Here’s a familiar scene every January: You open your dashboard – a miracle of modern measurement – and it stares back at you like an overstuffed suitcase you’re supposed to zip shut.
Revenue forecasts. Pipeline stages. Conversion rates. Email engagement. Customer retention. Satisfaction scores. Forecast accuracy. I sometimes expect it to ask for my cholesterol levels and the miles on my car.
Like most promo pros in sales leadership, I’ve spent years trying to wrestle all these metrics into order. And somehow, every January, there’s this pressure to add even more. New KPIs. New dashboards. New tracking templates, each more color-coded than the last. It’s not that measurement is bad. It’s that measurement without meaning is exhausting.
Michele Schwartz, CAS
Director of Sales, PPAI
This year, let’s take a different approach – not more goals, just clearer ones.
I’m setting KPIs for my KPIs.
Yes, that sounds like something you’d say after too much cold brew. But stay with me. What I mean is I’m creating a simple filter to check whether the metrics I’m tracking are actually useful. In other words, I’m giving my KPIs their own job descriptions. If they’re not pulling their weight, they’re getting reassigned.
It’s not about being clever. It’s about staying sane.
The Real Problem Isn’t Metrics – It’s Measurement Sprawl
Every sales team accumulates KPIs like an attic accumulates holiday décor: slowly, innocently … and then suddenly you’re tripping over it. Some metrics were introduced because we needed to solve a real problem. Others arrived as part of a software rollout. A few were someone’s pet project. Some we inherited from a predecessor whose logic has long since left the building.
Before you know it, you’ve got 37 things you’re supposed to pay attention to, and only five of them actually change your behavior.
It’s not sustainable, and it’s not helpful. When everything is a priority, nothing is. So this January, I’m sitting down not with a new template or a 12-tab spreadsheet but with a simple question:
“What decisions did this metric actually help me make last year?”
You learn a lot from that exercise. Some KPIs shine. Some fizzle. Some exist only because we’re used to them being there.
3 Questions Every KPI Has To Answer
Here’s the filter I’m using – the KPIs for my KPIs:
Does this metric guide action? If a number goes up or down and our team doesn’t adjust a thing, that metric is decorative, not functional. This applies to the industry, too. We’re surrounded by data, but the good information is the kind that changes what someone does next.
Is it connected to revenue, relationships or retention? Most useful metrics tie back to one of those three. If a KPI doesn’t help us sell smarter, serve better or keep customers longer, it needs reevaluation.
Is it simple enough for my team to understand and remember? I’m all for sophistication, but if I need a decoder ring to explain a metric in a team meeting, we’ve gone too far.
Metrics should be like weather reports: Clear, straightforward and a reasonable guide to what you should wear that day.
What I’m Letting Go
I’m letting go of the vanity metrics – the ones that made us feel busy but didn’t help us be better. I’m letting go of the charts no one looked at unless I brought them up. I’m letting go of KPIs that were technically interesting but operationally irrelevant.
And maybe most importantly, I’m letting go of the idea that more metrics means more control. In reality, more metrics usually just means more noise.
This year is about clarity. Focus. Decisions. It’s about making room for the metrics that actually support growth, both personal and professional.
Your Year Ahead
If you’re exhausted by dashboards or frustrated by metrics that don’t move the needle, consider giving your KPIs a performance review of their own. Don’t start with a bigger list. Start with a better one. Narrow it down to the numbers that earn their keep and let the rest take the year off.
We all want to start January strong. Sometimes that strength comes not from setting more goals but from choosing smarter ones. If that means setting KPIs for your KPIs, well, maybe that’s not such a ridiculous idea after all.
After all, if the past few years have taught us anything, it’s that clarity beats complexity every single time.
