The 10 sales KPIs every sales director should monitor

Too much data, too little information

The problem isn't a lack of data. Most companies have more data than they can process. The problem is knowing which ones to look at. A dashboard with 40 metrics doesn't help make decisions — it paralyzes.

After working with sales teams across different industries, these are the 10 KPIs that truly move the needle.

1. Conversion rate by funnel stage

It's not enough to know how many leads come in. You need to know where they drop off. If only 10 out of 100 qualified leads reach the proposal stage, the problem is in the discovery phase. If 60 reach the proposal but you only close 5, the problem is in closing or pricing.

How to measure: number of advances between stages / number of opportunities in the previous stage × 100.

2. Average sales cycle

How many days pass from first contact to signed contract? This KPI tells you if your sales process is efficient and lets you predict when revenue will come in.

If your average cycle is 45 days and you sent a proposal today, you can estimate when it will impact cash flow.

3. Average ticket per client

Not all clients are equal. Segmenting the average ticket by industry, company size, or salesperson reveals where the profitable business is and where you're investing effort in accounts that aren't worth it.

4. Retention rate and churn

Acquiring a new client costs 5 to 7 times more than retaining an existing one. Monitoring how many clients renew (or don't) each quarter is fundamental for business sustainability.

Churn formula: (clients lost in the period / clients at the start of the period) × 100.

5. Revenue per salesperson

Essential for identifying top performers and detecting who needs support. Not to create public rankings that destroy team culture, but to have data-driven coaching conversations.

6. Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

How much does it cost to get a new client? Add up marketing, sales, and time costs, and divide by new clients in the period. If CAC exceeds the value that client will generate in 12 months, you have a structural problem.

7. Customer lifetime value (LTV)

The complement to CAC. How much does an average client generate throughout their relationship with you? The LTV/CAC ratio should be at least 3:1 for a healthy business.

8. Pipeline coverage

How many times does your current pipeline cover the quarter's quota? If you have a €100,000 quota and your pipeline totals €150,000, you have 1.5x coverage. The recommendation is at least 3x to absorb deals that don't close.

9. Win/loss rate by competitor

Knowing who you lose to and why is as valuable as knowing who you win against. If you systematically lose to a specific competitor, something in your value proposition or pricing needs adjustment.

10. Pipeline velocity

Combines several KPIs into one: (number of opportunities × close rate × average ticket) / sales cycle. It tells you how many euros are "flowing" through your pipeline each day. If this number drops, there's a problem before you see it in results.

How to implement it

The key isn't calculating these KPIs once in Excel. The key is having them available in real time, segmented by salesperson, industry, and period, with alerts when something deviates from the target.

That's exactly what I build for sales teams: dashboards that turn these 10 numbers into concrete decisions every week.

Let's talk about your sales team