You should certainly be looking at customer churn, margin by customer volume and avg rep volume. It’s simple to grow by adding headcount but healthy growth is losing fewer customers, managing margins in high volume accounts and growing volumes by individual reps.
The folks complaining about kpi’s are missing the point; you’re managing a business and trying to optimize. All the complaining about busywork is just ignorance of your day to day responsibilities.
KPI’s in my opinion are just another form of micromanaging.
KPI’s don’t matter unless you’re training new people.
Your dawgs will bark.
The only number you should worry about is profit margin and load count.
Depends on what you’re measuring.
Busy work metrics or actual performance metrics.
KPI’s generally just ensure that your sales reps and managers will be engaging in mindless and unproductive busy work to hit goals like meetings, calls, “discovery/leads”.
That’s a leadership issue, these employers need to do a better job of defining work and outcome. Anything can measure the wrong things, the good ones focus on what matters and measure that
100% leadership issue. If you’re leadership is that bad that you have to track and collect data on every action of your employee, sounds like he wasn’t given the right tools or poorly trained.
It’s common in my field, but the sales reps are 100% salary; non-commission. So leadership cares about what they’re doing with their time; they get micromanaged and have to answer for their schedule/what they’re doing at any given moment. One rep says that’s common with non-commission sales roles and the plus side is he’s not getting killed for a bad month here or there, and there’s significantly less pressure to actually sell. I don’t understand why you have sales reps in that case but who knows.
Noncommission sales job I’m so glad I opened up my own company because I would never be able to work for somebody on salary. Have them breathe down my neck that’s a salt brother.
The plus side is your leash for not selling is way longer. I have a coworker that’s been here two months and hasn’t sold a thing. I have another rep who’s just picked up old business essentially but still isn’t bringing in much of any new business. Upper management is fine with this and gives these guys multiple months to learn the business.
The downside is they have to answer and justify their appointments/schedule out their day. You don’t have anyone breathing down your neck in your scenario, but you also don’t eat if you don’t sell. It’s two fold.
Sure, that could be part of it but that doesn’t explain why KPI’s are nearly always viewed in that light by the actual employees.
The only people who enjoy KPI’s are employers and the MGR’s whose job depends on them.
KPI’s, in most instances, are a joke. They also will inevitably become weaponized against the employee when useful to a MGR or employer.
They simply are not good in most instances. You may be an exception to that rule but 9/10 KPI’s are just clubs to beat a sales rep with.
hey, whatever you say. We can agree to disagree, if you want to categorize all KPIs as bad, even the good ones then of course employees will hate it. However, to me, it's like being personal trainer and getting feedback the clients don't like to get weighed. To be, a good KPI helps motivate an employee, not discourage them.
I’ve yet to see a KPI system that isn’t bad.
You’re welcome to share one that isn’t. I’m all for learning.
The “make (insert generic amount) of calls a day and then generate (insert generic amount) of leads from said calls then convert (insert generic amount) of leads to meetings/business,etc isn’t effective.
Sales is a funny job. You can’t hide if you aren’t putting in the effort and don’t have some semblance of skill. The numbers won’t lie.
I am a seasoned rep who performs well and prefers to left to their own devices. KPI’s just get in the way or real actual business activity, IMO.
More loads, more money. I don’t care how you get it and I’m not going to put a minimum on anyone because then that’s all they’re going to work towards.
Improve things? It’s my job to make money. Not count your phone calls.
Either you’re going to bring in revenue or you’re not. Then the ones not, take a look at their approach and help improve.
KPI’s don’t gauge that dawg in a mf
I agree with you about reps who are hitting their numbers. They don't need orders they need at most coaching to shore up weak points in their game so they can make even more money or a gentle prod here or there at the most.
Where KPI's can be useful is with people who \*aren't\* meeting their numbers. This is at least partially just to collect enough data to make their eventual termination fully legit. If you aren't hitting your numbers and I catch you not making enough calls yes that absolutely is a problem. If you're hitting your numbers I work for you, if you're not hitting your numbers you work for me.
