For example, while it's very easy to measure the number of new customers, you should consider if this indicator adds any value to your goals or if you're just tracking it because it's easy to do. For example, each sales representative can view their individual progress and optimize it to ensure that it contributes to the overall success of the department. For example, management may want to ask very specific questions to a control group about the potential launch of a product. For example, if your number of leads is dwindling, you should put yourself in the shoes of your customers and teams to identify the reason, and not just blindly follow goals and objectives.
Many of the examples mentioned above are key performance indicators at the department level, as they focus on a very specific aspect of a company. For example, if you notice that the number of sales contracts has decreased in the last three months compared to the same period last year, you can examine whether it was caused by external factors (such as a pandemic) or internal factors (your sales team has shrunk and you don't have enough resources to fill the gaps). From this example, it's obvious that KPIs represent detailed specifications that are used to analyze the organization's objectives. Another way is to distinguish the different types of departmental indicators, such as sales indicators (for example, sales growth), marketing (for example, return on investment) or finance (for example, the current ratio), as we did in the previous KPI examples.
For example, the profit margin, which measures net profit as a percentage of income, or the current ratio, which is the ratio between current assets and current debts.
