Key Performance Indicators

2. Sales

2.1 Enquiry levels (or number of leads, or quotes given) provide early warning of any peaks or troughs in your sales.

• Monitor where the enquiries come from, to establish which marketing campaigns work.
• If you have an established enquiry to sales ratio, and know the size of an average sale, you can use the enquiry level to forecast turnover.

2.2 Building up the orderbook is a key objective of most businesses.

• The 'orderbook cover' figure compares the total value of your orderbook to breakeven sales for one month. A six-month orderbook means that you could survive for six months without making another sale.

2.3 When reviewing sales, monitor the figures that show what is happening:

• Which categories of product are selling well?How are your priority products (those with the best margins and the best payment terms) selling?
• What has each salesperson achieved?
• Are your conversion rates (the ratio of leads to sales) changing?