9 Important Key Performance Indicators (KPI) for Those in Logistics & Supply Chain Sales and Marketing

Are you tracking the right key performance indicators (KPIs)? Some logistics and supply chain companies pay little or no attention to KPIs. Instead, they focus their time and attention strictly on generating sales. While sales volume itself is a KPI, there are several other KPIs that can help you streamline a more effective sales and marketing process. So, what KPIs should you track for supply chain and logistics sales and marketing exactly?

#1) Average Cost Per Lead

As the name suggests, average cost per lead is a KPI that reveals how much money your material handling company spends to acquire leads. The cost of a lead can vary depending on countless factors. With that said, it's not uncommon for companies to have an average cost per lead of $5 to $50. If you are not sure what your cost per lead is, the only way you'll know is to start tracking your average cost per lead.

Remember, cost per lead differs from its place of origin. For instance, the cost for a website lead is going to be different than a lead from a Project Report from SalesLeads. The Project Report had already an identified project, or sales lead. The cost of that process has already been reduced.

#2) Cost of Customer Acquisition

Not to be confused with cost per lead, cost of customer acquisition reflects how much your supply chain or logistics company spends to acquire customers. Leads, of course, are only valuable if you're able to convert them into customers. By tracking the cost of customer acquisition, you'll know how much money your company spends, on average, to acquire new customers.

#3) Customer Retention Rate

While speaking of cost of customer acquisition, statistics show that it costs five to 25 times more money to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing customer. Therefore, it's a good idea to track your supply chain or logistics company's customer retention rate. This KPI shows the percentage of customers who stay with your company during a given period. If 800 out of 1,000 customers stayed with your   company last year, your material handling company's customer retention rate for that year would be 80%.

#4) Customer Lifetime Value

How much money does a typical customer spend over the course of his or her professional relationship with your B2B company? Known as customer lifetime value, it's an important KPI for material handling companies. Not all customers make a one-time purchase. You'll probably discover some customers make multiple purchases over time. Customer lifetime value is the average amount of money a customer spends with your company.

#5) Conversion Rate

Arguably, one of the most important marketing and sales KPIs is conversion rate. Of course, conversion rate is the percentage of leads or prospects whom you are able to convert into customers. You can track this KPI per marketing or sales channels. If you send 500 emails that result in 50 new sales, the conversion rate of your email campaign is 10%. On the other hand, if you call 500 leads, which generates 100 new sales, the conversion rate of your calling campaign is 20%. Conversion rate reflects the effectiveness of a marketing or sales campaign. As a result, it's an important KPI for material handling companies to track.

#6) Average Order Value

Another important KPI to track is average order value. Average order value is the average amount of money customers spend when making a purchase. Some customers will purchase more products or services than other customers. Furthermore, a customer may purchase multiple units of a particular product or service. You'll have a better understanding of how much money customers spend when placing orders by tracking your supply chain or logistics company's average order value.

#7) Social Media Engagement

Considering most businesses and business professionals have a LinkedIn profile, you should track social media engagement. Social media engagement can include any form of "action" taking by a user. On LinkedIn this could be connections, comments and shares. On Twitter, this may include likes, comments and retweets. Ideally, your  company's social media engagement should grow, which indicates that more people are talking about it on social media networks.

#8) Cold Calling Response Rate

Assuming you use cold calling in your supply chain or logistics company's outreach strategy, you should track your cold calling response rate. This KPI reflects the percentage of contacts whom you are able to reach with cold calling. If you cold call 100 leads and prospects but only reach 10 of them on the line, your cold calling response rate is 10%. Like all other KPIs listed here, you should strive to increase your company's cold calling response rate. If you don’t know already, find that best time when they answer the phone. Track when they answer the phone. Is it mostly early in the morning before 8? Lunch? Or after 4:00? This will help you to maximize your efforts.

#9) Website Traffic

If your material handling company has a website -- which it should -- tracking its traffic can help give you a better understanding of the effectiveness of your marketing and sales efforts. When website traffic increases, it suggests more people are finding it through common channels like search engines, browser type-ins, referrals, etc.

Being able to track the various ways you get leads will help you know where to spend your money and time. Consider SalesLeads for 2020s budget. You’ll get identified projects that gets you right in the sales process. For more information, visit us at www.salesleadsinc.com.