As your organization begins to sketch what your plan might look like, it’s likely come to your attention you’ll need to gain consensus around what your Key Performance Indicators will be and how they will impact your business. Even if you haven’t even thought about your KPIs yet [that’s ok too], we’ve compiled a list of examples for you to reference as you plan.
But, before we jump straight into examples, here’s a quick refresher on what Key Performance Indicators are and why they’re a critical part of managing your plan on an ongoing basis.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the elements of your plan that express what you want to achieve by when. They are the quantifiable, outcome-based statements you’ll use to measure if you’re on track to meet your goals or objectives. Good plans use 5–7 KPIs to manage and track the progress of their plan. The anatomy of a structured KPI includes:
- A Measure — Every KPI must have a measure. The best KPIs have more expressive measures.
- A Target — Every KPI needs to have a target that matches your measure and the time period of your goal. These are generally a numeric value you’re seeking to achieve.
- A Data Source — Every KPI needs to have a clearly defined data source so there is no gray area in how each is being measured and tracked.
- Reporting Frequency — Different KPIs may have different reporting needs, but a good rule to follow is to report on them at least monthly.
Now that we’ve reviewed the basic anatomy of a KPI, here are 27 examples of common KPI sources we see organizations use to measure the performance of their plans:
Examples of Sales KPIs
- Number of New Contracts Signed Per Period
- Dollar Value for New Contracts Signed Per Period
- Number of Engaged Qualified Leads in Sales Funnel
- Hours of Resources Spent on Sales Follow Up
- Average Time for Conversion
- Net Sales — Dollar or Percentage Growth
Examples of Financial KPIs
- Growth in Revenue
- Net Profit Margin
- Gross Profit Margin
- Operational Cash Flow
- Current Accounts Receivables
- Inventory Turnover
- EBITDA
Examples of Customer KPIs
- Number of Customers Retained
- Percentage of Market Share
- Net Promotor Score
- Average Ticket/Support Resolution Time
Examples of Operational KPIs
- Order Fulfillment Time
- Time to Market
- Employee Satisfaction Rating
- Employee Churn Rate
Examples of Marketing KPIs
- Monthly Website Traffic
- Number of Qualified Leads
- Conversion Rate for Call-To-Action Content
- Keywords in Top 10 Search Engine Results
- Blog Articles Published This Month
- E-Books Published This Month
With the foundational knowledge of the KPI anatomy and a few example starting points, it’s important you build out these metrics to be detailed and have specific data sources so you can truly evaluate if you’re achieving your goals. Remember, these are going to be the 5–7 core metrics you’ll be living by for the next 12 months. A combination of leading and lagging KPIs will paint a clear picture of your organization’s strategic performance and empower you to make agile decisions to impact the success of your team. If you’d like more information on how you can build better KPIs, check out this video and click here to see why not all KPIs are created equal.
