When it comes to defining key performance indicators for your sales team, it’s common to not know quite where to start.
Sales teams across the globe are using sales KPIs to manage and motivate performance, but getting the most out of your sales KPIs means identifying the right metrics for each organization and role.
(Not sure what a sales KPI is? Click here.)
To prepare you to define your own key performance indicators, we analyzed the use of more than 1,500 activities that over 100 sales teams are using as KPIs in the inaugural Sales KPI Report. Here’s a summary of what we found.
Sales KPI Report Reveals Popular Metrics
Most Common KPIs
The five most common sales KPIs came out to calls (26%), wins (23%), opportunities created (19%), emails (8%) and meetings (8%). While wins is technically a lagging indicator, it will always near the top of this list; however, the other behaviors show that there is more focus around leading indicators, or the activities that drive sales. This is one critical component to the modern sales environment.
Other interesting KPIs we found sales organizations using included assessment completed and consultations.
KPIs by Selling Role
This analysis revealed what sales leaders consider the most important activity for each sales role. The top KPIs for sales development reps (SDRs) were calls (29%) and meetings scheduled (13%), but the study revealed that SDRs are also being measured on things like contacts added and demos completed
Sales leaders most often measure reps in the classic sales role with wins (29%) and calls (22%) as KPIs. Our research also uncovered more in-depth KPIs for this role like senior buyer connect and forecast vs. bookings.
For account management reps, the most common KPIs came in as opportunities created (15%) and calls (12%). Unique KPIs we found for this role included add-ons and scheduled service session.
KPIs by Industry
We also broke down the most popular KPIs by industry type into the following groups:
- Ad / Marketing Tech
- Finance
- Manufacturing
- Media & Publishing
- Professional Services
- Technology
- Telecom
Across all industries, calls made the top three. Wins also appeared in the top three for each industry, with the exception of Manufacturing.
The KPIs got more interesting when broken down further by industry in the research.
There’s much more to The Sales KPI Report. Grab your copy by filling out the form below:
