If you're like most B2B SaaS or Service companies, you're always looking for ways to improve your sales performance and grow your business. That's why it's important to track the right metrics and KPIs. Whether you are talking about outbound or inbound sales/marketing efforts, here are 10 essential metrics and B2B sales KPIs that you should be tracking to measure your sales success.
1. Sales Pipeline Velocity
Sales pipeline velocity is the speed at which opportunities move through your sales pipeline. The faster the velocity, the better – it means that you’re closing more deals and generating more revenue. There are a few things that you can do to increase the velocity of your sales pipeline.
First, make sure that you have a clear process in place for your sales pipeline. Your team should know exactly what needs to be done at each stage of the pipeline, and they should have the resources they need to get the job done quickly and efficiently.
Second, focus on quality over quantity when it comes to your leads. It’s better to have a smaller number of high-quality leads than a larger number of low-quality leads. Spend time finding your ideal customer profile and nurturing that ICP so they’re more likely to convert into customers.
Finally, monitor your performance and look for areas where you can make changes to increase your speed. Implement new technologies or processes that will help you close deals more quickly. A higher sales pipeline velocity will lead to more revenue for your business – so it’s well worth taking the time to optimize your process.
2. Win Rate
Sales development representatives (SDRs) are responsible for generating new business opportunities for your organization. The success of an SDR can be measured in a number of ways, but one of the most important B2B sales metrics is the win rate. The win rate is the percentage of sales opportunities converted into actual sales. A rate indicates that an SDR is effective at generating and nurturing sales opportunities through outbound sales efforts.
There are a number of factors that can influence the win rate. One is the quality of the leads that they are given to contact. If the leads are poor, it will be more difficult to convert them into sales. Another factor is the SDR's own skills and abilities. A good SDR will be able to quickly build rapport with potential customers and identify their needs as the leads’ qualification.
The best way to improve an SDR's win rate is to provide them with high-quality leads and give them ongoing training and support. With the right tools and resources, an SDR can be a valuable asset to any organization. And, a company should perform a Win Loss Analysis at least once a year to determine if they are addressing the best market opportunity.
3. Average Deal Size
Sales are the lifeblood of any business, but when it comes to B2B companies, they can often be the difference between a profitable quarter and a loss. There are a number of ways to increase B2B sales, but one of the most effective is to focus on increasing the average deal size. This can be done in a number of ways, but some of the most effective include upselling and cross-selling current and potential customers.
Upselling involves convincing customers to purchase a more expensive product or service than they initially planned. This can be done by highlighting the benefits of the more expensive option or by bundling it with other products or services.
Cross-selling, on the other hand, involves selling complementary products or services to a customer. For example, if someone is buying a sales training program, you might try to sell them sales rep recruiting as well. By increasing the average deal size in this way, you can significantly boost your company's sales and bottom line.
4. Customer Acquisition Rate
B2B customer acquisition rate is the percentage of new customers that a business acquires over a given period of time. This metric is important for businesses because it allows them to track their progress in terms of acquiring new customers. A high customer acquisition rate indicates that a business is doing a good job of attracting new customers, while a low customer acquisition rate indicates that the business needs to improve its marketing and/or sales efforts. Other factors can affect a business's customer acquisition rate, such as the type of products or services it offers, the quantity of sales development activity, and the overall state of the economy.
5. Customer Churn Rate
Customer churn rate is a B2B sales KPI that measures the percentage of customers who stop doing business with a company over a given period of time. It's also known as the customer attrition rate or customer turnover rate.
To calculate the churn rate, divide the number of customers who have stopped doing business with the company by the total number of customers at the beginning of the period. For example, if a company starts out with 100 customers and 10 of them stop doing business by the end of the month, then the company's customer churn rate for that month would be 10%.
There are many reasons why customers may choose to stop doing business with a company. They may be dissatisfied with the product or service, they may have found a better deal elsewhere, or they may simply have no need for the product or service anymore. Regardless of the reason, when a customer churns, it represents a loss for the company.
There are a few ways to reduce churn including improvements to service, offering discounts or other incentives to encourage customers to stay, and providing better customer service so that customers feel valued and appreciated.
6. Customer Acquisition Cost
Customer acquisition cost (CAC) is the total cost of acquiring new customers. This figure includes all of the costs associated with attracting and converting leads into paying customers.
To calculate your CAC, simply divide your total marketing and sales spend for a period of time by the number of new customers acquired during that same period. For example, if you spent $100,000 on marketing and sales over the course of one year and added 1,000 new customers, your CAC would be $100.
