Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

The discipline of KPIs is selection. Anything can be measured; KPIs are the handful of numbers that would change a decision if they moved. For a service business that usually means qualified inquiries, cost per qualified inquiry, close rate, and revenue per channel.

KPIs work best arranged in a tree: a north-star revenue metric at the top, the three or four drivers beneath it, and the operational metrics each team can directly influence at the bottom. This keeps daily work connected to business outcomes.

The most common failure is tracking everything and committing to nothing: a dashboard of forty metrics is a way to avoid accountability, not create it.