Sales & Marketing Metrics You Might Have Overlooked

Abe Dearmer

Jan 10, 2017

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6 min read

Marketing

Those of us in sales and marketing can't avoid some level of working with data. Proper data analysis can be a powerful asset to all sales and marketing teams. With thorough analysis, data can assist in decision making throughout all aspects of business, regardless of department, specialism or hierarchy. It can even advise of future opportunities, allay fears and even warn of potential dangers.

But nowadays there's so much data at our disposal and so many different ways of collecting it; knowing which metrics your business should be recording can be a minefield. Many people give up and try to rely on the basics, but there are a few hidden gems that a lot of businesses pass by. So, without further ado - here are 10 of them.

Average Sale/Deal Price

Monitoring the average price per deal not only gives you an impression of inward cash flow, but can also highlight trends in how your market is behaving. If the average lessens - does this mean that people are trying to save money or is there another reason that people are going for lower priced options? This metric can be insightful, but it's not a means to an end it's more of a door-opener for further analysis.

Average Sale/Deal Cost

In addition to the average amount that people spend with you with each deal, it's important to keep tabs on how much those deals cost you to provide. This metric is best if you have stock or travel outlays that go into completing a sale or project; but even if you are purely service-based, you can always consider your team's salaries and general business overheads for the duration of the project. You can record this metric as broadly or finely as you like - it all depends how far down that rabbit hole you want to go!

Enquiry Response Time

In our speed-oriented convenience culture, it's important that any interested parties get a quick response. If possible, record the exact time it takes each enquiry to be answered, and come up with an average. This will give you a good idea of how long customers must wait for a reply, and whether any improvement is required.

Number of Sales by Service/Product/Range

Keeping track of the number of sales that each of your offerings receives per week or month allows you to analyze how your market is behaving. Are if there any particular times of year where a given product/service takes precedence? Has there been a recent decline or increase in one option over another? It may be worth finding this out to strategically market certain offerings at certain times of the year or month. Start recording it and see where it takes you!

Sales by Lead Source

Sometimes, you need to remember how it all began. It's said that it takes around 6 or 7 points of contact with any prospect before you are in with any real chance of making a sale. However, don't forget to record how you came to be on their radar in the first place - was it through your website? At a trade event? Print marketing? Keeping tabs on this metric will allow you to see at a glance which lead sources are the most effective, and if there are any you can afford to do without.

Average Points of Contact Before Sale

Sticking with the "6 to 7 points of contact" theory, it's important to log the amount of marketing emails, telemarketing calls and social media interactions it takes between yourselves and each customer before they buy from you, and factor them all into an average figure. You will get an idea of how your audience reacts to your marketing materials and sales methods, and hopefully figure out if there are any ways you can achieve a sale after fewer points of contact.

Email Marketing Hard and Soft Bounce Rates

If you use email marketing, you may have heard of hard and soft bounces. In case you're unfamiliar, soft bounces are temporary or easily resolvable issues with sending email (such as the recipient having a full inbox or a temporary outage), whereas hard bounces are more permanent issues (like an email address no longer existing). It's a good idea to record how many of each type of bounce result from every email campaign, and to monitor all bounced email addresses to see if a problem persists. If you see a given address showing up regularly, it may be worth giving its owner a call to see if they have a different email you could use. Not a performance metric as such, but it helps you keep your subscriber list in top shape.

Web Traffic by Source

This one can easily be reviewed using the website analytics platform of your choice. Make a point of checking where your web traffic is coming from, and in what percentages. The four main methods that people can come across your site are through direct traffic (people typing your web URL into their browser), referral links (when people click links to your website located on other sites), organic search (people searching for something and clicking on your site content as a result), and social links (when people have clicked on your website content from a social media link). The source of some visits may surprise you, so if you have an unexpectedly number of people finding you through search or social - capitalize on that and ramp up your SEO or social media efforts!

Rate of Enquiry

Track the rate at which enquiries generally come in (how many per week or month), both in general and following a particular campaign. If you consider the non-campaign rate your baseline, comparing the post-campaign rate will give you a good impression of the campaign's success. The rate of attrition afterwards will give you an idea of how long campaigns like it are effective.

Lifetime Customer Value & Cost

Though it's important to keep an eye on new sales activity, don't forget about your returning customers. Record how much each individual customer has spent with you throughout your time working together, as well as the total that you have had to spend to fulfill their projects or orders.

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