Sales metrics: What to track, how to track, & why [expert tips]

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1. What I look for:By calculating revenue by partner, you can decide which partnerships to keep, grow, or discontinue, and which partners should be rewarded with market development funds (MDFs), awards, and opportunities to achieve higher certification levels. 26. Margin by Partner Measures:Sales performance and effectiveness Who this sales metric is helpful for:BDRs, SDRs, account managers, sales managers+ Margin by partner refers to your company's profit from each partnership or collaboration. Why I recommend tracking it: It provides a detailed view of the profit generated from each partner, allowing you to understand which partnerships are the most profitable and have the highest margin. 27. Retention Rate of Partner Customers Measures:Sales performance and effectiveness, customer satisfaction Who this sales metric is helpful for:Individual reps, account managers, sales managers+ The retention rate of partner customers refers to the percentage of customers that continue to do business with your company after their initial transaction through a specific partner. What I look for:Partners aren’t just channels — they’re extensions of your brand. But many focus only on core requirements. To drive expansion, I used tiered margins, MDFs, and sales playbooks to incentivize upsells. The best partners became co-strategists, not order-takers. Measure not just their revenue —but their expansion rate. 28. Average Cross-Sell and Upsell Rate of Partner Customers Measures:Sales performance and effectiveness Who this sales metric is helpful for:Individual reps, account managers, SDRs, sales managers+ In my experience, many partners are laser-focused on selling the products that meet the customer’s core requirements. They often don’t go the extra mile to upsell or cross-sell your complementary products and services because it may exceed the customer’s budget, or they may be reluctant to add scope to the project. “I found the best ways to motivate partners to extend deal value is often to offer tiered margins or incentive plans to partners that sell premium subscriptions, high end products, or your customer success programs.” Percentage of Time Spent on Manual Data Entry Measures:Sales activity Who this sales metric is helpful for:Individual reps (including SDRs, BDRs, account managers), sales managers+ The percentage of time spent on manual data entry refers to the time that employees or sales representatives spend manually entering data into a company's systems or databases. This can include inputting customer information, updating sales records, and entering product information. What I look for:If you find that you’re spending too much time on manual data entry and similar tasks, it might be time to invest in sales tools that automate the process and give you time to focus on selling. AI-powered tools can take notes, enter and enrich CRM data, and free reps up for higher-value selling activities. Automating manual tasks is the most popular way for sales reps to save time with AI. 32. Percentage of Marketing Collateral Used by Salespeople Measures:Sales activity Who this sales metric is helpful for:Individual reps (including SDRs, BDRs, account managers), sales managers+, marketing teams I’ve seen decks gather dust because they didn’t reflect real objections or because the sales team simply didn’t know they existed. The percentage of marketing collateral used by salespeople measures how your sales representatives use various marketing materials, such as brochures, flyers, product sheets, case studies, and other promotional items. How I improve it:I recommend creating an easily accessible library of content and a dashboard for marketing and sales enablement teams to track which collateral is used most and least often. Tracking your usage helps to prioritize which collateral needs to be updated, expanded upon, or taken out of circulation. This data can be used as an icebreaker for conversations between sales and marketing on the topics and kinds of collateral that resonate with customers the most. 33.

   In Partner margins and incentives

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