{"id":135690,"date":"2022-09-15T15:10:02","date_gmt":"2022-09-15T15:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/corp\/?p=135690"},"modified":"2025-11-18T11:49:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T11:49:01","slug":"sales-metrics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.similarweb.com\/blog\/sales\/b2b-sales\/sales-metrics\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Sales Metrics You Need To Be Tracking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh hi. You\u2019re probably here because you want to know all about sales performance metrics – you know, which ones to track, how <\/i>to track them, and why you\u2019re even tracking them..<\/p>\n

Yep? In that case, you\u2019re in the right place.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get started with the basics:<\/p>\n

What are sales metrics and why are they important?<\/h2>\n

Sales metrics are the data points you track to assess sales performance on an individual, team or company-wide basis. By tracking and analyzing progress, you can figure out what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not, making it an important part of improving your sales performance – and ultimately, revenue.<\/p>\n

If your sales team isn\u2019t performing, the numbers will say it all. Scroll down for the key metrics to track for sales success.<\/p>\n

Sales metrics vs sales KPIs<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s easy to get mixed up between sales metrics and sales key performance indicators (KPIs) because in reality, all KPIs are metrics, but<\/i> not all metrics are KPIs.<\/p>\n

But what\u2019s the real difference between sales metrics and sales KPIs?<\/p>\n

Simply put, sales metrics are there to track performance, whilst KPIs are there to set expectations and measure progress towards key business goals.<\/b> You could say that KPIs give a high-level view, whilst metrics hones in on performance from more specific business activities and processes to achieve these goals.<\/p>\n

When your metrics go above and beyond your KPIs, you know you\u2019re in a good place.<\/p>\n

8 sales metrics to track<\/h2>\n

There are a lot of sales funnel<\/a> metrics out there, but we wanted to focus on some of the most valuable sales metrics you should be tracking.<\/p>\n

1) Sales qualified leads (SQLs)<\/h3>\n

A sales qualified lead (SQL) is a lead that is ready to talk to a salesperson or sales representative. This lead will preferably match your ideal customer profile, and has made its way through the marketing funnel<\/a>, requesting more information about your product, service or solution.<\/p>\n

You want high quality SQLs, whether they\u2019re inbound or outbound leads – and guess what? Similarweb Sales Intelligence<\/a> can help you with that.<\/p>\n

For those inbound leads, use our account review and list filters to make sure the data is matching up to your ICP<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And for outbound leads? Our Lead Generation tool<\/a> is a goldmine with over 450M contacts for over 30 million websites..<\/p>\n

You can narrow down your search with over 100 filters – including company size, location, website traffic<\/a>, and technologies used – to make sure you\u2019ve got a list of prospects that work for you, and that your solution works well for<\/i>. Then simply click the Contacts tab for all those precious contact details, and export to excel or straight to Salesforce<\/a> or HubSpot<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And there you have it, a bunch of high quality sales qualified leads<\/a>. Anyway, back to the top sales metrics to track.<\/p>\n

2) Lead velocity rate (LVR)<\/h3>\n

Your lead velocity rate (LVR) measures the increase – or decrease – in the number of qualified sales leads<\/a> that your business generates on a monthly basis.<\/p>\n

Lead velocity rate is a key indicator of how good your pipeline is – are you getting in front of the right type of customers, and are you marketing yourself in the right way? It\u2019s also critical to measuring business growth over time and forecasting, because – ideally – you want your LVR to be going up and up\u2026. and up (and up and up and up). ☝️<\/p>\n

Having a real-time indicator of\u00a0 growth is so beneficial to your sales strategy<\/a>, but it doesn\u2019t just stop there. You\u2019re going to want to track some more of the sales efficiency metrics in this list too.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how to calculate lead velocity rate:<\/p>\n

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3) Sales cycle length<\/h3>\n

Sales cycle<\/a> length refers to the amount of time it takes for a lead to move down the funnel to a closed-won deal. It\u2019s no secret: the shorter, the better – because that way, you can fit in more sales conversations (and closes).<\/p>\n

Your sales cycle can be shortened by optimizing each part of your sales process, from your first outreach email to how you close the deal, and not forgetting how you retain them too.<\/p>\n

Our top tip: <\/b>Make your sales email<\/a> stand out from the crowd with exclusive and valuable<\/b> insights (that they actually care about) from Similarweb Sales Intelligence Account Review and Insights Generator. Then, make them sign and stay<\/i> with your winning personality, support, and by keeping up with those consultative insights to provide your clients with real value for their business. Trust us, it\u2019s a winning formula.<\/p>\n

Talking of formulae – to work out your average sales cycle length, you need to look at individual sales cycles and how long they took, and go from there.<\/p>\n

Hate math? Me too – so grab your calculator:<\/p>\n

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4) Win rate<\/h3>\n

Next up is win rate – the metric we all love to see because it means converted, paying customers, (thanks to those amazing outreach emails of yours).\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s one of the most highly tracked metrics for all you sales leaders out there.<\/p>\n

Why? Because your win rate feeds into your team\u2019s pipeline, forecasting, benchmarking, and performance tracking.<\/p>\n

As simple as \u201cwin rate\u201d sounds, there are multiple contexts<\/a> to calculating it – just<\/i> to make your life more difficult. But, here\u2019s the main one where you can assess the number of opportunities converted:<\/p>\n

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5) Annual contract value (ACV)<\/h3>\n

Annual contract value or ACV refers to how much revenue a specific contract generates per year. It\u2019s predominantly a metric that\u2019s applied to yearly and multi-year contracts, so you can get that all-important average breakdown of a total contract value (TCV) to keep you on track each year.<\/p>\n

The main reason why you should calculate ACV is so you can compare it to other metrics like CAC, (this one is coming up – don\u2019t worry), to work out when that profit is gonna hit.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how to calculate annual contract value (ACV):<\/p>\n

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6) Customer lifetime value (CLTV)<\/h3>\n

On top of calculating the ACV of individual contracts or customers, you should be working out the average of all<\/i> your clients. Introducing customer lifetime value – CLTV or LTV\u00a0 some like to call it.<\/p>\n

Obviously, you want your CLTV or LTV\u00a0 to be as high as possible because $$$, and therefore, more return on investment (ROI). This is a sales metric you can \u2013 and should <\/i>\u2013 improve on after you close a deal, which is where retention efforts come in, as well as upsell and cross-sell opportunities come in.<\/p>\n

This is another thing that Similarweb Sales Intelligence can help you do. With the vast amount of insights that it provides, you can show the value of your solution, how they can use it to its full capacity, and how it can help them reach their business goals. Hello, renewal (and potentially an upsell or cross-sell), and welcome<\/i>, an increase in CLTV.<\/p>\n

So, back to the topic of how to calculate customer lifetime value (CLTV or LTV). Here\u2019s the formula:<\/p>\n

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7) Customer acquisition cost (CAC)<\/h3>\n

Customer acquisition cost<\/a> (CAC) measures how much you spend acquiring new customers. This includes both the sales and marketing efforts that convinced the customer to say \u201cyes\u201d, so the costs that go into things like:<\/p>\n