Pipeliner CRM makes full use of leading and lagging Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for optimal opportunity and sales management.

KPIs for Sales: Leading and Lagging Indicators in Pipeliner

Much of the time, sales management is conducted through KPIs called lagging indicators. These are KPIs that show what has already happened after all is said and done.

The problem with managing only through lagging indicators is right there in the name: lagging. By the time lagging indicators become clear, it is too late to change anything.

KPIs for Sales: Leading Indicators

The other kind of KPIs for sales management are leading indicators. Leading indicators are factors that can be monitored on a day-to-day basis, that give us an indication of how our lagging indicators are going to turn out. Examples:

• leads created
• new leads into the pipelinePipeline Sales pipelineis a visual representation of the stage prospects are in the sales process.
• leads converted to opportunities
• leadLead Lead refers to a prospect or potential customer (who can be an individual or organization) that exhibits interest in your service or product; or any additional information about such entity.-to-opportunity conversionConversion Conversion is the process of turning a target consumer into a paying customer; or more generally, the point at which a user performs a specific action favorable to a marketer or a seller. rate
• sales rep closing ratio
• team closing ratio
• % of opportunities through each sales stage
• opportunities proceeding within an expected time frame

KPIs for Sales: Combining Leading and Lagging Indicators

The combining of leading and lagging indicators give you a full picture of your operation and allow you to make changes to improve the scene before your lagging indicators come into effect.

You should be able to utilize your leading indicators to show how your lagging indicators are going to appear. For example, if you add up the value of your opportunities in the pipeline, the percentage chance of them making it through, the rankings of each deal, and other leading factors, you see that, if all goes according to plan, you’ll have $1.5 million for the quarterQuarter Quarter is a three-month period in a company’s fiscal year commonly used to make comparative performance analyses, detect or forecast business trends, report earnings, and pay shareholder dividends.. If you add up all your leading indicators and see that you’re falling short of your target, you then have time to do something about it. For example:

• Get more leads into the pipeline
• Take steps to raise lead-to-opportunity conversion rates
• Coach and mentor your reps to raise closing ratios
• Make sure you have no unnecessary activities or tasks
• Make sure all necessary activities and tasks are being done
• Monitor your sales processSales Process Sales Process is a series of strategic steps or a set of activities aimed at driving sales growth through the alignment of personnel, market insight, methodologies, relevant business units, and technology. to makes sure it is efficient

Use in CRM

The traditional CRM approach has been more or less to ”track everything”—primarily the reps, their calls, their progress, their activities and so on. Reps entered their contact, accountAccount Account refers to a record of primary and background information about an individual or corporate customer, including contact data, preferred services, and transactions with your company. and activity dataData Data is a set of quantitative and qualitative facts that can be used as reference or inputs for computations, analyses, descriptions, predictions, reasoning and planning..

But what should a CRM solutionSolution Solution is a combination of ideas, strategies, processes, technologies and services that effectively helps an organization achieve its goals or hurdle its challenges. show a company? The answer: Where sales have been, where they’re currently at, and where they’re going. In order for a CRM to do that, it must function with leading and lagging indicators, so it provides real insight.

No CRM has truly addressed this issue—until now.

Pipeliner CRM: It’s Built Right In

Pipeline View

Unlike any other CRM solution, leading and lagging indicators are instantly and visually displayed. It’s all right there before you, starting with the main Pipeline View.

Right here you can see how many leads are available, how many opportunities are in each stage of the pipeline, and how many are overdue (per the average length of time for each stage). Your primary leading indicators are right there.

Target

On the right-hand side, the target is always visible, showing your primary lagging indicators, and how they are affected by all the leading indicators as they now stand.

Archive

In Pipeliner, the most important lagging indicator is something not available in any other CRM: the Archive. The Pipeliner CRM Archive is arranged exactly the same as the active pipeline view. Leads and opportunities contain all information present when they were archived—including documents, emails, notes, social media interactions, tasks, and activities.

An in-depth analysis can be done right in the Archive of lost deals—with the same degree of detail that can be done with current opportunities. With Pipeliner’s new Multi-KPI feature, which is available both in the main Pipeline View and in the Archive, you can compare 2 different values (for example Revenue and Units Sold) or 2 different time periods. There has never been an analysis tool like the Pipeliner CRM Archive.

Pipeliner’s other features, such as filters, ranking, account view, and timeline all display leading and lagging indicators in various configurations, allowing you to instantly see how your leading indicators add up to your lagging indicators.

Sales Performance Insights

With Sales Performance Insights a sales leader or sales representative can see, at a glance, how various leading and lagging indicators have been combined so far for a sales unit, for reps as compared with other reps, and for territories as compared with others. Not only can you compare reps, but you can also compare various indicators for those reps.

Leading indicators include items such as created leads/opportunities, created accounts, and won opportunities. Lagging indicators include won opportunities, lost opportunities, won amount and lost amount.

For overall sales management and for calculating risk, Pipeliner takes both leading and lagging KPIs fully into account for optimal sales management.