This time of year, we take a hard look at our goals — and the KPIs that drive us toward them.
Our KPIs give us control. They tell us what activities we need to focus on daily to move closer to our goals.
We start by asking a simple question...
How many of these key behaviors do I need to reach my goals?
Sales
Presentations
Meetings
Conversations
Prospecting activities
These behaviors are the building blocks of success — the things you can actually control. The real challenge is identifying which ones to track and how to measure them in a way that truly predicts results.
Sales leaders:
If you could only track one performance metric to evaluate the performance of a team member, which one would you choose?
Most managers I talk to default to closed sales. It’s familiar and easy to measure. They check in by asking:
What’s closed recently?
What’s about to close?
When will that close?
Those are fair questions — but they all focus on lagging indicators, the outcomes of past behavior. “Closed sales” reflects what happened weeks or months ago. And when we ask what’s about to close, we’re relying on guesses about future lagging indicators — often unreliable ones.
If we really want to evaluate performance and growth, we need to shift our focus to leading indicators — measurable actions that drive future revenue.
For most of the teams I work with, that means tracking one key metric:
👉 How many initial meetings or conversations with new prospects happened in the past week?
Whether those conversations happen in person, over the phone, or via video doesn’t matter. What matters is consistent, measurable prospecting behavior.
If that number is strong, your pipeline will stay healthy. If it’s weak, future revenue will struggle.
Focus on the leading indicators, and the lagging indicators will take care of themselves.
------
Sandler Training in NYC — helping sales teams build the habits that drive results.
