19 Sales Performance Metrics Every Sales Team Should Track

Sales performance metrics are the heartbeat of any thriving sales team. The saying, “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” might sound overused, but it’s still true.

It's crucial to know your sales metrics. Without them, finding areas to improve becomes nearly impossible.

In this article, we’ll explore various types of sales metrics. We'll highlight the ones experts find most important and show you how to track them effectively.

What Is Sales Performance?

Sales performance is measured using sales metrics, also known as key performance indicators (KPIs). These are numbers that show how well your sales team and individual salespeople are doing. They help you track progress, plan for growth, adjust pay, give rewards, and spot any problems.

Tracking sales metrics lets you know if your team is focusing on the right tasks. It also shows if those tasks are bringing in results.

There are two types of sales metrics: lagging and leading indicators.

• Lagging Indicators tell you what has already happened. Examples include total revenue or sales from a specific source.
• Leading Indicators predict what might happen based on current actions. Examples include the number of calls made or emails sent.

By looking at both types, you can get a better idea of how your team is doing now and what to expect in the future.

Key Sales Performance Metrics to Measure

These metrics help show how well your sales team is helping the company grow and make money. Understanding these metrics, along with calculating your sales ROI, can provide a clear picture of your team's performance.

1. Total Revenue

Metric Type: Growth, Outcome

Total revenue is the total amount of money made from selling all products and services. You can calculate it with this simple formula:

This metric is flexible and can be used to track different areas of performance. You can look at revenue from a single product, revenue from a specific location, or even revenue from individual salespeople. It’s one of the most useful metrics to understand overall sales performance.

2. Net Revenue Retention (NRR)

Metric Type: Growth/Quality, Outcome

Sales teams are now focusing more on keeping customers happy and growing their revenue, not just making new sales.

Net Revenue Retention (NRR) shows if your product or service is keeping customers satisfied and meeting their needs. It looks at more than just the initial sale. It helps you see how much value customers get over time.

To find NRR, you need these numbers:

• Starting Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR): The regular monthly income you expect from customers.
• Expansion MRR: Extra income from current customers through upsells, cross-sells, and add-ons.
• Contraction MRR: The loss in monthly income due to customers buying fewer services or products.
• Churn MRR: The income lost because customers have canceled their subscriptions.

Once you have these, use this formula:

This formula helps you see if your business is growing or shrinking based on customer behavior.

3. Repeat Customer Rate

Metric Type: Quality, Output

The repeat customer rate shows how happy your customers are with your products or services. It tells you how many customers come back to buy again.

If new customers make up most of your revenue, it can mean two things: your business is growing fast, or you might have high customer turnover.

To calculate the repeat customer rate, use this formula:

This helps you understand if customers are coming back or if you need to focus on keeping them around.

4. Average Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

Metric Type: Growth, Outcome

Average Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) shows how much money a customer brings to your business over their entire relationship with you. It helps you see the long-term value of each customer.

This metric is important because keeping a customer is cheaper than getting a new one. Knowing your LTV can guide your team in creating strategies to boost this value.

Here's the formula to calculate LTV:

This simple calculation helps you understand how much each customer is worth to your business in the long run.

5. Conversion Rate

Metric Type: Sales performance, Effectiveness

The conversion rate shows the percentage of leads that become customers. You can measure this for your entire process or for each stage of your sales funnel. 

A high conversion rate means your current approach is working well. A low rate suggests you need to improve your sales process to connect better with potential customers.

Here's the formula to calculate it:

This simple calculation helps you see how effective your sales efforts are in turning leads into paying customers.

6. Lead Conversion Rate

Metric Type: Growth/Efficiency, Output

When trying to improve your website and digital marketing, some questions might pop up:

• Which leads are useful for the sales team?
• Are the best leads coming from social media?
• Are we getting fewer leads from our website than expected?
• Are the purchased leads meeting our standards?

