Understanding why you failed to close on a sale can help future sales. But, what about the sale at hand? Besides intuition, is there a better way to more accurately measure the likelihood of the deal coming through?

An article in Sales & Marketing Management magazine offers 5 simple metrics to help you monitor sales in process and make changes if it looks like the sale may fall through:

1. Ratio of inbound/outbound communication

“If it’s taking them three or four emails to get a response from their prospect, the likelihood that the prospect is highly engaged is quite low.”

2. Frequency of meetings

“Knowing when the last meeting took place with a prospect, as well as when the next meeting will take place, is essential to calling whether a deal will close or not.”

3. Number of contacts  

“Now almost every purchase has stakeholders within multiple departments, meaning a rep needs to engage far more than one person at a prospect if they have any hope to close the deal.”

4. Identity of contacts

“Identifying the individuals who may stand in the way is just as important as identifying the individuals who will champion your company internally.”

5. Combination of the above

“Considering multiple variables at once can also reveal correlations in the data that point to areas where you can make your team more effective.”

Learn more about how to analyze these key metrics to more accurately forecast and achieve your sales goals.