Choose your metrics carefully. They're choosing your culture.
Revenue per rep: Yesterday's thinking.
Retention per relationship: Tomorrow's advantage.
Deal size: What you sold.
Deal satisfaction: What you delivered.
Conversion rate: How many said yes.
Referral rate: How many said wow.
Pipeline value: What might happen.
Customer lifetime value: What will happen.
Here's the thing about metrics: they don't just measure behavior. They create it.
Track revenue per rep, and you'll get a team of individual heroes burning through prospects like kindling. Track retention per relationship, and you'll get partnership builders who think beyond the quarter.
Focus on deal size, and reps will stretch every opportunity until it snaps. Focus on satisfaction, and they'll right-size deals for the long game.
Celebrate conversion rates, and you'll build a closing machine. Celebrate referral rates, and you'll build a relationship engine.
The difference? Compound interest.
Yesterday's metrics create quarterly sprints that leave everyone exhausted. Tomorrow's metrics create sustainable growth that gets stronger with time.
Your dashboard isn't neutral. It's programming your people to optimize for what you're watching. And right now, most sales teams are optimizing for metrics that made sense when handshakes closed deals and relationships lasted decades.
But we're not selling in that world anymore.
Choose wisely. Your metrics are choosing your future.
Pro tip: After every deal, ask: "How likely are you to refer us?" Anything less than 9? Ask what would make it a 10. The gap between delivery and advocacy is where breakthroughs live.