Six Metrics to Boost Your Sales

boost your salesSales are the cornerstone of any business, but increasing sales doesn’t need to be difficult if you know which metrics to track closely.

Dave Lavinsky, co-founder of Growthink and an Entrepreneur contributor, outlines six metrics that can help you boost your sales.

#1 Total Sales by Time Period

When you look at your business’ sales totals, compare how they are performing week over week, or month over month. Lavinsky stresses the importance of using sales by time period as an important metric. “By tracking sales by time period, you know exactly how well you’re performing.”

Determine the best unit of time that’s appropriate for your business and track performance carefully. Compare the sales totals for the current month against the previous month or previous year.

#2 Sales by Product or Service

If your business has a menu of products or services, an important metric to track is how sales for each product stack up against each other. This way, you’ll learn exactly what is selling and what is not.

If sales of a particular product are trending down but others are trending upwards, “spend more time on what’s already selling and less time on what isn’t.”

#3 Sales by Lead Source

Lavinsky advises to pay close attention to sales per lead source. “The key here is to spend more on the advertising or ‘lead sources’ that produce the most sales, and to stop wasting money on sources of leads that don’t.”

Understanding which lead sources turn into more sales gives business leaders an opportunity to optimize lead generation for each of those channels.

#4 Revenue Per Sale

If you want to increase sales and profit, increase the average revenue per sale. “McDonald’s doubled its profits when it started asking, ‘would you like fries with that?’”

The best performing salespeople always look for an opportunity to upsell, and increase revenue per sale.

#5 New vs. Returning Customer Sales

When examining your sales data, look to see how sales from new customers compare to sales from existing or returning customers. A healthy sales pipeline and revenue stream is a blend of both new customers experiencing your product or service for the very first time, and existing customers through repeat business.

Repeat customers can be nurtured through email marketing campaigns, but as Lavinsky points out, “you will never know if your marketing tactics are working if you don’t measure these results.”

#6 Sales Per Prior Activity

Prior activity or last attribution refers to those actions or behaviors that occurred shortly before the sale. For online advertising like PPC, track sales per click or sale per impression. Other activities to measure can be sales per lead, sales per phone call, or sales per appointment.

What this ultimately allows you to do is identify the root causes of sales success or failure by activity. If sales per phone call are decreasing, perhaps it’s time to make some adjustments to the script used by call center employees, or invest in some advanced training.

What metrics do you use to evaluate your sales success?