the percentage of recipients who opened an email campaign out of the total number of emails sent. Calculate email open rate using:
Email Open Rate = (Number of Unique Email Opens / (Number of Emails Sent - Number of Bounces)) x 100
For example, if a rep sent 1,000 emails, 200 were opened, and 200 got bounced, your email open rate would be 25%.
What I look for: Getting someone to open your email is the first, crucial step to gain someone’s attention and trust. This metric gives me a clear picture of my email campaigns’ performance and helps me to improve future campaigns. The average open rate is 42% and varies by industry. Track yours and optimize your subject lines to keep it relevant and attention-worthy.
Email Response Rate
Measures: Sales activities and sales effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps, BDRs, SDRs, sales managers+
Email response rate refers to the percentage of recipients who respond to an email campaign. Calculate email response rate using:
Email Response Rate = (Number of Responses / Number of Emails Sent) x 100
For example, if a sales rep sent out 100 emails and received 10 responses, your email response rate would be 10%.
What I look for: I like to check the response rate to make data-driven decisions about future email campaigns, such as changing the email content, subject line, or sending time to improve response rates. I also recommend personalizing your emails, either manually or with AI tools.
Email Engagement Rate
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps, BDRs, SDRs, sales managers+
Email engagement rate measures the level of interaction between recipients and an email. Unlike response rate, email engagement rate takes into account a range of actions that recipients may take with an email, such as opens, link clicks, video plays, and so on. Calculate email response rate using:
Email Engagement Rate = (Total Number of Engagements / Number of Emails Sent) x 100
For example, if a sales rep sent 100 emails and received a total of 200 engagements (e.g., 100 opens and 100 clicks), your email engagement rate would be 200%.
Why I recommend tracking it: Email engagement rate is a valuable metric for understanding how recipients interact with your emails and how sales reps can improve email campaigns going forward.
Percentage of Time Spent on Selling Activities
Measures: Sales activity
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps (including SDRs, BDRs, account managers), sales managers+
The percentage of time spent on selling activities refers to the amount of time your sales representatives spend engaging in activities that directly contribute to generating revenue, such as making sales calls, conducting product demonstrations, and closing deals.
What I look for: My goal with the percentage of time spent on selling activities isn’t to micromanage my reps’ time. This metric gives me the big picture of a sales team’s efficiency and productivity and helps me understand how much time is needed for internal meetings, training, coaching, team-building, etc.
Percentage of Time Spent on Manual Data Entry
Measures: Sales activity
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps (including SDRs, BDRs, account managers), sales managers+
The percentage of time spent on manual data entry refers to the time that employees or sales representatives spend manually entering data into a company’s systems or databases. This can include inputting customer information, updating sales records, and entering product information.
What I look for: If sales reps are spending too much time on manual data entry and similar tasks, it might be time to invest in sales tools that automate the process and give teams time to focus on selling. AI-powered tools can take notes, enter and enrich CRM data, and free reps up for higher-value selling activities. Automating manual tasks is the most popular way for sales reps to save time with AI.
Percentage of Marketing Collateral Used by Salespeople
Measures: Sales activity
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps (including SDRs, BDRs, account managers), sales managers+, marketing teams
I’ve seen decks gather dust because they didn’t reflect real objections or because the sales team simply didn’t know they existed. The percentage of marketing collateral used by salespeople measures how your sales representatives use various marketing materials, such as brochures, flyers, product sheets, case studies, and other promotional items.
How I improve it: I recommend creating an easily accessible library of content and a dashboard for marketing and sales enablement teams to track which collateral is used most and least often. Tracking your usage helps to prioritize which collateral needs to be updated, expanded upon, or taken out of circulation. This data can be used as an icebreaker for conversations between sales and marketing on the topics and kinds of collateral that resonate with customers the most.
Average Number of Sales Tools Used Daily
Measures: Sales activity
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
Average sales tool usage refers to how many resources your salespeople use to support their sales activities daily, such as pipeline tracking software, CRMs, or presentation tools.
What I look for: This metric gives me a glimpse into the technology adoption and usage among a company’s sales teams. If adoption of a particular tool is low, I can invest in training and use examples. It can also tell me if a company has too many tools, and if it could benefit from tool consolidation.
