When it comes to making smart business decisions, using data and metrics to guide your sales strategy is key. But, there are countless sales-related metrics and KPIs to look at when evaluating the success of your lead generation and sales pipeline efforts, so which numbers should you be really focusing on?

This blog will help you determine the best sales-related metrics for tackling your company’s lead generation and sales pipeline goals and practices. It will also take a look at how software as a service (SaaS) solutions  can be used to benefit your business along the way.

Lead Generation Sales Metrics

These metrics look at how well your sales team is prospecting in terms of creating an initial interest with customers. Lead generation sales metrics are extremely helpful, especially when they can show you the trends and patterns that lead to your overall outcomes.

Here are the most useful numbers to look at that can help guide your lead-generation strategy:

1.  Average Lead Response Time

This metric allows you to understand how timely your leads are when responding to information that your sales team sends out. This will help you gauge and compare interest over time.

2.  Percentage of Qualified Leads

While it’s important to increase the number of leads with your sales tactics, don’t ignore your standards. The truth is that if the leads you are getting do not match the standard and expectations of what your brand considers a “qualified lead,” then you may not be using your time and efforts wisely.

Understanding what percentage of your total generated leads are of good quality provides more detailed and relevant insight into how you can continue to capture qualified leads.

3.  Leads Per Channel

Each outlet or channel you use will have its own set of relevant metrics. However, just understanding the number of leads generated per channel can guide how you allocate future spending on lead generation. Some channels are bound to produce more leads than others, especially if certain channels are more popular within your audience. This metric will help you focus your efforts on those channels.

4.  Cost Per Lead

CPL (cost per lead) is a sales metric that calculates exactly how much each of your leads costs your company. While the average cost per lead varies based on industry and the marketing channels you are using, it often falls between $25-$100. Determining your CPL will help you predict your eventual return on investment. This provides a very useful perspective on your lead generation tactics’ potential reward.

5.  Month-to-Date Success Rate

Understanding where you stand in terms of lead generation every month puts you at a great advantage when developing your strategy and planning your next steps as a brand. Knowing your success rate on a monthly basis allows you to compare your current position to where you have been before. Knowing this gives you the ability to easily see whether the changes you have made are working, whether you need to adjust your strategy, or if you are on track with meeting your lead generation goals.

6.  Click-Through Rate

A click-through rate is a lead generation metric that measures the total number of clicks or submissions that a CTA (call-to-action) receives.

Your click-through rate allows you to gain a deeper understanding of which piece of content your target audience responds to the most enthusiastically. When it comes to lead generation, this information is vital to gaining successful conversions. This tool specifically focuses on digital lead generation, which often uses links. This information will also inform your CTA strategy and the types of content and channels used to generate leads.

7.  Organic Traffic

Your company’s lead generation depends on the effectiveness of your sales and marketing strategy, a lot of which can be determined by organic traffic rates. Using this metric will help you find new ways to improve your SEO, which will also help you lower your cost per lead over time. Your SEO strategy directly affects your organic traffic, which sheds light on how effectively you are attracting customers online.

While each brand is unique and has different target audiences, in general, these metrics will help your company determine a solid lead generation strategy that caters to your needs and is informed by accurate, relevant data.

Sales Pipeline Metrics

Sales pipeline metrics help you understand how your sales pipeline is performing. These measurements allow you to get a better idea of what is and isn’t working when it comes to your sales tactics. Evaluating these kinds of metrics will give you a baseline for how to improve your sales processes in order to reach your goals in the long run.

Here are some of the main metrics that you can use to determine the health of your sales pipeline:

1.  Total Open and Closed Opportunities Per Month

Understanding how many new and closed opportunities occur within your sales pipeline is very important when determining your team’s overall success. Weaving these two metrics together gives your strategy a “big picture” to consider when thinking about how to adapt and improve your tactics. These metrics also help you make sure that you aren’t under- or overestimating your team’s tasks. Overall, these metrics are vital in determining whether or not your team is effectively reaching the goals you set each month.

2.  Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

This SaaS-related metric helps you measure how much it costs you in sales and marketing efforts to get a new customer. Ideally, you want this number to be as low as possible. Looking at this data will help you determine what it usually takes to get a new customer and helps you understand your expenses over time. Remember, small changes can change the results of this metric.

3.  Weighted Value of Pipeline Per Month

Capturing the overall value of opportunities is important when thinking about your company’s sales goals. Oftentimes, the individual value of each opportunity is evaluated, but its collective value is ignored. This is definitely a mistake you do not want to make when using pipeline sales metrics to measure your company’s success. By measuring and analyzing the weighted value of your sales pipeline every month, it will be easier for you to determine whether or not you are reaching the level you want to achieve over time.

4.  Opportunity Winning Rates

This metric is especially important when evaluating how well you are doing at building your sales pipeline. It also goes hand-in-hand with the metric of weighted value, described above. Bringing these two metrics together allows you to understand how your revenue gives you an insight into the new opportunities you will need to get in order to achieve future sales goals. This will help you avoid risks associated with underestimation and ensure that you are on track.

5.  Number and Value of Deals Per Month

Looking at both of these sources of data helps you determine whether your deals are progressing over time. You want to ensure that deals are always being moved forward as time continues to pass.These metrics allow you to understand if your sales team is taking the right steps to continue down the right path as you find new ways to adjust your strategy.

6.  Solution-Based Lens

When you are a company offering a variety of products or services, it’s important to find ways to differentiate yourself. By using a solution-based lens to measure which of your offerings are more successful than others, you are able to find out where you are meeting expectations and where you may need to change your strategy.

Looking at your entire sales pipeline at once can sometimes lead you to neglect areas where improvements may benefit your company’s performance. By looking at each individual offering, you can analyze what needs to change and where there are opportunities for future growth.

7.  Relative Deal Sizes

When you or your colleague lands a deal, it’s hard to not get excited, but it’s important to measure the size of each prospect so that you can consider it within the context of your costs and goals.

Looking at the average size of your company’s deals will allow you to determine whether each of your team’s individual deals is using resources and time efficiently. This metric will allow you to help your team know which deals to focus on going forward so that you can meet your goals.

8.  Average Length of Sales Cycle

This metric determines the average amount of time it takes for you to first get in contact with a prospect to the moment you close the deal. This is important to consider because it allows you to establish standards for your sales team. Having a general timeline for your sales team gives your overall sales pipeline a clear and reasonable structure. The average length of your company’s sales cycle informs your strategy and helps you understand how your business should behave regularly.

9.  Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

This is another metric especially relevant for SaaS companies. The CLV is described as the average amount of money your business makes from a buyer for however long they remain an active customer. This metric is very important if you are an e-commerce or subscription-based company, since they often rely on recurring customers.

These measurements will help you see how you can set a standard of expectations for your company’s sales pipeline management and adjust accordingly while also considering individual performances within the stages of your pipeline.

The bottom line on using metrics to inform your strategy

When it comes to using data to inform your sales strategy, incorporating lead generation and sales pipeline metrics is a no-brainer! You’ll gain insight into the health of your sales pipeline and the effectiveness of your lead generation, which in turn offers you a deeper understanding of your current practices and provides you with accurate insights on how you can improve to ensure you are always meeting your goals.