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Define the stages locally
Terms such as marketing-qualified lead and sales-qualified lead vary across organizations. Write the entry and exit rules before using the labels in a report. Record whether a stage represents a person, an enquiry, an account or an opportunity.
The formulas below are an original metric dictionary template. They are not industry benchmarks or universal CRM defaults. Download the CSV to add your field names, owners and definitions.
A practical metric dictionary
| Metric | Formula or definition | Key qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Eligible enquiries | Unique responses meeting the stated inclusion rule | Exclude test, spam and duplicates consistently |
| Acceptance rate | Accepted eligible enquiries ÷ eligible routed enquiries | Use equivalent disposition windows |
| Opportunity creation rate | Enquiries producing an eligible opportunity ÷ eligible enquiries | Define matching and one-to-many handling |
| Win rate | Won opportunities ÷ eligible closed opportunities | State treatment of losses and no-decision |
| Cost per accepted enquiry | Relevant program cost ÷ accepted enquiries | Use the same cost basis |
| Cost per opportunity | Relevant program cost ÷ eligible opportunities created | Do not mix cohorts and period totals |
| Stage duration | Time between defined entry and exit events | State median or other statistic and exclusions |
| Unique pipeline | Value of distinct eligible opportunities | State stage and valuation basis |
| Influenced pipeline | Eligible value linked by an influence rule | Overlaps may prevent summation |
A zero denominator makes a rate undefined, not zero. A missing status means unknown unless a documented rule establishes otherwise.
Choose cohort or period reporting deliberately
A cohort tracks records that entered during a defined period and follows them forward. A period report counts events that occurred during the period, possibly from many earlier cohorts. Both are useful, but combining their numerators and denominators can create meaningless conversion rates.
Reconcile identity and timing
Inspect duplicates, account/contact relationships, late updates and overwritten source fields. Salesforce’s data-quality guidance highlights duplicate records; your process also needs stage and time consistency. A clean chart cannot compensate for unstable record meaning.
Connect the metric to an action
For each measure, state what decision it informs and who investigates a change. Low acceptance could reflect targeting, qualification, missing context or sales capacity. The KPI identifies a question; it does not establish the cause.
Keep credit and causality separate
Attribution assigns credit under a model. Use it to describe observed paths with its rules visible. Do not interpret influenced pipeline as independently created revenue or add overlapping campaign amounts into a unique total.