One of the crucial lessons in planning for sales organizations is understanding leading and lagging indicators. Too often, we are focused solely on lagging indicators—things like sales numbers, market share, and profitability. These are important, but they’re outcomes, not inputs. But by the time we have information, it’s retrospective. The game has been played, and those lagging indicators are simply the scoreboard at the end of the quarter or year.
The challenge here is that if we look only at this information, we end up reacting to what has already happened. There’s no way to make adjustments to improve outcomes before it’s too late. To make real progress, we have to also focus on leading indicators—the actions that predict future success and that we can control and adjust in real time.
When we work with organizations, we begin by helping them understand the difference between leading and lagging indicators. This is a big mindset shift. We identify key lagging indicators and then specific leading indicators to establish baselines and set clear targets. This way, everyone understands not just what success looks like but what progress looks like along the way.
Lagging Indicators: The End Goals
Lagging indicators are what most executives and sales teams look for instinctively. We need to make sure there is clarity on what those end goals are and set realistic expectations about the timeline needed to achieve them. These are what we call outcome-based metrics— they show the final score.
They include metrics such as:
-Increased revenue: Did we drive more sales with our strategic accounts?
-Customer satisfaction: Are our customers reporting positive experiences?
-Market share and profitability: Have we grown our market footprint and increased our margins?
Leading Indications: Moving the Dial
Leading indicators are the actions we take. They are the processes, the behaviors, and the commitments we can control now. If we set and manage leading indicators properly, the lagging indicators will naturally follow. It’s like planting seeds—you need to focus on watering them and making sure they get sunlight. The harvest is the result, but without attention to the growing conditions, there will be no crop to measure at the end of the season.
By consistently turning the dial on these leading indicators, we ensure that we’re not just hoping for better results; we’re creating the conditions that make those results inevitable. This helps to build a sense of progress, even before the big wins come in, and keeps everyone aligned and motivated.
Some examples of leading indicators include:
Number of strategic account planning sessions held. Are account managers sitting down regularly to plan and align their work with customer objectives? These planning sessions are critical—they ensure that we are not just reacting to customer needs but anticipating them and aligning our actions with the strategic goals of the account.
Quality of stakeholder engagement. We measure engagement by looking at how many stakeholders from different parts of the customer’s organization we’re interacting with and the depth of those relationships. Are we broadening our contact base within the customer’s company, reaching key influencers, and truly understanding their needs?
Adherence to strategic account plans: Another important leading indicator is whether account managers are actively working from their strategic plans. It’s easy to create a great plan and then get sidetracked by firefighting and the day-to-day grind. We need to track whether they are consistently executing against their strategy—checking back in on their plans and making necessary adjustments.
Leading indicators are practical metrics that tell us whether the behaviors we’re looking for are happening. They are within our control and can be adjusted in real time if something isn’t working. If a strategic account manager isn’t engaging key stakeholders enough, for instance, we can course-correct immediately. Leading indicators allow us to diagnose issues early and take action before they negatively impact the final outcomes.
Aligning Around Leading Indicators
For leading indicators to work, everyone needs to be on the same page. A big part of our executive briefings involves helping senior leadership understand leading indicators and why they matter. Executives often want to see immediate results, especially if they’re investing significantly in a strategic account management program. But real transformation takes time, and that’s where leading indicators come in—they allow us to show tangible, measurable progress, even if the end goal might still be 18 or 36 months away.
When we present this concept to executives, a light bulb goes on. They start to see that they don’t need to wait years to know if progress is being made in their plans. They can track progress on the leading indicators and gain confidence that the lagging results will follow. This alignment is key because if executives don’t understand the value of leading indicators, they may grow impatient, misunderstand the progress being made, and ultimately cut support for initiatives before they’ve had time to succeed.