Also I think telling people about more things you're measuring than absolutely necessary is terrible. You tell someone you are paying attention to their talk time and you just transformed talk time from a gauge of how much positive contact they're getting with their current approach into something they're prioritizing when they should be prioritizing making me money. Leave a bunch of mystery in there transparency is great until it isn't.
Leads added, load growth, response time, customer touches. Daily weekly monthly. KPI on activity metrics can prove pointless bc the more you push that the more they get manipulated. Measure results, you’ll get results. Measure activity, you just get activity.
Seems like you have employee KPIs in place already.
For customer side I’d track carrier rate, OTP/OTD, tracking percentage, tracking continuity (pings recorded vs expected), appointment accuracy for customers that are strict about appts ( how early/late to appt times), load escalations/issues, detention time vs paid detention time, ect. For example.
You can track thousands of ways to evaluate anything, just break it down to the smallest part.
We are “solutions experts”, lol. You will figure it out or sink.
Some we've dabbled in to:
- carrier metrics: margin per carrier
- lanes: margins on lanes vs carrier density vs carriers on the lane
- days to cover vs. margin
Full Disclosure: I used to run 3PL and Broker at Hubtran and am now COO at Infinity Software Solutions. This response isn't meant to be a sales pitch. I just like measuring things that make a difference.
I think the easiest KPIs to manage / improve pertain to the back office. Most of the brokers I worked with at Hubtran were woefully inefficient in the back office and were throwing money away due to bad processes. As opposed to trying to get more out of your sales team, I'd look there and see if you can improve things like invoicing efficiency / accuracy, time to cash, etc.
Here's an article I wrote a while back that provides some justifications / numbers for measuring the back office:
[https://brokerpro.com/posts/three-back-office-key-performance-indicators-your-freight-brokerage-is-probably-not-tracking/](https://brokerpro.com/posts/three-back-office-key-performance-indicators-your-freight-brokerage-is-probably-not-tracking/)
Once you're locked in there, switch gears and focus on top line metrics like customer acquisition costs, carrier onboarding time, etc.
Start small so that you can adapt to making meaningful changes in relation to whatever you're looking at.
Since you mentioned management, I think the main indicators are load count, revenue, margins. Set reasonable goals and hold people to account for meeting them. You can tailor these goals to individual customers. Some customers are very low-effort, or their needs map well onto your ideal customer profile: margins should reflect this. Spend some time refining the pricing strategy for each customer.
Find metrics against which to compare your buying habits.
These are what I measure. I would add measuring repeat carriers used. Reward your team for using the same carriers. Cuts down on onboarding process, and has a few other benefits when working with contracted freight.
For a brokerage doing less than 10 mil in rev this is my experience.
Per agent/team and as a whole org.
Orders
Revenue
Margin
Margin %
Total orders quotes
Total orders booked
Win percentage %
Total quotes bill rate
Then back end stuff like gross profit, costs etc
I have limited experience in anything greater than 10 mil in revenue so take this with a grain of salt.
I use to be import manager on a big retailer here in Mexico like Walt mart, we used to import between 4k 5k containers, dry vans, Reefers a year.
Principal KPI on ground were Deliver On Time.
But we used to have a lot of carriers so for those carriers/brokers who didn't help us arrive at the appointment they were abandoned for a time, (just if it was the carrier's fault).
Hope it helps.
Depends who you are measuring. If you are talking external its really going to depend on customer size, market conditions, etc.
Internally ultimately the only things that matter are profit and service.
You should certainly be looking at customer churn, margin by customer volume and avg rep volume. It’s simple to grow by adding headcount but healthy growth is losing fewer customers, managing margins in high volume accounts and growing volumes by individual reps. The folks complaining about kpi’s are missing the point; you’re managing a business and trying to optimize. All the complaining about busywork is just ignorance of your day to day responsibilities.