Percentage of Reps Following the Sales Process
Measures: Sales activity and sales effectiveness (if compared to other success metrics)
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
The percentage of reps following the sales process refers to the proportion of sales representatives who consistently adhere to the established steps or stages of the sales process. It is a metric used to track the effectiveness and efficiency of a sales team and the sales process itself.
What I look for: Tracking the percentage of reps following the sales process ensures that all reps follow the same method, resulting in a more consistent sales experience for the customer.
Retention and Expansion
Percentage of Revenue From Existing Customers
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
The percentage of revenue from existing customers is the income sales teams generate from cross-selling and upselling, repeat orders, and expanded contracts. Calculate the percentage of revenue from existing customers with this formula:
Percentage of revenue from existing customers = (Revenue from existing customers / Total revenue) x 100
If a company has total revenue of $100,000 and generated $40,000 in revenue from existing business, it generated 40% of its total revenue from existing customers.
What I look for: In my software sales days, my company followed the land and expand business model. We would secure a contract for an initial requirement, then gradually increase the value of the account with additional products and services. Tracking revenue from existing customers helps sales managers understand the success of your customer retention and expansion efforts, which is important because it’s more cost-effective than acquiring new customers.
Average Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps, sales managers+, finance, product, and marketing teams
The average customer lifetime value is a metric that measures the total revenue your business can anticipate generating from a single customer over the course of its relationship with your company.
CLV considers various factors such as customer behavior, purchase frequency, and average order value, providing valuable insights into each customer’s value to the business. Zeeshan Khan, CEO of Dark Square, says that CLTV is the most important sales metric he tracks for his marketing and advertising agency. He says the metric has also helped him identify high-value customer segments and optimize marketing budgets by focusing on channels delivering the highest CLV. To calculate CLTV, use the following formula:
Customer Lifetime Value = Customer Value x Average Customer Lifespan
What I look for: The faster the customer realizes measurable value, the more likely they are to stick around — and buy more. I once closed a government deal at a steep discount due to public-sector pricing. My VP wasn’t upset — he knew the referrals and following training and consulting revenue would more than make up for it. This keeps your focus on time-to-value, not just deal size.
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Measures: Customer satisfaction
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+, marketing teams, account managers
Net Promoter Score is a customer satisfaction and loyalty metric that measures how likely customers are to recommend your business to others.
To calculate NPS, sales teams can survey customers and ask, “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend?” Teams can then categorize respondents as detractors (0-6), passives (7-8), and promoters (9-10). Next, subtract the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. Results range from 0 to 100, and higher scores mean customers are more satisfied and likely to recommend a company to others.
How I improve it: NPS scores are highly influenced by customer experiences from initial onboarding to ongoing support, and beyond. To understand the “why” behind different experiences and improve them, follow up with tailored responses for different categories, and analyze reviews on sites like Trustpilot and G2.
Retention Rate of Partner Customers
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness, customer satisfaction
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps, account managers, sales managers+
The retention rate of partner customers is a customer success metric that refers to the percentage of customers that continue to do business with your company after their initial transaction through a specific partner.
What I look for: Partners aren’t just channels — they’re extensions of your brand. But many focus only on core requirements. To drive expansion, I used tiered margins, MDFs, and sales playbooks to incentivize upsells. The best partners became co-strategists, not order-takers. Measure not just their revenue — but their expansion rate.
Average Cross-Sell and Upsell Rate of Partner Customers
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Individual reps, account managers, SDRs, sales managers+
In my experience, many partners are laser-focused on selling the products that meet the customer’s core requirements. They often don’t go the extra mile to upsell or cross-sell your complementary products and services because it may exceed the customer’s budget, or they may be reluctant to add scope to the project. The average cross-sell and upsell rate of partner customers refers to the average rate at which customers make additional purchases from a company through a specific partner.
How I improve it: I found the best ways to motivate partners to extend deal value is often to offer tiered margins or incentive plans to partners that sell premium subscriptions, high end products, or your customer success programs. Access to sales enablement resources like playbooks, demo environments, MDFs, case studies and customer conferences can also motivate partners to find ways to increase deal value.
