If you’re only keeping tabs on revenue, conversion rates, and pipeline value, you’re missing the full picture of your sales performance.
These commonly tracked metrics are important, of course, but they only tell part of the story. To truly understand what’s working–and what’s not–you need to go beyond the obvious and start tracking the hidden data points that most teams overlook.
Here are five overlooked sales metrics that could make all the difference in optimising your sales process, improving team efficiency, and closing more deals.
The Problem with Sticking to Standard Metrics
Many sales teams focus heavily on top-line metrics like revenue and win rates. While these numbers are valuable, they don’t always highlight the underlying issues in your pipeline or give you insights into what’s slowing things down.
For example, tracking your conversion rate may tell you how many leads turn into customers, but it won’t reveal where deals get stuck or why they fall apart. That’s why you need to dig deeper.
💡 Related Reading: Want to know which daily metrics every sales manager should be tracking? Check out our guide on 7 Daily Sales Metrics Every Sales Manager Should Be Monitoring for more foundational insights.
Five Overlooked Sales Metrics You Should Start Tracking
1. Sales Velocity by Stage
Most teams measure sales velocity as a whole, but they don’t look at where delays happen.
Sales velocity measures how quickly deals move through your pipeline. But tracking overall velocity isn’t enough. You need to break it down by individual pipeline stages to pinpoint exactly where deals slow down.
| Why it matters: | Identifying slow stages helps you fix bottlenecks and streamline your pipeline. For example, if deals tend to stall in the proposal stage, you may need to improve how proposals are delivered or followed up. |
| How to track it: | Use your CRM to measure time spent at each pipeline stage and flag stages with excessive delays. Look for patterns in slow-moving deals and adjust your approach to move them along faster. |
2. Lead Source Quality vs. Volume
Most sales teams focus on lead volume rather than conversion rates by source. But quantity doesn’t always mean quality.
This metric compares the quality of leads from different sources (e.g., referrals, paid ads, events) to the volume of leads generated.
| Why it matters: | Knowing which lead sources produce high-quality, converting leads helps you focus your efforts on the most effective channels. |
| How to track it: | Assign a source to every lead in your CRM, then compare conversion rates by channel. For instance, if referral leads convert at a higher rate than paid ads, you’ll know to prioritise that source. |
3. Buyer Engagement Score
Sales teams often track activity volume, but they don’t always measure multi-touch engagement across channels.
This metric measures how engaged a prospect is with your sales process, including interactions like emails opened, calls answered, and content downloaded.
| Why it matters: | A high engagement score signals strong buying intent, helping you prioritise leads that are more likely to close. It also helps you spot disengaged prospects who may need a different approach. |
| How to track it: | Use your CRM to track all prospect interactions across emails, meetings, and content. Many CRMs can calculate an engagement score automatically. |
4. Churn Rate for Lost Deals
Most teams only focus on closed-won vs. closed-lost, without paying attention to when and why deals fall apart.
This metric tracks the percentage of deals that drop out of your pipeline and at what stage they’re lost.
| Why it matters: | Knowing where deals drop off helps you fix pipeline leaks. For example, if most deals are lost during contract negotiation, it could be a sign that your pricing isn’t competitive or your terms are too rigid. |
| How to track it: | Review your CRM’s lost deal reports and segment by stage. Identify the most common drop-off points and adjust your process accordingly. |
5. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) by Segment
Most teams track one-time revenue but don’t focus on the long-term value of different customer segments.
CLV measures the total revenue a customer is expected to bring over the duration of their relationship with your business.
| Why it matters: | Focusing on high-value segments helps you increase retention and target upselling opportunities more effectively. |
| How to track it: | Use your CRM to group customers by segment (e.g., industry, deal size) and calculate their lifetime value. Compare segments to see which ones bring the most value. |
Bringing It All Together: Track What Really Drives Results
Tracking basic metrics like revenue and win rates is a good start, but it’s not enough to build a high-performing sales team. The real value lies in the hidden data points that tell you more about buyer behaviour, pipeline bottlenecks, and long-term customer value.
That’s where tools like BuddyCRM come in.
BuddyCRM makes it easy to track these overlooked metrics with custom dashboards, real-time reporting, and automated insights. You’ll be able to see where your deals are getting stuck, which lead sources perform best, and how to engage high-value prospects more effectively.
The result? A more efficient sales process that keeps your team focused on the right opportunities and helps you build stronger customer relationships.
It’s time to move beyond surface-level numbers and start tracking the data that really matters.