Commercial KPI Guide
How to choose, calculate, and interpret the key metrics of a sales function so they guide decisions.
By Ascend Editorial Published Updated
What this resource is
A guide to choosing, calculating, and interpreting the key metrics (KPIs) of a sales function. Rather than measuring everything, the goal is to focus on a few indicators that explain performance and guide decisions.
What the guide covers
- The essential commercial KPIs and what each one measures.
- How each indicator is calculated.
- How to read them against industry references.
- Practical examples of each metric.
- Recommended dashboards for tracking them.
- How to interpret the data and act on it.
How to choose your KPIs
A useful commercial dashboard usually combines four kinds of indicators:
- Activity: the volume of commercial actions, such as prospecting, meetings, and proposals.
- Pipeline: the state and coverage of open opportunities.
- Conversion: the share of opportunities that move from one stage to the next and through to close.
- Result: revenue, average deal size, and sales cycle length.
The recommendation is to start with a few indicators per category, define how each one is calculated, and review them on a fixed cadence.
How to use the guide
Use each indicator to answer a concrete question about your operation: how full the pipeline is, where opportunities are lost, and how long a sale takes. A KPI that does not change a decision does not need to be on the dashboard.