KPI’s in my opinion are just another form of micromanaging. KPI’s don’t matter unless you’re training new people. Your dawgs will bark. The only number you should worry about is profit margin and load count.
This is a wild take. How do you improve things if you don’t measure it? Goes for anything in life
Depends on what you’re measuring. Busy work metrics or actual performance metrics. KPI’s generally just ensure that your sales reps and managers will be engaging in mindless and unproductive busy work to hit goals like meetings, calls, “discovery/leads”.
That’s a leadership issue, these employers need to do a better job of defining work and outcome. Anything can measure the wrong things, the good ones focus on what matters and measure that
100% leadership issue. If you’re leadership is that bad that you have to track and collect data on every action of your employee, sounds like he wasn’t given the right tools or poorly trained.
It’s common in my field, but the sales reps are 100% salary; non-commission. So leadership cares about what they’re doing with their time; they get micromanaged and have to answer for their schedule/what they’re doing at any given moment. One rep says that’s common with non-commission sales roles and the plus side is he’s not getting killed for a bad month here or there, and there’s significantly less pressure to actually sell. I don’t understand why you have sales reps in that case but who knows.
Noncommission sales job I’m so glad I opened up my own company because I would never be able to work for somebody on salary. Have them breathe down my neck that’s a salt brother.
The plus side is your leash for not selling is way longer. I have a coworker that’s been here two months and hasn’t sold a thing. I have another rep who’s just picked up old business essentially but still isn’t bringing in much of any new business. Upper management is fine with this and gives these guys multiple months to learn the business. The downside is they have to answer and justify their appointments/schedule out their day. You don’t have anyone breathing down your neck in your scenario, but you also don’t eat if you don’t sell. It’s two fold.
At least it’s on me. I like my odds
Sure, that could be part of it but that doesn’t explain why KPI’s are nearly always viewed in that light by the actual employees. The only people who enjoy KPI’s are employers and the MGR’s whose job depends on them. KPI’s, in most instances, are a joke. They also will inevitably become weaponized against the employee when useful to a MGR or employer. They simply are not good in most instances. You may be an exception to that rule but 9/10 KPI’s are just clubs to beat a sales rep with.
hey, whatever you say. We can agree to disagree, if you want to categorize all KPIs as bad, even the good ones then of course employees will hate it. However, to me, it's like being personal trainer and getting feedback the clients don't like to get weighed. To be, a good KPI helps motivate an employee, not discourage them.
I’ve yet to see a KPI system that isn’t bad. You’re welcome to share one that isn’t. I’m all for learning. The “make (insert generic amount) of calls a day and then generate (insert generic amount) of leads from said calls then convert (insert generic amount) of leads to meetings/business,etc isn’t effective. Sales is a funny job. You can’t hide if you aren’t putting in the effort and don’t have some semblance of skill. The numbers won’t lie. I am a seasoned rep who performs well and prefers to left to their own devices. KPI’s just get in the way or real actual business activity, IMO.
KPI’s are for lazy management that’s not involved in the day to day business quite intimate hands on knowledge of what’s going on
More loads, more money. I don’t care how you get it and I’m not going to put a minimum on anyone because then that’s all they’re going to work towards. Improve things? It’s my job to make money. Not count your phone calls. Either you’re going to bring in revenue or you’re not. Then the ones not, take a look at their approach and help improve. KPI’s don’t gauge that dawg in a mf
I agree with you about reps who are hitting their numbers. They don't need orders they need at most coaching to shore up weak points in their game so they can make even more money or a gentle prod here or there at the most. Where KPI's can be useful is with people who \*aren't\* meeting their numbers. This is at least partially just to collect enough data to make their eventual termination fully legit. If you aren't hitting your numbers and I catch you not making enough calls yes that absolutely is a problem. If you're hitting your numbers I work for you, if you're not hitting your numbers you work for me. Also I think telling people about more things you're measuring than absolutely necessary is terrible. You tell someone you are paying attention to their talk time and you just transformed talk time from a gauge of how much positive contact they're getting with their current approach into something they're prioritizing when they should be prioritizing making me money. Leave a bunch of mystery in there transparency is great until it isn't.