The lead conversion rate helps answer these questions. It shows the percentage of people who visit your site and become leads.

You can calculate it using this formula:

This metric helps you understand how well your site is turning visitors into potential customers.

7. Cost of Selling

Metric Type: Sales Performance, Effectiveness

The cost of selling, also called the sales expense ratio, compares the expenses of sales activities to the revenue they bring in. It's usually measured as a percentage.

Here's how to calculate it:

This metric helps you see if your spending is worth it. A lower ratio means you’re making good use of your money. If the cost is higher than the profit, it means you're spending too much to get customers. In that case, you should look for ways to cut costs and improve your sales process.

8. Average Length of Sales Cycle

Metric Type: Sales performance and effectiveness

The average length of the sales cycle is the time it takes for a lead to move through all stages of the sales process and become a closed deal.

Here’s the formula to calculate it:

Knowing how long it takes to turn a lead into a customer helps with forecasting, managing resources, and planning. Tracking the sales cycle helps identify delays. Using strategies to accelerate your sales process can make things more efficient and shorten the sales cycle.

9. Market Penetration Rate

Metric Type: Growth, Outcome

The market penetration rate shows how well your sales strategy is reaching your target audience.

When you focus on the right people, you find loyal customers who keep buying and recommending your product. This metric is also helpful for planning sales territories. It prevents sales reps from overlapping in the same areas, which can cause confusion and competition within the team.

Here’s how to calculate it:

But be careful with this metric. It’s often more of a “vanity” measure. It’s hard to know your total potential market accurately. The term "all possible customers" is open to interpretation and varies by industry. For many, it’s not a key metric to focus on.

In short, just because you can measure it doesn’t mean you have to. While it can be interesting, it might not be necessary for your sales strategy.

10. Win Rate

Metric Type: Sales performance and effectiveness, 

Win rate shows the percentage of deals closed out of the total number of opportunities. It can be measured for both individual sales reps and the whole team. This metric gives a clear picture of performance and effectiveness.

Here's the formula to calculate it:

For example, if your team had 100 sales opportunities and closed 50 of them, the win rate is 50%.

Why track it? By looking at win rates for different products, markets, or audiences, you can see where your team has the best chances of success. This helps you focus resources on opportunities with the highest potential.

11. Average Annual Contract Value (ACV)

Metric Type: Growth, Outcome

Average Annual Contract Value (ACV) measures the average yearly value of customer contracts. It’s commonly used by subscription-based SaaS companies that offer products with yearly or multi-year contracts.

Larger deal sizes show how well the sales team and individual reps are performing. They also reflect the product's position in the market. If your average ACV goes up over time, it means your product is gaining value and becoming more appealing to bigger customers.

Here’s the formula:

There's also a related metric called Total Contract Value (TCV). It measures the overall revenue from a contract, including both one-time and recurring charges. Unlike ACV, TCV accounts for the total deal length and extra costs.

In simple terms, ACV helps you understand the yearly worth of your contracts, while TCV looks at the complete value of a contract over its full duration.

12. Year-Over-Year (YOY) Growth

Metric Type: Growth, Outcome

Year-over-year (YOY) growth measures how much your business has grown compared to the same period last year. It helps you see the big picture without getting distracted by short-term changes or seasonal trends.

YOY growth answers a key question: "Are we growing faster than we were last year, or is our growth slowing down?"

Here's the formula:

For example, if your revenue grew from $12 million to $17 million, the YOY growth would be:

[(17 ÷ 12) - 1] × 100 = 41.7%

This calculation shows how much your business has increased in value over the year, helping you track long-term progress.

13. Sales Expense Ratio

Metric Type: Growth/Efficiency, Input

The sales expense ratio shows how much it costs to make a sale. You calculate it by dividing your sales team’s operating expenses by your net sales, then multiplying by 100.

This metric helps you understand if your sales costs are in check. It’s important to keep costs low, but not so low that it affects revenue.

