CRM indicators are essential to any sales manager’s role, as they directly support the achievement of business objectives. These indicators will naturally differ according to your company’s industry, size, operating environment, product portfolio, sales team structure, and more. Yet they form the foundation of your future strategic decisions.
A practical guide to the 10 key CRM indicators you need to monitor performance and shape your business strategy.
Sales indicators
- Consolidated revenue – This indicator is expressed in terms of sales volume. It enables you to check whether actual performance is in line with the objectives that have been set.
- Customer segmentation – Based on consolidated revenue, this indicator shows the share of revenue generated from new customer acquisition on one hand, and from customer loyalty (upselling)/renewals on the other.
- Renewal rate – This is the percentage of repeat purchases of a product (or service) compared with the total purchases of that product (or service). When this rate is below 50%, the market is described as an “equipment market”; when it is above 50%, it is described as a “renewal market”.
- Saturation rate – This rate is widely used in the insurance and banking sectors, but it is highly relevant for all B2B players. It helps you identify the remaining potential within each customer in terms of cross-selling (What other products or services can we offer this customer?)
- Activity statistics - Similar to consolidated sales, this means bringing together all the data relating to your sales teams’ activities (number of new contacts, new prospects, calls, appointments, sales proposals, orders, etc.) so that you can compare them against your initial targets. These indicators will then be used to analyse conversion rates.
- Conversion rates - These are the conversion ratios between each stage of your business process. Analysing these rates helps you identify potential bottlenecks. However, be sure to take into account the length of your sales cycles and any lag between the prospecting phase and the signing of a project.
- Lead transformation costs - This is the valuation of different sales conversion activities, such as “how many appointments does it take to secure an order?”
Marketing indicators
- Marketing ROI - This indicator lets you compare your total marketing investment with the revenue it generates. Combined with channel conversion rates, it allows you to go into greater detail and compare new strategies with previous ones, assess the overall impact of a specific campaign, and study which content performs best. The aim is to know, for every dollar spent on marketing, how much value it brings back to the company.
- Conversion rate by channel - This means consolidating the results of each marketing action taken: number of unique visits to your website, number of clicks on your ad, number of social media posts, statistics on email campaign opens and reads, number of visits to a booth, etc., and linking them to the qualified leads generated. Do note, however, that this measure needs to be interpreted carefully, as it is often the combination of several actions that results in a qualified lead.
Financial performance indicators
These indicators are generally more the responsibility of the CFO. Nevertheless, let us highlight at least one that every sales manager must track: the gross margin rate.
This indicator will enable you to understand the profitability of your projects, and to adjust the prices and services sold by your sales representatives accordingly.
Beyond these so-called "classic" indicators, we encourage you to create your own indicators that will reflect your activity, your customers and your company. Do not hesitate to involve your teams, other departments in your company and of course… your CRM integrator!