Average Customer Satisfaction Score of Partner Customers
Measures: Customer satisfaction
Who this sales metric is helpful for: BDRs, account managers, SDRs, sales managers+
The average customer satisfaction score of partner customers refers to the average rating or score customers give regarding their experience with a company through a specific partner.
The average customer satisfaction score of partner customers can be calculated by taking the average score from all customers who have transacted through a specific partner.
What I look for: Like the sales metric above, this metric tells me the quality of the business each partner is bringing in.
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Team Health and Enablement
Percentage of Sales Management Time Spent Recruiting
Measures: Sales activity and sales effectiveness (if compared to number of hires)
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
The percentage of sales management time spent recruiting refers to the amount of time a sales manager dedicates to finding, interviewing, and hiring new salespeople for their team. This can include reviewing resumes, conducting interviews, participating in job fairs and networking events, and overseeing the onboarding process for new hires.
What to look for: A high percentage of time recruiting is a warning sign that employee churn is too high, or that a sales manager’s recruitment efforts may not be as efficient or productive as they could be.
Average Time-to-Hire
Measures: Sales activity and sales effectiveness (if compared to number of hires)
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
Average time-to-hire refers to the average time it takes to fill an open position, from when a job is posted to when a candidate is hired. It is a key metric that measures the efficiency and effectiveness of a company’s recruitment process.
What to look for: Effective tracking of the average time-to-hire is critical in sales, where time-sensitive positions require prompt filling. Any delays can obstruct the sales team’s success in reaching their targets and achieving their quotas. A delay in the hiring process can result in losing top talent.
Percentage of Hires From Various Sources
Measures: Sales activity
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
The percentage of hires from various sources is a metric that measures the proportion of new hires that come from different recruitment channels.
What to look for: By tracking this metric, organizations can determine which channels deliver the best results in attracting high-quality candidates and allocate resources accordingly to optimize recruitment.
Average Turnover Rate
Measures: Sales activity
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
The Average Turnover Rate is a metric that measures the rate at which employees leave your organization. This sales metric measures how frequently salespeople leave a company in a given timeframe. A 2024 Mercer survey found that the average sales personnel turnover rate was 8.4%, compared to 5.4% for top executives and 7.6% for managers. Using these statistics as a benchmark can help sales leaders determine if there are issues related to engagement, culture, compensation plans, or quota achievability that need to be addressed.
Why sales managers should track it: High sales organization turnover doesn’t just impact revenue. It takes a toll on customer relationships, increases hiring and training overhead, and may lead to customer churn and drive business to your competitors.
Average Cost to Replace a Salesperson by Role
Measures: Sales activity
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
Replacing a rep costs far more than salary — it’s lost deals, ramp time, and added team fatigue and burnout. The average cost to replace a salesperson by role measures how much it costs to replace a salesperson after they leave. This includes the cost of recruitment, advertising, hiring, training, and lost productivity associated with replacing an employee.
What to look for: By tracking the average cost to replace a salesperson by role, I can identify the financial impact of high turnover and make decisions about employee retention accordingly.
Sales Ramp
Measures: Sales activity
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
Sales ramp-up time represents the average time a new salesperson takes to become fully productive. Sales managers can use it to make hiring and firing decisions, set expectations with new reps, and develop more accurate sales forecasts.
There are multiple ways to calculate sales ramp time. CRMs often automatically calculate the mean time to 100% quota attainment, which sales managers can use to set the ramp. For instance, if it typically takes a salesperson six months to hit 100% quota, the ramp-up time would be six months. For a more nuanced approach, factor in training, the sales cycle length, and the sales rep’s level of experience:
Ramp-up = amount of time spent in training + average sales cycle length + X
X is based on the salesperson’s experience: The more they have, the smaller this number is.
Here’s an example for a well-seasoned rep, assuming training lasts 20 days and the average sales cycle is six weeks.
Ramp = 20 days + 42 days + 16 days
This salesperson would need 78 days to reach full productivity.
What to look for: Monitoring sales ramp doesn’t just measure how the new hire acclimates to your sales team, it also reflects on your team’s ability to train, motivate, and scale up your team. Along the way, there are important milestones such as first sales meeting, first closed deal, and first year revenue attainment.
