In the rush to generate leads and close sales, many businesses overlook the metrics that actually drive sustainable growth. Sure, you’re probably tracking sales, website visitors, or ad spend — but are you measuring the metrics that expose hidden inefficiencies, untapped revenue, and long-term performance?
At Sutra Analytics, we’ve helped dozens of businesses—especially in real estate, services, and product-based industries—build smarter systems for tracking what actually matters.
Here are the 5 underrated KPIs every business should be measuring — but most don’t.
1. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
What is CAC?
It’s the total cost involved in acquiring a single paying customer. This includes:
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Ad spend
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Marketing tools
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Sales salaries
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Agency fees
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CRM tools
Formula:CAC = Total Marketing & Sales Expenses / Number of New Customers
Why It’s Critical:
If you don’t know how much it costs to acquire a customer, you can’t tell if your business model is profitable.
Example:
A real estate agency spends ₹2,00,000 on ads and sales salaries in a month and gets 20 confirmed clients.
Their CAC = ₹10,000
If their average commission per client is ₹8,000 — they’re losing money without even realizing it.
2. Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
What is CLTV?
CLTV measures the total revenue you can expect from a customer throughout their relationship with your business.
Formula:CLTV = (Average Purchase Value) × (Purchase Frequency) × (Customer Lifespan)
Why It’s Critical:
When you compare CLTV to CAC, you get your profitability ratio. If CLTV is less than CAC — you’re burning cash.
Example:
An eCommerce business with an average sale value of ₹2,000 and average customer repeat rate of 3 times/year for 3 years = ₹18,000 CLTV
If their CAC is ₹3,000 — that’s a 6:1 return.
Now that’s sustainable!
3. Lead-to-Customer Conversion Rate
What is it?
It tells you how many leads turn into paying customers.
Formula:(Total Customers / Total Leads) × 100
Why It’s Critical:
You may be generating 1,000 leads a month — but if only 10 are converting, something’s broken in your funnel. This KPI reveals where leads drop off.
Use Case:
We helped a SaaS client identify that their lead-to-customer rate was just 1.8%.
After tightening their onboarding emails, improving demos, and reducing friction in checkout, it jumped to 6.5%, tripling their revenue with the same number of leads.
4. Customer Retention Rate
What is it?
The percentage of customers who return or continue to use your product/service over a period of time.
Formula:Retention Rate = ((E - N) / S) × 100
Where:
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E = Customers at end of period
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N = New customers acquired during the period
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S = Customers at start of period
Why It’s Critical:
Acquiring a new customer is 5 to 7 times more expensive than keeping an existing one. Retention increases brand trust, referral potential, and lifetime revenue.
Insight:
We worked with a subscription-based business where customer churn was nearly 30% every quarter. After implementing a feedback system + automation using Google Sheets & Apps Script, churn dropped to 12%.
5. Average Time to Conversion
What is it?
The average time it takes a lead to become a customer.
Why It’s Critical:
This metric helps you identify bottlenecks in your sales process.
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Is your sales follow-up too slow?
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Is your product demo delayed?
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Are leads stuck in decision paralysis?
Real Example:
A service-based company had an average conversion time of 21 days. After analyzing touchpoints and reducing unnecessary steps, we brought it down to 9 days, boosting cash flow and shortening the sales cycle.
Why Most Businesses Don’t Track These
Because these KPIs require systems to collect, analyze, and interpret data. Most businesses either:
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Rely on manual Excel sheets
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Don’t centralize their data
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Don’t know how to visualize insights
That’s where Sutra Analytics comes in.
What We Do at Sutra Analytics
We help businesses:
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Automate data capture using Google Apps Script
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Create live dashboards in Google Sheets or Data Studio
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Integrate CRMs, websites, and spreadsheets to build real-time KPI systems
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Provide custom solutions that work for your team — no fluff, no overengineering
Final Thoughts
These 5 KPIs may not appear in your monthly report — but they should. They’re not just metrics; they’re drivers of strategy, efficiency, and profitability.
Want to get a free audit of your business KPIs?
Let us build you a custom dashboard to track what really matters.