Remember that your CAC will vary depending on your industry, business model, and target market. For example, businesses that sell high-priced products or services will typically have a higher CAC than those selling lower-priced items.
It’s important to lower your CAC when possible. There are a number of ways to do this, but one of the most obvious ways is to improve your lead generation efforts. This could involve anything from optimizing your website for search engine ranking to running targeted advertising campaigns. Once you have generated leads, it's important to convert them into customers. This could involve improving your sales process, providing more helpful information on your website, or offering incentives such as discounts or free shipping.
7. Marketing Qualified Lead
A marketing qualified lead (MQL) is a prospective consumer of a company's products or services who has been identified as more likely to be interested in purchasing than other leads. MQLs are typically generated through marketing campaigns and activities, and they are typically passed on to sales teams when they are deemed ready to be contacted and converted into customers. Tracking the conversion rate of contacts that become MQLs is a leading B2B sales KPI that will indicate how many opportunities the sales team will have further down the funnel.
There are a number of criteria that can be used to identify an MQL, but some common indicators include specific interactions with marketing content (such as downloading a white paper or signing up for a webinar), demonstrating interest in a product or service (by requesting more information or requesting a demo), or taking steps towards becoming a customer (such as filling out a contact form).
If you’re looking to increase you conversion rate and generate more MQLs for your business, there are a number of things you can do. First, take a close look at your target audience and identify their needs and problems. At SalesLeap, we dig deep to identify the key pain points of your ICP. Once you have a good understanding of what they’re looking for, you can create targeted inbound content and outbound campaigns that are designed to address their needs and help move them further along in the buyer’s journey. Additionally, you can use lead scoring to prioritize the leads your sales team should be contacting; by scoring your leads, you can ensure that your sales team is spending their time on the most promising prospects.
8. Sales Qualified Opportunity Rate
Sales qualified opportunity (SQO) is a key performance indicator (KPI) used in B2B markets to measure the effectiveness of the sales process. It is the number of opportunities that have been qualified by the sales team out of the total number of opportunities in the market.
The SQO KPI is important because it helps businesses track their progress in generating qualified leads and converting them into customers. By tracking this B2B sales metric, businesses can identify areas where they need to improve their sales process.
Several factors can influence the SQO rate, such as the quality of the leads, the effectiveness of the sales development team, and the company's overall marketing strategy. To improve the SQO rate, businesses need to focus on generating high-quality leads and developing a sales process that effectively converts those leads into customers.
9. Average Contract Value
One of the most important KPIs to track is Average Contract Value (ACV). ACV measures the revenue generated from a single customer contract and is a key indicator of a company's growth potential.
There are a few different ways to calculate ACV, but the most common method is to take the total contract value and divide it by the number of customers. This provides a good benchmark for assessing a company's performance over time.
ACV is an important metric for B2B marketers because it helps them to understand the value of their customers and identify which segments are most valuable. It can also assess whether a company is over or under-charging for their products and services.
If you're not tracking ACV, you're missing out on valuable insights that could help you grow your business.
10. Annual Recurring Revenue
A company's annual recurring revenue, or ARR, is one of the most important B2B sales KPIs for B2B SaaS and service companies. It is a measure of the amount of revenue that a company can expect to generate on a yearly basis from its recurring customers. This metric is particularly important for B2B companies because it provides insight into the health of their customer relationships and the stability of their revenue streams. Additionally, it can be used to set financial goals and forecast future growth.
There are a number of factors that can impact a company's ARR. For example, if a company has a high churn rate (the percentage of customers that cancel their subscription or contract within a given period), this will have a negative impact on its ARR. Conversely, if a company can successfully upsell and cross-sell its products and services to its existing customer base, this will have a positive impact on its ARR.
Tracking the metrics and KPIs for B2B sales outlined above are only a handful that SaaS and service companies should follow, but they are some of the more important ones. In general, though, it is necessary to analyze your leading and trailing metrics so you can consistently:
- Track progress and identify areas of improvement.
- Allocate resources more efficiently and make better business decisions.
- Discover new opportunities for growth and development.
- Provide a competitive edge using insights that others may not have access to.
- Hold yourself and your team accountable to reaching specific goals and objectives.
If your company needs help building out a B2B Outbound sales process that helps track these metrics, schedule a quick discovery meeting with our friendly Outbound Strategists HERE.