The short version
- Track six counts: calls, conversations, meetings booked, meetings held, proposals and deals.
- The rate from each count to the next tells you more than any one count. Calls alone tell you effort, not what it produced.
- Work out the rates from your own team's last 8 to 12 weeks, because a benchmark from someone else's market won't fit yours.
- Work back from the monthly target to this week's calls, one rate at a time.
- Check the week on Wednesday, not Friday, so there's still time to change it.
What are sales activity metrics?
Sales activity metrics count what a salesperson does: the calls they make, the conversations they have, the meetings they book and hold, and the proposals they send. Results metrics count what comes out at the end: deals, revenue and win rate.
The difference that matters is timing. Activity moves first. If a rep's conversations drop in the first week of the month, the deals that should have come from them go missing three or four weeks later. By the time revenue shows the gap, the month is gone. Activity metrics let you see the gap while it's still a week you can change.
Which sales activity metrics matter most?
Six counts, in the order a deal moves through them:
| Count | What it counts | What a drop usually means |
|---|---|---|
| Calls made | Every outbound call attempt, answered or not | Time is going somewhere else |
| Conversations | Calls where you spoke to the person you wanted | Bad numbers, or calling at the wrong hours |
| Meetings booked | First meetings put in the diary | The opening isn't landing |
| Meetings held | Booked meetings that actually happened | No reminder, or meetings booked too far out |
| Proposals sent | Quotes or proposals after a meeting | Meetings with the wrong people |
| Deals closed | Signed or paid | Price, the buyer's timeline or a weak proposal |
Then the rate from each count to the next:
- Connect rate: conversations divided by calls made
- Conversation to meeting: meetings booked divided by conversations
- Show rate: meetings held divided by meetings booked
- Meeting to proposal: proposals divided by meetings held
- Proposal to deal: deals divided by proposals
Swap the names for your own steps. A financial advisor might count appointments set, first meetings and clients signed. A property agent might count listing calls, viewings and offers. The maths is the same.
Two more are worth a line on the weekly report. Follow-ups done on the day you promised them, because a missed callback is a lost conversation. And average deal value, because you need it to turn deals into money.
How many calls does it take to book a meeting? Work out your own ratios
Take one rep's last month. These numbers are made up to show the sums:
- 400 calls made and 60 conversations, so the connect rate is 60 / 400 = 15%.
- 20 meetings booked from 60 conversations: 1 in 3.
- 16 of the 20 meetings held: an 80% show rate.
- 8 proposals from 16 meetings: 50%.
- 3 deals from 8 proposals: 37.5%.
That's 400 calls for 3 deals, or about 133 calls per deal. At a made-up average of $5,000 a deal, the month brought in $15,000.
Use at least 8 weeks of numbers before you trust a rate. On one week, two extra no-shows can move a show rate by 20 points.
How many meetings does your team need to hit the month?
Now run the same rates backwards. Say the rep's target is $20,000 next month, and round up at every step, because you can't hold half a meeting.
- $20,000 / $5,000 a deal = 4 deals.
- 4 deals / 37.5% = 10.7, so 11 proposals.
- 11 proposals / 50% = 22 meetings held.
- 22 held / 80% = 27.5, so 28 meetings booked.
- 28 booked x 3 = 84 conversations.
- 84 conversations / 15% = 560 calls.
Divide by 4.33 weeks in a month: about 129 calls a week, which is 26 a day over five days. The same division gives about 19 conversations and 6 or 7 meetings booked a week.
The same sums show which step is worth fixing, if you keep everything else the same and change one rate:
| Change | Calls needed for 4 deals | Calls saved |
|---|---|---|
| None | 560 | 0 |
| Show rate 80% to 90% | 500 | 60 |
| Conversation to meeting 1 in 3 to 1 in 2.5 | 467 | 93 |
| Connect rate 15% to 18% | 467 | 93 |
| Proposal to deal 37.5% to 50% | 400 | 160 |
In this example, a better close on proposals saves more calls than anything else. On your team it may be a different step, and the table tells you which one to coach first.
The activity calculator does these sums for you, with your own rates.
Which metrics to track for each sales role
Not every rep owns every step. Track the counts each person controls:
| Role | Counts they own | The rate to watch |
|---|---|---|
| SDR or BDR, booking meetings for someone else | Calls, conversations, meetings booked | Show rate on the meetings they booked |
| Account executive or closer | Meetings held, proposals, deals | Proposal to deal |
| Full-cycle rep | All six | The weakest step this month |
| Field rep or property agent | Visits or viewings, offers, deals | Viewing to offer |
| Financial advisor | Appointments set, first meetings, clients signed | First meeting to signed client |
| Founder or solo seller | Conversations, meetings, deals, follow-ups | Follow-ups done on the day promised |
How to turn activity metrics into a weekly habit your team keeps
A metric only helps if someone looks at it while the week can still change.
- Every day: each rep logs calls and outcomes as they go. A call log with one row per call is enough (see the sales call log template).
- Wednesday: compare the week so far with the weekly numbers from the sums above. By the end of Wednesday a rep should be about 60% of the way there. Short on conversations? Look at calling hours and the list. Short on meetings? Listen to two calls.
- Friday: each rep sends a one-page report with the numbers against target and the stuck deals (see the weekly sales report template).
- Once a month: redo the rates from the last 8 to 12 weeks, then reset next month's weekly numbers.
Mistakes that make activity metrics lie
- Counting calls and nothing after them. A rep can make 80 calls to a dead list. Pair every count with the rate after it.
- Using someone else's benchmark. Rates change with the market, the list, the price and whether the lead asked to be called. Your own last 8 weeks is the benchmark that fits.
- Working out a rate from one week. Small numbers swing. Use 8 weeks or more.
- Rewarding the count alone. Pay or praise for dials, and you get dials. Put a conversation or meeting number beside it.
- Not logging calls nobody answered. Without them the connect rate looks better than it is, and the maths overstates what a call is worth.
- Adding emails and calls together. They convert at different rates, so keep them as separate counts.
- Tracking 20 things. Six counts and the rates between them are enough for most teams.
See where the week's activity drops off, step by step
This guide is free. ActivityTracker, the app we make, is paid. Reps log their activity from their phone as they go, and the numbers above add up without a spreadsheet.
- Calls, appointments and meetings are one tap each, logged with the time
- The funnel shows the rate at each step from appointment to deal over the last 7, 30 or 90 days, compared with the period before
- It names the step with the lowest rate and gives one line on what to try there
- A goal with a deadline shows what each month still needs
- A weekly leaderboard ranks the team by points from what they logged, with each rep's weekly target beside their points