Sales indicators help an SMB understand where opportunities are generated, how they progress, and what ultimately turns into business. Their usefulness depends on whether they lead to a decision. A report full of figures can be distracting if no one knows what each number includes or what action to take when it changes.
Start with a small set and stable definitions. Distinguish sales activity, agreed sales, and received payments: they describe different moments. The examples in this guide are illustrative and do not represent Onix Board results or universal targets for your company.
Before measuring, agree on what counts
Define what you will consider an inquiry, a qualified opportunity, and a won sale. Establish a review period, a currency, and how cancellations and returns will be handled. If you compare amounts, clarify whether they include taxes and avoid mixing quantities recorded using different criteria.
Assign someone responsible for maintaining each piece of data and record the necessary dates. An opportunity created in September and won in October may belong to different analyses. To interpret results, you need to know whether you are looking at monthly closings or the journey of opportunities that began in the same period.
1. Qualified opportunities
Count the cases that meet your sales criteria: an identified need, a fit with the service, and the possibility of continuing a useful conversation. This figure makes it possible to distinguish contact volume from work that can actually progress. Also review the source to understand which channels generate relevant cases.
If you receive many inquiries and few meet the criteria, examine the acquisition message, coverage, and offering. Avoid changing the definition of “qualified” so the result looks better. Keep the rules and explain any changes when comparing periods.
2. Progress rate between stages
Calculate how many opportunities from the same group move from one stage to the next. Formula: opportunities that progressed, divided by opportunities from the group that entered the stage, multiplied by one hundred. Define an observation window that is long enough for your process.
If twenty opportunities entered the diagnosis stage and eight of those same opportunities reached a presented solution, the observed progress is forty percent. If several are still in diagnosis, indicate that the group has not yet completed its journey. Do not divide today's proposals by today's new inquiries if they belong to different cases.
3. Closing rate for resolved opportunities
A practical definition is won sales divided by won opportunities plus lost opportunities, multiplied by one hundred, using the same closing date to select the period. Opportunities that are still open are excluded from this calculation. Document how you handle canceled or discarded cases to maintain consistency.
If during the period you closed six won opportunities and nine lost ones, the closing rate is forty percent. The figure guides questions about qualification, proposals, and commercial terms. With few cases, a single sale can change the percentage significantly; also review the absolute numbers.
4. Average value per sale
Divide the total amount of won sales by their quantity, using the same amount and period criteria. If four projects total eighty thousand pesos, the average is twenty thousand pesos. Separate services with very different models so the result is interpretable.
A growing average may result from larger projects, price changes, or a different service mix. Review margin and capacity before celebrating it. Billing more per project does not guarantee better profitability if work hours, external costs, or rework also increase.
5. Sales cycle duration
Define a common beginning, such as the date on which you qualify an opportunity, and an end, such as commercial acceptance. Calculate the days elapsed for each won case. You can observe the average and the median, which shows the central value of the ordered group.
The median is helpful when an exceptionally long project distorts the average. Accompany the indicator with the age of open opportunities: analyzing only won opportunities can hide stalled cases. Compare similar services and review which stage contains the wait.
6. Opportunities without a next action
Count active opportunities that do not have a concrete action, owner, or review date. It is a simple operational indicator for finding work that was left uncoordinated. Separate cases where a response is expected under a clear agreement from those where no one knows how to continue.
The review may result in assigning a task, requesting information, or closing a case. Avoid creating empty activities just to reduce the indicator. The action should help resolve uncertainty or fulfill a commitment to the customer.
Turn the review into decisions
Organize a brief review and keep a record of the actions chosen. For each relevant change, ask what happened, what evidence explains it, and who will perform the next check. Use this sequence to avoid hasty conclusions:
- Verifica si cambió la calidad o la forma de capturar los datos.
- Revisa volumen, mezcla de servicios y duración del periodo.
- Identifica el problema que el equipo puede atender.
- Acuerda una acción y una fecha para evaluar lo aprendido.
You do not need to implement all the indicators at once. Start with those you can calculate using reliable information. Onix Board presents audience and inquiry statistics, as well as transactions and resources for coordinating activities. Request a demo at onixboard.com and confirm which data you can consult for your indicators and which would require additional analysis.
Measuring well makes it possible to ask better questions. Maintaining clear definitions and acting on findings makes a report useful, even when it contains few figures.