Average Level of Satisfaction With Sales Training
Measures: Sales activity
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
The average level of satisfaction with sales training refers to the degree to which sales representatives are satisfied with the training they receive.
What I look for: I use this sales metric to measure sales training programs’ effectiveness and identify areas for improvement.
Leading and Lagging Indicators in Sales
Leading and lagging indicators are used in sales to predict and review results. Leading indicators (calls, demos, qualified opps) tell a sales manager what’s coming. Lagging indicators (revenue, win rate, CLV) tell them what happened. Great sales managers watch both.
Leading Indicators
Leading indicators help predict future performance. In other words, it tells sales managers which direction reps are trending with enough time to change the outcome. Leading indicators can be more challenging to measure than lagging indicators, but they’re easier to influence and coach on. Sales leaders and managers can’t change last quarter’s revenue, but they can help a rep refine their discovery call today.
Lagging Indicators
Lagging indicators measure completed outcomes. They‘re reactive, not proactive. For instance, a lagging indicator might be a team’s quota attainment at the end of the month. After seeing the lagging indicators, creating or revisiting a sales plan can help sales managers improve results in the future.
SaaS Sales Metrics
Software as a service (SaaS) is a software distribution model that provides customers with access to cloud-based applications online instead of requiring physical media and custom installation. As subscription-based businesses often serve other businesses, SaaS businesses require different metrics.
Note: SaaS metrics may be jointly owned across sales, marketing, customer success, and finance.
Key SaaS Sales KPIs to Track
Customer Acquisition Cost
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: BDRs, SDRs, sales managers+
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the average amount of sales and marketing expenses required to acquire one new customer.
I’ve heard it said that acquiring a new customer is generally about three times more expensive than retaining new one. In my time in SaaS sales, I’ve found this to be absolutely true. The cost of acquiring new customers for merchants has risen dramatically in recent years.
Customer acquisition cost is a big factor in determining whether a company needs to adjust its strategy for pursuing new customer logos, or if they should stay the course. Here are some potential components of CAC:
- Inbound marketing (blogging, SEO, social media)
- Sales and business development
- Paid advertising
- Events and trade shows
How to Calculate CAC
To calculate CAC, divide the total amount spent on sales and marketing in a given period by the number of customers acquired in that same period.
(Cost of sales + cost of marketing) / Number of new customers = customer acquisition cost
For example, if a company spent $1,000 in one month and acquired 50 customers, the CAC would be $20.
This formula is easy to follow, and the result of the equation lets sales managers know if any aspects of the acquisition strategy need optimizing so a rep isn’t spending more than the team brings in.
Just keep in mind to adjust this formula for the average length of sales cycle, instead of analyzing the number month by month. To address this, I recommend following HubSpot’s former VP of Growth Brian Balfour’s CAC formula:
CAC = (Marketing Expenses (n-60) + 1/2 Sales (n-30) + ½ Sales (n)) / New Customers (n), where n= Current Month
Cost per Acquisition
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: BDRs, SDRs, sales managers+
Balfour also points out that people commonly conflate customer acquisition cost with “cost per acquisition” — but the CAC and CPA are different, and mistaking them can be costly. CPA represents how much money a company needs to spend to acquire a non-customer, like a lead, a free trial, a registration, or a user. This means CPA and CAC are related: CPA is a leading indicator of CAC.
For example, if a business offers a freemium version of its software product, the CPA would measure the cost of acquiring a free user. Your CAC would measure the cost of acquiring a paid user.
Cost Per Acquisition = Advertising spend / Acquisitions generated
Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Account managers, sales managers+
Customer lifetime value (LTV) is the average amount of money your company makes from an individual buyer for however long they stay a customer (i.e., X months or years). The LTV formula for SaaS is:
(Average Revenue Per User / Account x Gross Margin %) ÷ Revenue Churn Rate
LTV tells a sales manager whether a team is spending too much or too little on acquiring customers. One example of an LTV: CAC ratio is 3:1. In other words, if it takes a dollar to get a prospect to buy your product, they’ll spend $3 over their time as a customer.