In general, your sales expenses should not be higher than your net sales, unless you’re just starting out.

Here’s the formula:

This helps you see if you’re spending too much to make sales or if your costs are reasonable.

14. Pipeline Coverage

Metric Type: Growth, Input

Pipeline coverage shows how many sales opportunities you have compared to your sales goals. It’s a ratio of your potential deals (pipeline) to your sales targets (quotas).

A good rule of thumb is to have 3 to 4 times your quota in the pipeline. This helps ensure you have enough opportunities to meet your sales goals.

Here’s how to calculate it:

This metric helps you see if your pipeline is strong enough to hit your sales targets.

15. Revenue by Product or Service

Metric Type: Sales performance, Effectiveness

Revenue by product or service shows how much money each product or service brings in. It helps you see which ones are performing well financially.

The easiest way to track this is through your CRM, as it often does this automatically.

Why track it? It helps you spot your most and least profitable offerings. This way, you can adjust your product mix to boost growth and focus on what works best.

16. Deal Slip Rate

Metric Type: Growth/Efficiency, Output

Deal slip rate shows the percentage of deals that don’t close in a sales cycle. It’s like the opposite of the conversion rate. This metric helps you understand if your sales approach needs improvement.

If your deal slip rate is going up and market penetration is going down, it’s time to check out what your competitors are doing and adjust your strategy.

Here’s the formula:

Tracking this can help you spot issues and make changes to close more deals.

17. Quota Attainment

Metric Type: Growth, Output

Quota attainment shows how well sales reps meet their sales goals. It helps sales teams see if they need to make changes to improve performance. It also sets clear expectations for what success looks like.

A low score raises questions. Are the quotas too high? Was the sales forecast inaccurate? If so, why? This could lead you to check things like market penetration or deal slip rate. Quota attainment can also help managers identify reps who may need more training or support.

Here’s how to calculate it:

18. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Metric Type: Customer satisfaction

Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures how happy customers are and how likely they are to recommend your business. To find your NPS, ask customers, “On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend us to a friend?”

Then, sort their responses:

• Detractors (0-6): Unhappy customers
• Passives (7-8): Neutral customers
• Promoters (9-10): Happy customers

Calculate your NPS by subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters. Scores range from -100 to 100. Higher scores mean customers are satisfied and more likely to recommend your business.

Why track it? NPS helps you understand your customers' experiences. It shows you where to improve, which can boost customer loyalty and retention. This leads to stronger customer relationships and long-term growth.

19. Number of Deals Lost to Competition

Metric Type: Sales performance, Effectiveness

This metric tracks how many deals you lose because of direct competitors. It helps you see where you’re falling short and why customers choose others over you.

Why track it? Companies can lose up to 30% of sales to competitors. Knowing why can help you improve your sales process, marketing, or product. This way, you can better compete and win more deals.

What are the Leading and Lagging Indicators in Sales?

Leading Indicators

Leading indicators help predict future sales outcomes. They show you trends early on, giving you time to make changes before final results. 

These can be harder to measure but are easier to influence. An example is the number of new leads generated weekly.

Lagging Indicators

Lagging indicators show the final results of your sales efforts. They are reactive, not proactive. 

For example, reaching your sales quota at the end of the month is a lagging indicator. After analyzing lagging indicators, you can adjust your sales strategy to improve future results.

Conclusion

Sales metrics are like a GPS for your sales team. They tell you where you are, where you've been, and where you need to go next.

Tracking these numbers isn’t just about filling up a spreadsheet. It’s about understanding your sales process, finding areas to improve, and making smart decisions to grow your business.

But remember, not all metrics are equally useful. Focus on the ones that match your goals and help you make better choices.

Don’t get lost in too much data. Choose a few important metrics, track them regularly, and use what you learn to fine-tune your strategy.

The goal is simple: turn these numbers into actions that move your team forward and help you close more deals.