Measuring the revenue process
🎯You'll be able to
Choose and calculate useful revenue-process numbers, and read them without fooling yourself.
🏠The everyday picture
A cricket team doesn't judge a season by one match. It looks at runs per over, wickets and catches dropped. A sales process needs a few numbers watched over time, not a single impression.
📘What it really is
- Useful RevOps numbers:
- lead volume by source;
- conversion rate at each stage (New → Contacted → Quote → Won);
- speed to lead and sales cycle length (days from lead to won);
- pipeline value: the total of open deals, sometimes weighted by stage;
- win rate and lost reasons;
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days to collect payment.
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Numbers are only as good as the data: consistent stages (Lesson 2) and recorded sources (Lesson 3) come first.
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Attribution (which channel deserves credit for a sale) is uncertain: a customer may see an ad, then visit the shop, then order on WhatsApp. Use UTM tags on links to track digital sources, but treat the results as a guide.
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Build a simple dashboard with a handful of numbers that answer real questions, and review it weekly with the team.
- Use numbers to find where to improve, not to blame individuals.
📝A worked example
Sharma Textiles' monthly wholesale funnel:
| Stage | September | October |
|---|---|---|
| New leads | 120 | 210 |
| Contacted | 84 (70%) | 189 (90%) |
| Quote sent | 50 | 98 |
| Won | 18 | 39 |
| Median first reply | 4 h | 12 min |
October's leads rose with the festive season, but the clearer change is contact rate: 70% to 90% after the routing automation (Lesson 3). Win rate from quote also rose, from 36% to 40%. The team decides the next focus is quotes, because 60% of quoted deals still don't convert.
🌍Where it's used
- Weekly sales meetings.
- Choosing where to automate next.
- Showing clients the value of the automation work.
📝Case scenario
An owner wants to stop Instagram ads because "they don't bring sales". The CRM shows few won deals with source "Instagram", but many customers say in calls that they found the shop on Instagram and then messaged on WhatsApp. You add a "How did you hear about us?" field and UTM-tagged WhatsApp links in ads, and agree to review after two months before deciding.
🖱️Try it
From your CRM or sample data, build a funnel table for two months with conversion rates between stages. Write one sentence on what changed and one action you'd take next.
⚠️Common mistakes
- Counting what's easy instead of what matters. Sign: lots of numbers, no decisions. Fix: start from the question the owner needs answered.
- Comparing periods of different lengths or sources. Sign: a "jump" that is really a holiday week. Fix: compare like with like and note what changed.
🛠️For your project
Your capstone case study reports numbers from your test runs. Label them as results on synthetic data, and say what you would measure with real data.
✅Quick check
What does a stage conversion rate show?
Show the answer
The share of deals that move from one stage to the next, which shows where deals get stuck.
Why treat attribution results as a guide rather than the full truth?
Show the answer
Customers often touch several channels before buying, and tracking can't see all of them.