CRM metrics/KPIs: How to measure the performance of your CRM

You’ve invested a lot of time and money in your CRM but how do you know if it's actually making a difference in your business? There are several KPI (Key Performance Indicators) that can be examined and that will allow you to evaluate the performance of your CRM and to get insight into what aspects to improve.

However, all measurements are not good to take. For example, instinctively, you’d want to measure the login rates. Surprisingly, this won’t be a good indicator of the success of the CRM because when a user logs into the CRM it doesn’t always mean that he uses it. It simply lets you know who has logged in and how often.

Measure the right stuff

Then, which metrics should you measure? Well, get back at the starting point: why did you get a CRM in the first place? What was your goal? Then, build it from there.

Some general KPIs will give you an overall idea of the impact of the implementation of the CRM. Here are some of them:

Length of Sales Cycle

How long does it take to close a sale from the first time a prospect is identified?

Keeping track of how long it takes your team to convert leads to closed, lost or won deals and how long the lead lives in each stage of the funnel will help to identify where in the pipeline they are dragging on, so they can make decisions based on facts and not instinct.

The goal is to shorten the sales cycle and give the salespeople more time to find new leads.

Sales eligible lead delivery

Also called Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs), it’s the number of leads across all channels that are passed from the marketing team to sales based on shared qualification criteria.

An increase of this one, will reflect the good alignment between your Sales and Marketing department.

Customer Churn Rate

The customer churn rate (also known as the customer attrition rate) is the rate at which a company is losing its customers. This is a critical KPI because retaining a customer costs less than gaining one.

Obviously an increase of this one is concerning, as it points at a problem with customer engagement and therefore, you should focus on improving the relations with unsatisfied customers or winning back lost customers.

Number of visits/orders

A well-performing CRM will bring more traffic to your business.

If there is not an increase in the number of visits and orders, it could mean that there is an adoption problem by your sales team or that the CRM is not aligned with your business processes.

In conclusion, clear metrics will help to track the progress you’ve made since the CRM implementation and give you a clear picture of how well your team is adopting the CRM.

Want to evaluate the performance of your CRM ? Take our quiz!