Segment customers, then look at the average LTV. The findings will tell sales managers where to focus their energy and/or how to change their strategy. For example, if Tier X of accounts has a 1.5:1 LTV: CAC ratio, while Tier Y has a 4:1 ratio, you’d probably want to:
- Decrease the marketing and sales expenses for Tier X and increase them for Tier Y.
- Figure out why Tier X customers are less profitable — are they churning earlier, buying less, and/or purchasing fewer add-ons?
Average Revenue per User or Account
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Account managers, sales managers+
Average revenue per user or account (ARPU/ARPA) is the mean amount of revenue from a single user or customer. Sales managers can calculate it per month or year, depending on the business model.
If a company offers monthly contracts, calculate it per month; if most of your contracts are annual, calculate it per year. This is the standard ARPU formula that I always use:
ARPU = Revenue during set period / Number of active users/accounts during set period
Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR)
Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) tracks the total predictable revenue your company expects to make each month. This was a valuable sales metric I used while selling for IBM, since it reflected growth and helped me forecast future revenue.
How to Calculate MRR
There are two ways to calculate MRR.
- Sum of Tiers Method: Add up the monthly revenue you’re bringing in from each customer for the total MRR.
- ARPA/ARPU Method: Multiply ARPA/ARPU by your number of paying customers.
The first method takes longer but is also more accurate. If Customer X is paying $200 per month, and Customer Y is paying $400 per month, the MRR would be $600.
The second method is easier. If a company has four customers, and the ARPA is $150, the MRR would be $600. This is the formula to use:
MRR = Average Revenue Per Account / User x Total Accounts That Month
Make sure not to include one-time payments in the MRR, like implementation and/or limited support fees.
Be careful about including quarterly, semi-annual, and annual plans in the MRR as well. Let’s say a new customer signs a $1,200 year-long contract in December. If a sales manager tallies up the MRR on a customer-by-customer basis that month, they might incorrectly add $1,200. But the business is not generating $1,200 from this account each month — it’s generating $100. To include these subscription values in your MRR, divide them by four, six, or twelve if they’re quarterly, semi-annual, or yearly, respectively.
There are different types of monthly recurring revenue that sales managers can calculate: new MRR, expansion MRR, and churn MRR.
New MRR
New MRR refers to revenue from new customers. Suppose a business acquired one customer paying $50 monthly and a second customer paying $45 monthly. Its new MRR would equal $95 per month.
New MRR Formula = New MRR + Expansion MRR - Churned MRR
Expansion MRR
Expansion MRR is revenue generated from existing customers, including cross-sells (buying complementary products or services), upgrades/upsells (a more expensive plan), and greater volume (buying more seats, usage data, transactions, etc.)
Expansion MRR is considered the “holy grail” of MRR. Why? It‘s commonly known that retaining an existing customer is five to 25 times less expensive than acquiring a new one. Plus, customers are far less likely to churn when they’ve invested more into your suite over time.
Churn MRR
Churn MRR is the revenue lost from customers who have downgraded their plans or canceled altogether. Churn MRR is a leading indicator of next month’s MRR. For example, if two customers (each paying $400) canceled in June, the MRR would be $800 lower in July.
Free Sales Metrics Calculator
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Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
Annual recurring revenue is MRR multiplied by 12 or the recurring revenue the business will generate in a calendar year.
I’ve always found that ARR has a significant advantage over MRR. Because salespeople typically sell more during longer months (like March, August, and December) and sell less during shorter months (like February, June, and April), the predicted MRR might be off from month to month. This can also account for industries with seasonal sales cycles, like education.
Should sales managers focus on MRR or ARR?
The short answer is that sales managers should focus on both MRR and ARR. While MRR shows how the business is doing right now, ARR provides an annual view of business performance.
The priority should depend on the company’s maturity and business model. A shorter-term lens can be helpful for startups who need a short-term lens. Unicorns and enterprises generating more than $10 million each year should think in terms of ARR.
Churn Rate in SaaS
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Account managers, BDRs, SDRs, sales managers+
The churn rate is the percentage of customers who cancel their recurring subscriptions. Sales teams can calculate per month, quarter, or year, depending on the most common contract type. The formula for churn rate is:
(# of customers lost in a given time period) / # total customers at the beginning of a given time period x 100
Imagine the majority of customers are on semi-annual plans. In January, a company has 400 customers. In June, it has 500 customers.
