Why Leading Indicators are the Real Key to Sales Success

As sales leaders, we’re constantly looking at numbers. Revenue, closed deals, conversion rates—they’re the metrics that get us noticed, and they’re what our teams are often judged on. But here’s the thing: those numbers only tell us where we’ve been. They don’t tell us where we’re going.

In my time as CEO of Hive Learning & Perform, I’ve seen firsthand how the most successful teams aren’t the ones obsessing over past results—they’re the ones focusing on the daily actions that drive those results. That’s where leading indicators come into play. They are, quite simply, the controllable behaviors that shape the future of your sales outcomes.

🚀 Rethinking What Really Matters

There’s a natural tendency in sales to focus on lagging indicators. Why wouldn’t we? It’s human nature to want to celebrate the big wins—the deals closed, the revenue targets hit. But when we only focus on what’s already happened, we miss out on the opportunity to influence what’s coming next.

Leading indicators, on the other hand, are about those day-to-day efforts that shape the long-term results. It’s about understanding what you can control now to improve your chances of success down the road. And that’s where I believe more sales teams need to shift their focus.

Think of it like sports. A football team doesn’t win a championship by only watching the scoreboard; they focus on the drills, the practices, the plays that give them the best chance of success on game day. Sales is no different.

🌍 Why It’s More Important Now Than Ever

Sales post Pandemic is a different beast. We’re in a world of constant change—AI is reshaping how we work, customers are savvier than ever, and there’s increasing pressure to deliver faster results with fewer resources and that’s why I believe focusing on leading indicators is more critical now than it’s ever been. By paying attention to the daily actions we can control—things like the number of outreach efforts, follow-ups, and discovery calls—we’re not only improving our immediate performance, but we’re also laying the groundwork for sustainable success in the future.

🏗️ Building a Culture Around Ownership

One of the most powerful aspects of focusing on leading indicators is that it puts the power back in the hands of your team. In sales, there’s a lot that’s out of our control. We can’t guarantee a client will sign on the dotted line, or that the market won’t shift overnight. But what we can control is our effort, our preparation, and our engagement.

At Hive Perform, we’ve built our entire approach around this idea—empowering teams to take ownership of the things they can control. When your team understands the link between their daily actions and long-term success, they feel more motivated, more engaged, and more capable of influencing outcomes. They’re not just waiting to see how things turn out—they’re actively creating the result.

⚠️ The Pitfall of Lagging Indicators

I’ve seen it countless times—teams who are hyper-focused on results end up chasing their tails. They scramble to hit quarterly targets without realizing that the seeds of success are planted much earlier, in the small, everyday actions they’re taking (or not taking).

Lagging indicators can be a bit of a false comfort. Sure, they’re easy to measure and report, but by the time those numbers appear, it’s often too late to change the outcome. Instead, by tracking leading indicators, we give ourselves the chance to course-correct before the damage is done.

It’s like trying to lose weight by only checking the scale. The number tells you the result, but it’s the choices you make along the way—what you eat, how often you exercise—that really matter.

🧠The Leadership Perspective

As a leader, I’ve found that focusing on leading indicators not only helps boost team performance but also helps foster a healthier sales culture. It moves the conversation from “What’s gone wrong?” to “What can we improve today?”

For me, leadership isn’t about holding people accountable for results they can’t fully control. It’s about giving them the tools, insights, and support to focus on what they can control. When sales reps understand that their effort and behaviors have a direct impact on their success, it’s a game-changer.

⚖️Finding the Balance Between Leading and Lagging Indicators

That said, I’d be remiss not to acknowledge the value of lagging indicators. They still have an important role in measuring overall success. After all, those are the numbers that keep the lights on and show us how well we’ve performed. But the key here is balance. Lagging indicators give us the big picture, while leading indicators provide the daily roadmap. Focusing solely on lagging indicators leaves you reacting to results, but ignoring them altogether can leave you directionless. The sweet spot is understanding that leading indicators drive the actions that create those all-important results, and tracking both gives you a complete view of your team’s performance.

🔮 Looking Forward

At Hive Perform, we’ve seen firsthand how focusing on leading indicators changes not just sales teams but entire organizations. It’s about empowering teams to take control of their performance and giving leaders the data they need to make proactive, rather than reactive, decisions.

So, if you’re still relying on lagging indicators to measure success, I would highly suggest to make a shift. Look at the behaviors driving your results and focus on optimizing those. The numbers will follow, but the real power is in what you do today to shape tomorrow.