As we wrap up the year and look ahead, it’s a good time to revisit your goals and the KPIs that help you reach them. The right measures keep your daily focus on the actions you can control and move you closer to your 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.
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Dave Fischer, Sandler NYC — helping sales teams build the habits that drive results.
Sandler NYC provides proven sales training, sales management training, leadership development, and executive coaching to help businesses build stronger sales teams, develop confident leaders, and increase revenue. Serving New York City and the surrounding area, Sandler NYC helps sales professionals, sales managers, business owners, and executives improve prospecting, sales performance, qualification, communication, accountability, and pipeline management.
If you're looking for sales training in NYC, sales coaching, leadership training, sales management coaching, executive coaching, prospecting training, or professional development programs, Sandler NYC provides practical, proven strategies to help your team sell more effectively and achieve predictable sales results. Contact Dave Fischer to learn how Sandler training can help your organization grow.
