There are few opportunities in life to accurately predict the future, but paying attention to leading indicators now is an opportunity not only to predict, but to change the future course of your sales.
Too often when looking at a sales team’s success, managers only look at the actual sales (the closing of the business). Of course, this is important—but the sale is a lagging indicator.
If you have no sales closing today, it indicates that your team has not been performing well for months.
By the time you’re at the point of no business, you’re already well into trouble. In fact, you are at the point of no return.
So how, as sales leaders, do you create leading indicators, tracking the behaviors required today for sales tomorrow?
Key Performance Indicators
The answer is Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs are important leading indicators that ensure you have a healthy pipeline and future business.
They provide an objective form of measurement that allows you a glimpse into your future—before it’s too late to change the direction or solve any issues with your team.
The first step in determining which KPIs to measure and how to measure them correctly is to differentiate between a sales pipeline and a sales forecast–two terms that many sales professionals mix up or don’t differentiate.
A sales pipeline provides clear visibility into all of your opportunities, regardless of their probability of closing, whereas a forecast is a subset of the pipeline that only includes those qualified opportunities that are expected to close in a defined reporting period.
A properly defined pipeline and its stages help you organize your sales process and create effective tools and benchmarks for your sales team, making it much easier to predict the future success of your sales force.
In fact, using KPIs, it’s possible to get within 5 percent forecast accuracy, meaning that you’ll always know not only how your team is currently performing, but also what roadblocks might lie ahead.
A sales forecast is a forward planning tool for budgets and spending, and measuring KPIs around lead conversion success, such as the cost per lead, can help you budget appropriately and accurately predict your revenues.
The KPIs that every sales team should be measuring are:
KPI’s for funnel development:
- Number of qualified leads in the pipeline
- Sales cycle length
- Total length of time to qualify a new prospect
- Qualified to proposal ratios
- Number of evaluations / short lists per year
- Number of new (first) client meetings per month
- Cold lead to qualified ratios with conversion rates
It’s important to not only measure your opportunity-to-close ratio but to measure conversion from stage to stage.
Keeping an eye the length of your sales cycle, the number of new client meetings you have each month, and the conversion ratio of new leads to qualified leads will provide insights on whether you will be ahead or behind on future revenue and how you can best adjust now to ensure you will hit your future revenue goals.
Revenue and quota focused KPI:
- Proposal to closed ratio
- Average deal size
- Number of sales per year
- Annual quota
- New vs. existing client sales
KPI’s for Account Management and client retention/growth:
• Average client growth year over year
• Client retention rates
Depending on your business, you may have additional KPIs to take into account. A staffing company, for example, would measure positions filled.
A company with multi-year contracts and varying usage would measure contract value versus actual contract spend, for example.
Software as a Service companies would measure average contract value and average length the client stays in the program.
Be objective and use data when establishing KPIs.
Each should have an appropriate benchmark based on actual data and information from your sales history or benchmarks from the industry if you are a new startup.
Review your sales from prior years or quarters to help you calculate averages and quotas.
Understanding your average deal size and combining that with your lead conversion rate will give you an idea of how many opportunities need to be in the pipeline in order to hit your quotas in a very objective and scientific way.
Of course, measurements are only helpful if they’re paid attention to. Get to know your KPIs, and review your data weekly.
Pay close attention to any trends—both worsening and improving—so you can react appropriately.
It’s helpful to include your sales team in this process; review each person’s KPIs once a week in a coaching session.
This will help them to understand the types of behaviors that are important and will ensure that you spot any lags in performance early and can course correct quickly.
No one likes to be blindsided by poor sales, and there is no reason to not see what is coming!
There are few opportunities in life to accurately predict the future. But paying attention to leading indicators now is an opportunity not only to predict, but to change the future course of your sales.
![6 High-Probability Moments to Send LinkedIn Connection Requests Prior to an Event Events create natural relevance. Conferences, trade shows, user groups, and local meetups give you a reason to connect that does not feel forced. The mistake sellers make is waiting until the event starts or turning the request into a pitch. A better move is connecting days or weeks ahead with a simple acknowledgment of the shared event. Example: Hi Sarah, saw you’re attending the Midwest Manufacturing Summit next month. I’ll also be there and am super excited! I’d love to catch up in person at the event. In the meantime, let’s connect here on LinkedIn. You are aligning with something already on their calendar. When you see them at the event or reach out afterward, your name is no longer unfamiliar. Following an Event After an event, connection requests work best when they reference a real interaction, even a small one. A short conversation, a question during a session, or a brief introduction creates enough context. The request should reflect that moment, not attempt to convert it into a follow-up. Example: Tim, I enjoyed meeting you at the conference last week. Your take on [subject/trend/idea] was intriguing. I look forward to staying connected and to our next conversation. This reinforces continuity and professionalism without pushing the relationship forward prematurely. After a Sales Call Sending a connection request after a sales call is one of the most underused opportunities in prospecting. If the call was answered and productive, the request reinforces credibility and continuity. Example: Thanks again for the conversation today. I appreciated your perspective on how your team is thinking about next quarter. I look forward to our next meeting and sharing some ideas I have with you and your team. If the prospect did not answer, a connection request can still make sense as a light reinforcement, especially early in the relationship. It keeps your name present without escalating pressure. Either way, the request works because the call establishes legitimacy first. After a Meaningful Interaction Not all interactions happen in formal selling environments. Thoughtful exchanges in comment threads, group discussions, or brief conversations in passing all create natural moments to connect. That might mean running into each other at a non-work event, crossing paths at an airport, or chatting briefly in a line somewhere unexpected. Example: Haley, it was a pleasure meeting you on our flight to Atlanta. Thank you for your restaurant recommendations! I look forward to staying connected, What makes this work is that the interaction was real. The request simply continues it. Mutual Connections Shared connections reduce perceived risk when handled with restraint. They signal that you operate in similar professional circles, not that you have permission to pitch. The mistake is overexplaining or implying endorsement. Example: Hi Mark, I noticed that you are connected to my good friend, James, and since you are also [interested in, working in, located in] I thought it might make sense for us to be connected also. A simple acknowledgment is enough. Familiarity does the work. Profile Views Profile views signal awareness, not intent. When someone views your profile after a call, email, or content interaction, a connection request can make sense as a low-pressure acknowledgment. Example: Wendy, thank you for visiting my profile. I had a chance to look at yours, and based on your interests, I thought it might make sense for us to connect. The discipline is resisting the urge to read more into it than is there. Want the exact framework for integrating LinkedIn into a disciplined outreach sequence without pitching, spamming, or wasting time? Buy The LinkedIn Edge by Jeb Blount and Brynne Tillman today. Sales Gravy is the number one sales training organization](https://salesgravy.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/6-Moments-LinkedIn-Connection-Requests-Actually-Work-in-Prospecting-Sales-Gravy-Blog-Featured-Image-768x401.jpg)
