Sales Performance Metrics: How to Track & Optimize

What are sales performance metrics?

Sales performance metrics are indicators that measure how effective a sales team is at reaching their goals. Tracking metrics like conversion rate, average deal sizes, and sales cycle length gives organizations a clear picture of what’s working and what isn’t — allowing teams to make data-driven decisions on how to ultimately drive more revenue through sales enablement. 

Whether you’re a startup or an established enterprise, tracking sales performance metrics ensures that you’re optimizing your sales strategies, aligning your efforts with your goals, and otherwise maximizing team productivity. By consistently monitoring metrics, you can identify trends, predict future outcomes, and navigate changing market conditions more effectively — giving your business a competitive edge.

On the flipside, failure to track these metrics means you’re incapable of seeing the full picture, making it that much harder to fine-tune your approach and improve sales outcomes.

How to develop sales performance metrics?

If you’re brand new to measuring sales performance metrics, it can be difficult to figure out which metrics to measure, how to measure them, and — most importantly — how to use them to improve your team’s approach. 

When you’re just beginning your journey to becoming a data-driven sales organization, it’s important to not get too far into the weeds. Trust us: you don’t need to be super sophisticated right out of the gate.

To figure out which metrics make sense for your team, think about what your CEO and board cares about the most. 

These interests will likely be different for companies that offer a freemium self-service SaaS solution and those that close every deal through human reps; while the former might be interested in tracking conversion rate from freemium to paid, customer acquisition cost, and monthly recurring revenue growth, the latter might be more interested in sales cycle length, win rate, and average deal size. 

After you’ve figured out which metrics to start measuring, you’re going to need to determine how to track them. No, this doesn’t necessarily mean you need new software — it’s more about effectively using the tools you already have. And while a sales dashboard can be helpful, don’t overthink it; even a simple spreadsheet can do the trick if it gives you a clear view of your metrics. 

The key is to focus on making data readily accessible and easy to understand so your team can make informed decisions quickly. 

Top sales performance metrics to track

Again, sales performance metrics may be quite different between a company with a freemium model and one that has reps actively using outbound and inbound sales motions to book demos and close deals. For the purposes of this post, we’re going to focus on metrics that sales teams utilizing SDRs and AEs should prioritize.

As management consultant W. Edwards Deming once said, just because you can measure something doesn’t mean you should. 

Here at LeadIQ, we think there are a lot of vanity metrics teams track to measure sales performance — like the number of cold calls or emails by each rep and the length of each cold call. 

While you ultimately want your team making cold calls and firing off cold emails, you also want to focus on quality over quantity — and measuring suboptimal metrics can have your team focusing on the wrong outputs.

With all this in mind, let’s take a look at the sales performance metrics we think matter most in 2025 and beyond.

Win rate

Win rate measures the percentage of deals your sales team successfully closes out of the total number of opportunities they pursue. It’s calculated by dividing the number of won deals by the total number of deals in the pipeline and then multiplying by 100. 

Tracking your win rate helps gauge the effectiveness of your strategy — highlighting areas where your team excels and where they might need to refine their approach.

Sales cycle length

Sales cycle length is the amount of time it takes to close a deal, from the initial contact with a prospect to the time a contract is signed. You can measure this by tracking the average number of days it takes for deals to move through the entire sales pipeline. 

By tracking your sales cycle length, you can identify bottlenecks and figure out how to streamline processes to close deals more efficiently. 

Average lifetime value (LTV)

LTV measures the total revenue a customer generates over their entire relationship with your business. To calculate LTV, multiply the average revenue per customer by the average customer lifespan. Understanding this metric enables you to make informed decisions about customer acquisition costs and how much you’re willing to invest in customer loyalty.

Average annual contract value (ACV)

ACV represents the average revenue generated per customer contract over a year, excluding fees. To calculate ACV, divide the average total contract value for each customer by the average number of years each contract spans; if the average total contract value is $100,000 and the average length is three years, the average annual contract value is $33,333.33. 

By measuring this metric, sales teams can better understand the value of customer relationships and can focus on strategies to increase revenue from each account.

Sales by lead source

Sales by lead source measures the revenue generated from each channel that brings in customers — like social media, email campaigns, paid ads, and customer referrals. To calculate this metric, track the total sales revenue attributed to each lead source and compare the performance of different channels. 

Tracking this metric helps teams identify the most effective channels and allocate resources accordingly.

Churn rate

Churn rate refers to the percentage of customers who stop using a product or service during a given period, reflecting customer retention and satisfaction. To calculate churn rate, divide the number of customers lost during a specific timeframe by the total number of customers at the beginning of that period, then multiply by 100. 

This is one of the most important metrics to monitor because it enables businesses to identify potential issues in the customer experience, which they can then remedy to improve retention.

Lead response time

Lead response time measures how long it takes a sales team to respond to a new lead after they express interest in a product or service. To track this metric, measure the time from when a lead is generated to when a sales rep first engages with them and then calculate the average across all leads within a specified period. 

Monitoring lead response time is crucial because quicker responses can significantly increase the likelihood of converting a lead into a paying customer. While businesses with slow lead response times can see a 15% increase in churn, as many as 50% of deals are won by the vendor that responds first.

