Sales Targets and KPIs for Your Sales Team
How to set sales targets your team can hit, the sales KPIs worth tracking (activity, pipeline, conversion, deal size) and weekly sales reviews.
By Paul Omondi, Founder & CTO · Updated
Good sales targets are built from your numbers, not wished for: start from the revenue you need, work back to the deals, leads and activity it takes, and set each person a target they can reach with effort. Then track a small set of KPIs every week - activity, pipeline, conversion and deal size - so you can coach before a month is lost, not after.
How to set sales targets, step by step
- Start from the goal. What revenue does the business need this month or quarter?
- Divide by your average deal size to get the number of deals needed.
- Divide by your conversion rate to get the number of qualified leads or opportunities needed.
- Work back to activity: how many visits, calls or meetings it takes to create one qualified lead.
- Split across the team by territory potential and experience - a new hire in probation should not carry the same target as your best performer.
- Sense-check: if the required activity is more than a person can do in a working week, the target is unrealistic, or the process needs to change.
A worked example
| Step | Calculation | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly revenue goal | Set by the business | KES 1,200,000 |
| Average deal size | From last quarter's sales | KES 40,000 |
| Deals needed | 1,200,000 / 40,000 | 30 deals |
| Close rate on qualified leads | From last quarter's CRM data | 25% |
| Qualified leads needed | 30 / 25% | 120 leads |
| Team of four | 120 / 4 | 30 qualified leads per person per month |
Illustration only. Use your own figures from your CRM or sales records.
If each salesperson can create about two qualified leads a day, thirty a month is achievable. If they create one a day, the target needs more people, better lead sources, or a higher close rate.
The sales KPIs worth tracking
| KPI | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Revenue against target | The outcome - but it arrives too late to coach on its own |
| Deals closed | Volume of wins |
| Average deal size | Whether salespeople sell the right products and protect price |
| Conversion rate by stage | Where deals get stuck - lead to meeting, meeting to proposal, proposal to close |
| Pipeline value | Whether next month's sales are already in progress |
| Sales cycle length | How long deals take, which drives forecasting and cash flow |
| Activity: visits, calls, meetings | Effort - the leading indicator you can act on daily |
| Collections | Whether sales turn into cash, critical where customers buy on credit |
For field sales and FMCG, add outlets visited, strike rate (the share of visits that produce an order), lines per order and new outlets opened.
Pick five or six of these for the team. Tracking twenty KPIs means nobody acts on any of them.
Run a weekly sales review
Keep it short and the same every week - 30 to 45 minutes:
- Results so far against the monthly target.
- Pipeline: the deals expected to close this month, and what each needs to move forward.
- Activity: last week's visits, calls and meetings against plan.
- One thing to improve for each person, agreed with them.
- Help needed: pricing approvals, stock, support from a manager.
Base the review on data from your CRM, not memory - it makes the conversation fair and saves time.
Linking targets to pay
Commission and bonuses work best when they reward what you actually value - margin or collected revenue rather than discounted sales - and when salespeople can calculate them themselves. See sales commission in Kenya.
When someone keeps missing target
Use the KPIs to find the cause: too little activity, poor conversion at one stage, or small deal sizes. Agree a specific improvement plan in writing, coach, and review it after a fixed period. If poor performance continues and you consider ending employment, the Employment Act requires a valid reason and a fair procedure - including explaining the reason and hearing the employee - so keep a record of the targets, reviews and support you gave. See termination and redundancy in Kenya.
Targets should stretch people, not break them. If most of your team misses target every month, the problem is usually the target or the process, not the people - and constant failure drives your best salespeople to leave.
How Cazini helps
Cazini's built-in CRM gives your team a pipeline board with your own stages, a Sales Assistant that answers questions about your own leads, AI-written follow-up drafts and sales reports - so your weekly review runs on live data. See CRM, and our guide to choosing a CRM for a small business in Kenya.
Frequently asked questions
How do I set sales targets for my team?+
Start from the company's revenue goal, work out how many deals it needs at your average deal size, then how many qualified leads and activities each salesperson needs at your conversion rate. Adjust for each territory and person's experience, and review monthly.
What are the most important sales KPIs?+
Revenue against target, number of deals closed, average deal size, conversion rate at each pipeline stage, pipeline value, sales cycle length, and activity levels such as visits, calls and meetings. For field sales and FMCG, add outlets visited, strike rate and collections.
How often should sales targets be reviewed?+
Review progress weekly and targets monthly or quarterly. Weekly reviews let you coach early; changing targets too often makes them meaningless.
What should happen when a salesperson misses target?+
Look at the activity and conversion numbers to find where the problem is, agree a specific improvement plan in writing, coach, and review it after a fixed period. If you consider termination for poor performance, Kenyan law requires a fair reason and a fair procedure.
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