The churn rate equals: -100 / 500, or -20%. The business is gaining more customers than their losing.
Revenue Churn
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
Churn is never ideal. However, revenue churn is different from customer churn. Revenue churn is the amount of revenue a business has lost (a.k.a. churn MRR), while customer churn is the number of customers the business has lost.
From a business standpoint, it’s probably preferable to lose three customers, each paying $40 per month, than one customer paying $300 per month.
Negative Churn
Measures: Sales performance and effectiveness
Who this sales metric is helpful for: Sales managers+
Negative churn is a term popularized by David Skok that means the expansion MRR exceeds the churn MRR. If a company can achieve negative churn, it will grow exponentially.
Which sales metrics should you track?
Not every role should track the same metrics. Use this role-based scorecard to focus each function on what they actually own:
This keeps each role accountable for what they control — executives own the big-picture trajectory, managers own team efficiency, reps own pipeline-building activity, and SaaS/partner leaders own the metrics unique to their revenue model.
Sales KPIs by Team Type
Sales managers and sales leaders can also look at sales KPIs by team type. Inside sales, field sales, and sales development use different metrics.
Inside Sales KPIs
Inside sales teams rely on these KPIs (from most frequently used to least):
- Number of deals closed
- Opportunities by stage
- Calls
- Meetings
- Significant interactions or events (for example, ROI meetings or conversations lasting four-plus minutes)
- Opportunities created
- Demos
- Quotes/proposals
- Emails
- Meetings scheduled
Field Sales KPIs
Outside sales teams use many of the same metrics as inside sales teams, but prioritize activities and meetings more heavily.
- Meetings
- Number of deals closed
- Opportunities created
- Opportunities by stage
- Quotes/proposals
- Significant interactions or events
- Calls
- Demos
- Emails
Sales Development Metrics
Managing a sales development team? Use these SDR metrics to benchmark the team’s efficiency and ability to grow the pipeline.
- Meetings
- Calls
- Opportunities created
- Significant interactions or events
- Opportunities by stage
- Number of deals closed (by their partner Account Executive)
- Demos
- Emails
- Meetings scheduled
Sales Metrics Dashboard
A sales metrics dashboard visualizes a business’s sales data and metrics. Further, sales dashboards visualize role-relevant KPIs. Sales metrics dashboards can offer a variety of reports and displays for sales leaders and reps to review, analyze, and act on.
Here’s an example of a dashboard:
Sales software like HubSpot’s Sales Hub come with dashboards built into the system. Alongside templated sales dashboards, teams can build custom reports using HubSpot’s sales reporting and performance management software to track their most important sales metrics.
Common Metrics to Track on a Dashboard
1. Sales Performance by Rep
A little friendly competition can motivate a team to pick up the pace and reach their quotas. Create a leaderboard to track your top performers. Sales managers and leaders should choose sales metrics that reflect the behavior they want to promote. For example, when trying to increase a team’s prospecting efforts, leaders might display the number of total opportunities created in the last month.
To ensure reps don’t chase unqualified leads simply to fill their pipelines, sales leaders might also display total sales by rep.
2. Sales Activities
Keep reps focused on the right tasks with an activities dashboard. Show how many days in a row they’ve logged into the CRM or other key activities: numbers of calls made, demos, emails sent, etc.
3. Sales Management
Sales managers need to know how a team is trending. Track the value of new opportunities compared to the previous month or quarter, the weighted value of the pipeline, total sales versus the target, or close rate by salesperson.
4. Funnel Reports
Sales managers need to know the pipeline at every stage. They need to know how many contacts have been created, how many have been assigned, and how many are still in the sales funnel so that they can make better decisions for the team and set new goals. It can also help sales leaders identify and diagnose friction points in the sales funnel.
If teams are not ready to invest in a CRM that offers a sales metrics dashboard, I recommend using a sales KPI template that can be compiled into a spreadsheet.
How Dashboards Differ By Role
Rep Dashboard
A rep-level dashboard looks fundamentally different from a manager’s or executive’s because reps need to see what they can act on today, not the big-picture trends others are tracking.