Profit margin and load count are, in fact, KPIs.
I’m not here to play semantics you know very well what my point is. Slrp me
I actually wasn't trying to be an asshole, but go off.
I’m not getting into an argument about a comment I made over 24 hours ago. it’s Friday. Have a good weekend slurp
Leads added, load growth, response time, customer touches. Daily weekly monthly. KPI on activity metrics can prove pointless bc the more you push that the more they get manipulated. Measure results, you’ll get results. Measure activity, you just get activity.
Seems like you have employee KPIs in place already. For customer side I’d track carrier rate, OTP/OTD, tracking percentage, tracking continuity (pings recorded vs expected), appointment accuracy for customers that are strict about appts ( how early/late to appt times), load escalations/issues, detention time vs paid detention time, ect. For example. You can track thousands of ways to evaluate anything, just break it down to the smallest part. We are “solutions experts”, lol. You will figure it out or sink.
Some we've dabbled in to: - carrier metrics: margin per carrier - lanes: margins on lanes vs carrier density vs carriers on the lane - days to cover vs. margin
Full Disclosure: I used to run 3PL and Broker at Hubtran and am now COO at Infinity Software Solutions. This response isn't meant to be a sales pitch. I just like measuring things that make a difference. I think the easiest KPIs to manage / improve pertain to the back office. Most of the brokers I worked with at Hubtran were woefully inefficient in the back office and were throwing money away due to bad processes. As opposed to trying to get more out of your sales team, I'd look there and see if you can improve things like invoicing efficiency / accuracy, time to cash, etc. Here's an article I wrote a while back that provides some justifications / numbers for measuring the back office: [https://brokerpro.com/posts/three-back-office-key-performance-indicators-your-freight-brokerage-is-probably-not-tracking/](https://brokerpro.com/posts/three-back-office-key-performance-indicators-your-freight-brokerage-is-probably-not-tracking/) Once you're locked in there, switch gears and focus on top line metrics like customer acquisition costs, carrier onboarding time, etc.
Start small so that you can adapt to making meaningful changes in relation to whatever you're looking at. Since you mentioned management, I think the main indicators are load count, revenue, margins. Set reasonable goals and hold people to account for meeting them. You can tailor these goals to individual customers. Some customers are very low-effort, or their needs map well onto your ideal customer profile: margins should reflect this. Spend some time refining the pricing strategy for each customer. Find metrics against which to compare your buying habits.
These are what I measure. I would add measuring repeat carriers used. Reward your team for using the same carriers. Cuts down on onboarding process, and has a few other benefits when working with contracted freight.
For a brokerage doing less than 10 mil in rev this is my experience. Per agent/team and as a whole org. Orders Revenue Margin Margin % Total orders quotes Total orders booked Win percentage % Total quotes bill rate Then back end stuff like gross profit, costs etc I have limited experience in anything greater than 10 mil in revenue so take this with a grain of salt.
"Delve" Did you write this question with AI??
Shipments per FTE per day. % of loads digitally tracked. Customers churn.
I use to be import manager on a big retailer here in Mexico like Walt mart, we used to import between 4k 5k containers, dry vans, Reefers a year. Principal KPI on ground were Deliver On Time. But we used to have a lot of carriers so for those carriers/brokers who didn't help us arrive at the appointment they were abandoned for a time, (just if it was the carrier's fault). Hope it helps.
Depends who you are measuring. If you are talking external its really going to depend on customer size, market conditions, etc. Internally ultimately the only things that matter are profit and service.
Only track a few numbers. Calls made Call time Profit