Sales teams often get lost in a maze of metrics, leading to a proliferation of spreadsheets and isolated data silos. Relying on generic CRM software prevents sales leaders from navigating these challenges effectively as they struggle to determine how to leverage data.
The result is long customer journeys, which often result in decreased conversions.
One effective solution is sales tracking. Implementing a comprehensive sales tracking strategy and utilizing advanced software can provide valuable insights from data, enabling businesses to refine their processes and enhance revenue.
In this guide, we’ll explain the nuances of sales tracking and the most effective metrics to measure.
What is Sales Tracking?
Sales tracking is the process of collecting sales data (lead generation metrics, sales funnel outcomes, buyer journeys, customer behavior) and analyzing it to understand performance, identify trends, and optimize processes.
On a granular level, it helps you answer questions like:
- How is my sales team performing? Where are their hours spent?
- Can we automate any workflows?
- Which sources are generating leads?
- What is each source’s conversion rate? Are we correctly prioritizing sources and leads?
- Can we simplify the buyer journey?
- Are there enough touchpoints for conversion?
In a nutshell, sales tracking ensures you focus on variables that drive sales revenue, remove guesswork from decision-making, and reduce bottlenecks in sales processes.
5 Types of Sales Tracking Metrics to Measure
The sales metrics you track will depend on your industry and type of sales operations. Here are five broad types of metrics you can consider for your business.
- Sales performance metrics: Want to gauge each sales rep's performance? Track metrics like emails sent, cold calls made, meetings attended, deals closed, deals lost, and total time spent on selling. Measure these metrics for each rep and compare performance.
- Sales lead metrics: Monitor each lead's journey and refocus your efforts on leads that matter. Key metrics include the number of leads generated, lead score, lead behavior, lead conversion rate, and customer acquisition cost. Instantly’s B2B Lead Finder allows you to find leads and measure these metrics on one dashboard.
- Sales pipeline metrics: Forecast future sales and know what’s happening with your deals in real time. Track metrics like total open opportunities, opportunities lost per day/week/month, win rate, sales velocity, and sales cycle length. Instantly Dealflow CRM tracks all of this for you.
- Sales funnel metrics: Want to determine which funnel stage you’re losing leads at? Sales funnel metrics like total inbound and outbound leads, conversion rate at each stage, and number of qualified leads help find the cause.
- Sales goal metrics: Know the progress on your goals and whether you’ll make them in time. Key metrics include total revenue goals, monthly/weekly/daily goals, cumulative sales totals, and sales growth.
How to Track Sales
You might already be tracking metrics or using CRM software to collect sales data. Now, it’s time to combine these pieces and create an effective sales tracking process. Here are five steps to follow:
1. Define KPIs and Metrics
Just because there are 30 sales metrics doesn’t mean you have to measure each of them. The simpler your process at the start, the easier it is to use that data to guide your strategies.
Prioritize metrics that directly align with your business objectives. For example, if your primary goal is to increase the number of leads in your pipeline, focus on a combination of sales lead and sales pipeline metrics.
As your goals evolve, you can adjust or expand the metrics you track. However, it is advisable to limit this to a maximum of 10-15 metrics.
2. Understand Your Sales Process and Build a Pipeline
The ultimate goal of sales tracking is to optimize your sales process. To do that, you need to document the process first.
Consider this like mapping out a journey—carefully chart each phase, from the initial contact to closing the deal. How many touchpoints does a customer face? Do they move from one phase to the next without any friction?
These steps will enable the development of your sales pipeline. Next, you can use sales tracking to see where leads are and how to guide them through the funnel.
3. Collect Data
Many businesses use multiple tools to handle lead generation, sales pipeline, and CRM data. This fragmented approach results in teams constantly switching between applications to gather necessary information.
Instantly Dealflow CRM displays all your data on one easy-to-navigate dashboard. It consolidates all sales tools, allowing you to visualize your sales pipeline, access a unified inbox for all sales communications, and obtain your sales forecast data.
Consistency in data entry and tracking is crucial for obtaining accurate insights and reports. If you follow a certain data collection process, stick to it for every sales tracking round. Encourage your team to keep all customer information up-to-date, add sales activity details in CRM software, and keep the pipeline updated.
4. Analyze Data and Draw Insights
Sales tracking is not a box-ticking activity. It is a process aimed at leveraging data to refine strategies effectively.
The best way to do that is by gathering your sales team, looking at the important metrics and data, and using them to answer critical questions—Where are we experiencing the highest lead attrition? What are sales reps doing to move a lead through the funnel faster? Are we doing anything to reduce our acquisition costs?
By asking these questions, you find opportunities for improvement and keep your sales team on their toes to turn insights into actions.
5. Involve Other Teams
The best businesses have teams that work together. The sales team often collaborates closely with the marketing, customer service, and product teams.
Your insights into sales tracking data can guide strategies and pose important questions for other teams. For instance, a lower lead conversion rate might indicate that the marketing team is generating unqualified leads.
By sharing this data with other teams, you create an effective sales tracking system where insights from one department lead to improved processes across the organization.
Key Takeaways
Sales are the lifeblood of your business. Whether you're managing a small team or scaling a large sales operation, sales tracking enables you to adapt to market changes, identify issues before they escalate, and optimize processes at every level.
It is how you choose the metrics that matter to your business and draw insights to guide your teams.
That said, you don’t have to spend hours gathering and analyzing data. Automating data collection and getting metrics from CRM is the need of the hour. If you’re looking to:
- Get all sales and lead generation data on one platform
- Visualize your sales pipeline
- Manage sales opportunities and forecast future sales
Instantly is your go-to tool. Take it for a spin today by signing up for a free trial.
