Running a sales organization without clear, measurable data is like steering a ship without a map - you may be moving, but you're not quite sure if you're headed in the right direction. If your business is struggling to hit revenue targets or even performing well but looking to scale, the right Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) will provide the insights you need to course-correct, optimize sales efforts, and drive consistent growth. When used strategically, KPIs don't just track performance - they create predictable, repeatable success.
Let's break down the difference between lagging and leading indicators and how you can use them to unlock more closed-won deals and sustainable revenue growth.
Selecting the right key performance indicators (KPIs) is critical to driving sales success. When they are data-driven, aligned with your sales goals and clearly defined, they provide a roadmap for sales teams to work with focus and purpose. Without this clarity, your team risks prioritizing the wrong activities - leading to missed revenue opportunities.
Imagine this: Your sales team is responsible for both retaining existing customers and acquiring one new account per month. While nurturing relationships is essential, it's easy for sales reps to focus only on current clients - often at the expense of new business development. This is where KPIs create accountability, ensuring reps balance retention efforts with proactive prospecting.
KPIs don't just track performance - they shape behaviour, refine sales strategies, and align your team's efforts with business growth. Whether measuring new customer acquisition, pipeline health or conversion rates, KPIs act as your sales team's compass, ensuring every action contributes to long-term success.
🧩 Focus Sales Insight: KPIs can be applied to any sales team or role, whether in inside sales, outside sales or hybrid models. The key is selecting metrics that drive the right behaviours, leading to consistent revenue growth.
By choosing impactful, business-specific KPIs, your sales team will have the clarity needed to hit targets, optimize strategies, and drive predictable success.
Tracking sales performance without understanding which metrics truly drive success can lead to inconsistent results, missed opportunities, and stalled growth. That's where lagging and leading indicators come in. They provide a complete picture of your sales performance, helping you refine strategies and build a predictable revenue engine.
Think of lagging indicators as the rearview mirror of your sales organization - they tell you what has already happened. These metrics answer questions like:
While these indicators are essential for measuring overall sales success, they don't provide any real-time insights into how to improve future performance. Therefore, relying only on lagging indicators is like driving forward while only looking in the rearview mirror - you might know where you've been, but you won't see what's ahead.
🧩 Focus Sales Insight: Key Lagging Indicators we recommend tracking to determine performance within your sales organization include:
If lagging indicators tell you where you've been, then leading indicators give you a forward-looking view - like peering through the windshield to anticipate future results.
These metrics provide early warning signs, allowing sales teams to adjust strategies before results suffer. By tracking the right leading indicators, businesses can identify trends, optimize outreach, and increase close rates before it's too late.
🧩 Focus Sales Insight: Key Leading Indicators we recommend tracking within your sales organization include:
The truth is - you need both lagging and leading indicators to get a full picture of your sales performance. Lagging indicators help you measure results and understand past successes or failures, while leading indicators provide early signals that allow you to adjust your sales strategy before revenue is impacted.
By tracking both, you can:
Sales leaders who only focus on lagging indicators risk missing opportunities for proactive course correction. On the other hand, only tracking leading indicators without evaluating results can lead to misguided sales efforts. A balanced approach ensures your team is working efficiently, closing more deals and driving sustainable revenue growth.
At Focus, we don't just track sales metrics - we use them to drive predictable revenue growth for your business. From day one, we work closely with you to establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that align with your sales goals and business strategy. Whether your team includes business development reps, account managers, sales leaders, or even customer service professionals, we ensure every role has clear, measurable targets that contribute to the overall success of your business.
Our data-driven approach starts by working backwards from your sales forecast, ensuring that the milestones we set directly support your revenue targets. Each month, sales managers use these KPIs not just to measure performance but as a coaching tool to help sales reps optimize their efforts, close more deals and exceed quotas.
🧩 Examples of High-Impact Sales Metrics We Track:
At Focus, our goal is to transform your sales team into a high-performing revenue engine by providing clear KPIs, structured accountability, and expert coaching through our Fractional Sales Leadership services.
Want to see how this approach can work for your business?