Many sales dashboards show twenty numbers. Everyone looks at them, nobody steers on them. Whoever chooses at most two KPIs per phase of the sales process knows exactly what the conversation should be about when a number deviates. In this article you read how to choose KPIs per phase, how to attach a norm to them and how to steer on them in the weekly meeting.
Why KPIs per phase
A KPI like "revenue" tells you something is wrong, not where. A KPI per phase points to the spot. If the conversion from proposal to decision drops, you know the conversation should be about quotes, not about prospecting.
Revenue is an outcome. You only see it when it is too late to do anything about it. A KPI in an early phase shows earlier that something is shifting. Fewer new conversations in March often only shows up in June's revenue.
Every KPI has four parts
- The measure. What exactly do you measure? "Quotes discussed in a conversation, as a share of all quotes sent."
- The norm. What is good enough? "100 percent."
- The data source. Where does the number come from? The CRM, a list, a sample.
- The owner. Who looks at it and holds others to it? Record that as a role, not as a name. Then the KPI stays in place when someone leaves.
A KPI without a norm is a number. A KPI without an owner is a number nobody looks at.
Four kinds of KPIs
It helps to know what kind of number you are choosing. There are four:
- Activity. What do we do? Number of new conversations, number of visits, number of quotes.
- Conversion. How much gets through to the next phase? From conversation to proposal, from proposal to decision.
- Result. What does it deliver? Deals won, revenue, margin.
- Cycle time. How long does it take? Days between quote and decision, days between request and first conversation.
A good set per phase usually has one activity and one conversion. You mainly need result KPIs at the end. Cycle time is useful in the phases where deals get stuck.
Examples of KPIs per phase
- Explore. New conversations with prospects per month, with a norm per account manager.
- Proposal. Share of quotes that was discussed in a conversation.
- Decision. Conversion from proposal to decision, and the share of lost deals with a recorded reason.
- Customer relationship. Contact cadence met per customer class.
- Whole customer journey. Win points carried out.
You set the norms yourself
Start with the norms you already meet in a good month, not with ambitious targets. Adjust them every quarter. That way the KPIs steer behavior, instead of turning red every month and being ignored.
Work with three zones instead of one number. Healthy means: do nothing, well done. Attention means: ask about it briefly in the meeting. Risk means: look at what is going on together, now. That way everyone knows in advance what a number means, and you do not have to debate every week whether 70 percent is good or bad.
Choosing your KPIs per phase step by step
- Get your phases out. Without clear phases with an exit criterion you do not know what you are measuring. Start there if that is not done yet.
- Ask per phase: where does it usually go wrong here? Deals that get stuck? Too little inflow? Quotes that are never discussed? The answer points to the KPI.
- Choose one or two KPIs per phase. Cross out the rest, even if they are interesting.
- Check the data source. Can you get the number out of the CRM without extra work? If not, choose a sample or a simpler measure.
- Get the current figure. Look back three months. What was a good month, what was a bad one? Your zones come from that.
- Assign an owner per KPI. Usually the role with the most influence on the number.
- Put them on the agenda. A KPI that does not come back in a fixed meeting disappears from view within two months.
A worked example
A fictional example to show the form. A technical wholesaler with four account managers looks at the proposal phase. The KPI is: share of quotes above a certain amount that was discussed in a conversation within five working days.
The CRM shows 60 such quotes over the past quarter. For 33 of them a conversation is recorded within five days. That is 55 percent. The team agrees: healthy from 80 percent, attention between 60 and 80, risk below 60.
So in the weekly meeting the number is red. The conversation is then not about "working harder". It is about the question: why are we not managing to discuss the quote? Sometimes it is a scheduling issue. Sometimes someone is sending quotes to the wrong person. After two months the number stands at 72 percent, and in the same overview you see the conversion from proposal to decision moving along with it.
Common mistakes
Too many KPIs. Ten numbers per phase means you do not really steer on any of them. Two is enough.
Measuring results only. Revenue and deals won matter, but there is little you can do about them within the week itself. Activity and conversion you can influence.
KPIs nobody can measure. If someone has to spend half a day in Excel every month, it stops after three months. Choose what the CRM already shows, or make the measure simpler.
Settling scores instead of discussing. A red number is a question, not a verdict. Whoever uses KPIs to call people out on their failures gets numbers that look better than reality.
Never adjusting. A norm that has been green for a year no longer steers anything. Neither does a norm that has been red for a year.
How KPIs per phase connect to the rest
KPIs stand at the end of the line. They build on what you captured earlier. The phases and their exit criteria come from building layer 2. The win points from building layer 3 give you something to count: were they carried out or not? The contact cadence and quote follow-up from building layer 4 provide norms you can follow as a KPI. And the roles from building layer 5 decide who the owner is.
That works both ways. If a KPI is off, the cause often lies earlier in the line. A phase without a clear exit criterion gives a conversion nobody can rely on.
Starting tomorrow
- Choose one phase. The phase where the pinch is greatest right now.
- Choose one KPI. Write down the measure, the norm, the data source and the owner.
- Get the figure for the past quarter. That is your starting point.
- Discuss it in the weekly meeting for four weeks. Five minutes each time. After that you know whether the KPI helps, and you add the next phase.
Frequently asked questions
How many sales KPIs do you need?
One or two per phase. With five or six phases that comes to eight to twelve KPIs in total. More than that a team cannot keep track of in a weekly meeting.
What is the difference between a KPI and a target?
A target is a goal, often a result such as revenue. A KPI is a number that shows whether you are on track. The norm attached to a KPI works as a target for behavior, for instance the number of quotes discussed.
How do you set a good norm for a KPI?
Look at what you already achieve in a good month. Start there, and adjust every quarter. A norm nobody meets is ignored after a few weeks.
How often do you discuss KPIs with your sales team?
Activity KPIs weekly, conversion and cycle time monthly, results per quarter. Keep it short. Only discuss what is on attention or risk.
Capture the KPIs in KPIs per phase of building layer 7, with for each KPI the kind, the data source, the owner and the thresholds for healthy, attention and risk. If you change a phase or an exit criterion later, the KPIs that belong to it are ready to be reviewed.