Small-business sales KPIs: seven indicators and formulas

A small business needs between five and seven sales indicators, measured in the CRM and reviewed every week. These are the seven, with their formula and a worked example. The examples are made up to illustrate; we give no benchmark figures because they depend on your sector and on the way you sell.

Reviewed on 2026-10-10. BAI Business offers a CRM and publishes this article.

1. Contact conversion rate

What it measures: what share of the contacts that enter sales follow-up end up as customers.

Formula: new customers divided by the contacts that entered in the same period.

Example: if 40 contacts come in and you close 6 sales, the rate is 6 over 40, that is 0.15.

Usual trap: putting in the denominator all the contacts in the database, including dormant ones from years ago. The rate looks low without there being a real problem. If it really drops, compare where they are lost: if the contacts are not your ideal customer, the problem is before the follow-up; if they are, it is in the proposal, the follow-up or the price.

2. Average sales cycle

What it measures: how many days pass on average from the first contact to the close.

Formula: sum of the days between first contact and close of the won sales, divided by the number of won sales.

Example: if your last four sales took 15, 22, 8 and 31 days, the average cycle is 76 over 4: 19 days.

Measure it only on won sales: lost ones have other timings, sometimes very quick and sometimes dragged out because nobody closed them. If the cycle grows month after month without the size of the sales growing, something in your process adds friction.

3. Average sale value

What it measures: what each sale you close is worth on average.

Formula: total revenue from the sales closed in the period, divided by the number of sales closed.

Example: with revenue of 28,000 and 10 sales, the average value is 2,800.

Split it by source channel and by type of customer: a big difference between channels justifies investing differently in each.

4. Win rate by source

What it measures: what share of the sales from each channel you end up winning.

Formula: won sales from a channel, divided by the total sales from that channel.

Example: if of 12 contacts that came by referral you win 7, that channel's rate is 7 over 12, that is 0.58; if of 45 that came through advertising you win 4, it is 0.09.

It needs the source field to be filled in properly on every contact: one more reason to set it up from day one. It is more useful than an overall rate, which mixes channels that behave very differently.

5. Sales velocity

What it measures: how much money per unit of time your sales follow-up generates as it stands today.

Formula: HubSpot defines it as number of opportunities times average deal value times win rate, divided by the length of the sales cycle (source: HubSpot, accessed on 2026-10-10). With the cycle in days, the result is money per day.

Example: 25 open sales, a win rate of 0.18, an average value of 2,800 and a cycle of 35 days give 25 times 0.18 times 2,800 over 35: 360 per day.

It is better for projecting than for measuring the past: if it drops from one month to the next without the average value changing, there are fewer open sales or you close fewer.

6. Customer churn (recurring models only)

What it measures: what share of your customers leaves in a period.

Formula: customers who cancelled in the month, divided by the customers at the start of the month.

Example: with 45 customers at the start of the month and 3 cancellations, the rate is 3 over 45: 0.067.

It only applies if there are subscriptions, maintenance contracts or periodic fees. A business of one-off projects measures repeat purchases. A small churn kept up month after month ends up emptying the book if you don't offset it with new customers.

7. Cost of winning a customer against what they are worth

Cost per new customer: total sales and marketing cost of the period, divided by the new customers of the period. It includes the sales team's time spent winning them, advertising, tools, events and commissions.

Customer lifetime value: average sale value times purchase frequency per year times the years the customer lasts on average.

Ratio: customer value divided by the cost of winning them. If the value does not exceed the cost, the customer does not cover what it cost to win them. Measured in revenue and not in margin, it is worth looking at how much of that value you keep.

Example: a fee of 1,500 for 18 months gives a value of 27,000; if winning that customer cost 3,200, the ratio is 27,000 over 3,200: 8.4.

What order to start in

Don't set up all seven at once.

1. First two months: conversion rate and average sales cycle, the ones that help most to diagnose your process.
2. Months three and four: win rate by source and average sale value. They need the source to be properly recorded.
3. Months five and six: sales velocity, which combines the earlier ones and is only useful when its components are reliable.
4. After that: customer churn and cost against customer value, which need history to be meaningful.

Where BAI fits in

According to the sheet for its CRM solution, in BAI Business each sale moves along your stages with its next action in your calendar, and artificial intelligence summarises each sale and calculates its probability of closing and how much may come in over the coming months. You can see it on the CRM for your business page. The sheet does not describe a dashboard with these seven indicators; if you need any of them, check before you sign up to any CRM, ours included.

Frequently asked questions

How many sales indicators should a small business measure?

Between five and seven, measured in the CRM and reviewed at the weekly meeting. Twenty-five indicators nobody looks at are no use; none at all is no use either.

How is the contact conversion rate calculated?

New customers divided by the contacts that entered sales follow-up in the same period. Don't count the dormant contacts in the database: they would lower the rate without there being a problem.

What is sales velocity?

A measure of how much money your sales follow-up generates per unit of time. HubSpot defines it as number of opportunities times average deal value times win rate, divided by the length of the sales cycle (accessed on 2026-10-10).

When does it make sense to measure customer churn?

Only if you have a recurring model, with subscriptions, maintenance contracts or periodic fees. In a business of one-off projects, measure repeat purchases.

You may also be interested in

• First 30 days with a new CRM: how to set up the CRM so you can calculate these indicators.
• How to choose a CRM for your small business: what to look at before you sign up.

Sources

• Sales velocity formula, HubSpot, accessed on 10 October 2026.