Manager Dashboard
A sales manager’s dashboard looks fundamentally different from a rep’s or executive’s because managers need to see patterns across their team, not individual deals or company-wide trends.
Executive Dashboard
An executive dashboard looks fundamentally different from a rep’s or manager’s because executives need to see where the business is headed, not the day-to-day activity driving it there.
Sales KPI Template
Sales KPIs are the limited metrics most closely tied to business goals. If there’s one thing I learned as a sales rep, it’s not to reinvent the wheel when there are blueprints and templates that teams can customize to match these metrics. A sales metrics calculator gives sales managers an easy way to track sales metrics in a single place.
This KPI calculator is customizable to individual business goals. It includes tabs for different KPIs that sales managers can then track monthly, quarterly, or yearly.
I use HubSpot’s sales metrics calculator to track the following KPIs:
- Average Deal Size. The company’s total revenue divided by the number of deals closed in a month, quarter, or year.
- Win Rate. The number of deals won versus the number of deals lost.
- Demo-to-Close Ratio. The number of demos that were carried out divided by the number of deals that were won.
- Quota Setting Calculator. On-target earnings (OTE) multiplied by five.
- Commission Calculator. The total amount that will be paid out in commissions to sales reps.
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). The amount spent on sales and marketing efforts, divided by the number of customers acquired.
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Average annual revenue per customer divided by the average lifetime of a customer.
- Revenue by Product. Amount of income generated per product.
- Customer Retention Rate. The percentage of customers who stay with the business.
- Revenue Churn. The amount of revenue that’s lost in a month, quarter, or year.
- Employee Turnover Rate. The percentage of sales reps who leave the team.
Frequently Asked Questions About Sales Metrics
What is a sales metric?
A sales metric is a quantifiable measure used to track and evaluate the performance of a sales team, individual rep, or overall sales process. Metrics can cover anything from revenue and win rates to activity levels, such as calls made or emails sent.
What is the difference between a sales metric and a KPI?
A sales metric is any measurable data point (e.g., number of emails sent), while a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a metric tied directly to a strategic goal and deemed critical enough to actively monitor and act on (e.g., win rate tied to a revenue target). KPIs are typically a curated subset of your broader metrics.
What are the most important sales metrics?
The most important sales metrics include win rate, sales cycle length, conversion rate, customer acquisition cost, and customer lifetime value. For SaaS companies, MRR/ARR and churn rate are typically essential.
How many sales KPIs should a team track?
Most sales leaders recommend tracking somewhere between 4 and 8 KPIs per role or team at any given time. However, the right number often depends on the role — reps typically need fewer, more activity-focused KPIs, while executives may monitor a broader set of outcome-based ones.
What are leading and lagging indicators?
Leading indicators predict future outcomes and can be influenced in real time, such as the number of calls made or leads followed up with. Lagging indicators measure results that have already happened, such as closed revenue or churn rate.
How often should sales metrics be reviewed?
Review frequency depends on the metric type: activity and leading indicators (such as calls or follow-ups) are often reviewed weekly or even daily. In contrast, outcome and lagging indicators (such as revenue or churn) are typically reviewed monthly or quarterly. Sales managers often benefit from weekly check-ins, while executives may focus on monthly or quarterly trends.
Track sales metrics to increase efficiency and grow better.
Over my decade in sales (from IBM and beyond) I’ve learned that sales metrics aren’t just numbers; they’re signals. My biggest advice to sales managers, sales leaders, and sales operations professionals?
Track leading indicators like lead follow-up and pipeline quality to shape tomorrow’s results, but never lose sight of lagging outcomes like win rate and customer lifetime value to understand if your strategies are truly working. Then, use your insights to sell smarter, sell better, and grow sustainably.
Finally, don’t make things harder on yourself and the team than they need to be… use every tool at your disposal to streamline operations without reducing the human element key to driving sales. A free Sales Metrics Calculator gives sales managers an easy way to track sales metrics all in one place and is a great place to start. Sales managers can go even further with Sales Hub. With the software, they can always access the sales metrics they need without having to build reports from scratch.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in September 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
Free Sales Metrics Calculator
A free, interactive template to calculate your sales KPIs.
- Average Deal Size
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
- And more!
Download Free
All fields are required.
Form not available
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