Lead to opportunity conversion rate

The lead to opportunity conversion rate measures the percentage of leads that progress to the opportunity stage in the sales funnel, indicating how effectively a sales team is qualifying leads. To calculate this metric, divide the number of leads that become opportunities by the total number of leads generated during a specific period then multiply by 100. 

By tracking this metric, teams can access the quality of their lead generation efforts and refine their sales processes accordingly.

Opportunity to close conversion rate

The opportunity to close conversion rate measures the percentage of sales opportunities that successfully result in closed deals — which indicates how good sales is at converting prospects into paying customers. To calculate this metric, divide the number of closed deals by the total number of opportunities within a specific time frame then multiply by 100. 

Monitoring this metric helps teams identify strengths and weaknesses in their closing strategies — ultimately helping them drive better sales outcomes.

Quota attainment rate (per rep and overall)

The quota attainment rate measures the percentage of reps who meet their overall targets within a specific period — and also how good the team did as a whole. To calculate this metric on an individual basis, divide the total number of sales achieved per rep by their total sales quota and multiply by 100; do the same formula across the entire sales org to see how the team is doing altogether. 

Tracking this rate helps organizations assess individual and team performance, identify training needs, and motivate reps to reach their goals.

Number of upsells & cross-sells

The number of upsells and cross-sells refers to the total volume of additional products or services sold to existing customers, beyond their initial purchase. To measure this metric, add the number of instances where customers have opted for upgraded or complementary offerings within a specific time frame. 

Tracking these metrics helps organizations identify areas for revenue growth while improving the customer experience with custom offerings that solve their unique pain points.

How to improve sales performance metrics

As you begin your transformation into a data-driven sales org, it’s important to remember that you don’t need to boil the ocean from the get-go. Instead, focus on measuring what’s most important to your organization, optimize it all, and expand from there. 

Once you have a baseline, you’re likely going to want to improve each metric. You also don’t want to bite off more than you can chew there, either; focus on one or two metrics you think you can improve each quarter and implement focused strategies for each.

Top of the funnel

If you’re prioritizing the top of the sales funnel and improving the associated metrics, you can:

• Align with marketing. By collaborating closely with marketing, you can ensure consistent messaging and optimize lead generation strategies. Regular communication can help both teams understand customer pain points on a deeper level and adjust their approaches accordingly.
  
  
• Utilize better data enrichment tools. Investing in advanced data enrichment tools like LeadIQ Refresh can help reps gather more accurate and thorough information on prospects. This can help them identify high-potential leads and refine targeting efforts, ensuring that they’re reaching out to the right people at the best times.
• Double down on the best-performing channels. Analyze which channels are delivering the most qualified leads and allocate more resources to these areas. This may require you to increase ad spend on effective platforms or ramp up outreach on social media.
• Implement a lead scoring system. Develop a robust lead scoring system to prioritize leads based on their likelihood to convert. By doing so, sales can focus their efforts on the most promising prospects — increasing efficiency and improving conversion rates.
• Regularly review and optimize sales processes. No matter how good you’re doing, you can always improve. By continuously assessing and refining your sales processes, you can reduce bottlenecks, streamline workflows, and enable your team to cover more ground faster.

Middle of the funnel

If you’re focused on closing more deals once prospects are in the funnel, you can:

• Focus on lead response time. By prioritizing quick follow-ups with leads, you can demonstrate responsiveness and win more business. Remember, when your team is the first vendor to respond, you’re more likely to close the deal.
• Analyze sales call recordings. Regularly reviewing recordings of successful calls can help you understand the questions and strategies that are working best. This analysis can help you refine pitches, address common objections, and equip reps with the best responses.
• Study top performers. Who has the best quota attainment rates on your team? Study their approach to figure out what they’re doing correctly and share those best practices with the rest of your team.
• Leverage CRM data. Sales success starts with data. Utilizing customer relationship management data to track interactions and gather insights on prospects is an easy way to personalize outreach and anticipate needs based on previous interactions.
• Implement regular check-ins. By checking in with leads at regular intervals during the sales cycle to share information about product features, answer questions, and simply say hello, you can build trust — making it easier to win business. 

Bottom of the funnel

If you want to optimize the bottom of the funnel’s sales performance metrics, you can: 

• Analyze closed/lost deals. Regularly reviewing closed/lost deals to identify common reasons for losing deals can help you refine sales tactics, learn the most common objections, and avoid similar outcomes in the future.
  
  
• Enhance upsell and cross-sell strategies. By analyzing existing customer accounts, you may be able to identify opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. By proactively suggesting relevant products and features, you can maximize revenue from current clients while delivering more value and enhancing their experiences.
  
  
• Avoid irrelevant discounts. Instead of offering irrelevant discounts as a blanket tactic to close deals, focus on demonstrating the unique value of your products and services. Make the case about how your solutions will make life better.
• Strengthen follow-up procedures. Implementing a structured follow-up process for prospects who are close to making a decision and reaching out regularly can keep your offering top of mind while providing an opportunity to address any last-minute concerns.
• Personalize closing communications. Ensure your closing strategies are customized to each prospect’s unique needs and circumstances. By using insights from previous interactions along with actionable contact data, you can create more meaningful communications that resonate. Need help personalizing emails? Try LeadIQ Scribe.

If you’re looking to improve sales performance metrics in 2025 and beyond, LeadIQ can help. 

‍Take our powerful sales prospecting platform for a test drive today and see what the easiest way to reach the right person at the right time with the right message looks like.