Growth is essential to the survival of growing businesses.
While deep-pocketed enterprises can afford to incur annual losses, medium-sized companies must continually increase sales to cover costs, attract talent and invest in future expansion.
Tracking sales growth enables SMBs to monitor the effectiveness of their sales tactics and make informed, data-driven planning decisions.
In this article, you’ll learn how to calculate your sales growth, seven proven strategies to boost revenue numbers and which metrics matter for measuring progress.
Key takeaways from sales growth
Steady sales growth helps businesses compete, expand and plan for the future, even when rivals have bigger budgets.
Tracking the sales growth rate helps you spot problems early, assess which sales strategies work and make informed decisions.
Boost sales growth by refining buyer personas, building customer advocacy programs and prioritizing customer retention.
Pipedrive helps SMBs increase sales growth by tracking sales metrics, automating workflows and accelerating sales cycles with AI.
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What is sales growth?
Sales growth (or sales growth rate) is the percentage increase in a company’s sales revenue over a specific period.
The percentage measures how well your sales organization attracts customers, sells products and increases market penetration.
In SMB sales, this metric also provides key information that growing businesses can use to maximize resources, benchmark successes against competitors and make long-term strategic planning decisions that boost sales.
Imagine an IT company achieves 50% sales growth for two consecutive years.
If this year’s growth is only half that, the owner might consider hiring new sales staff or increasing the sales budget to maintain the same growth rate.
How to calculate sales growth
Calculating sales growth involves comparing sales in your current period with those in the previous period.
The sales growth rate formula makes this easy:
For example, if last year’s sales were $500,000 and your current sales are $600,000, then your sales growth is 20%.
Sales growth = (600 − 500) / 500 × 100 = 20%
While you can track sales growth over any period, monthly, quarterly and annual assessments are most common.
Most growing businesses benefit from applying all three to the sales growth formula because of the different insights they generate:
Month-over-month |
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Quarter-over-quarter |
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Year-over-year |
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Compare sales growth from one period to another to track performance over time. In general:
Higher, positive growth rates signal higher net sales and more revenue
Lower or negative sales growth rates indicate declining performance and the need for corrective measures, which you’ll learn about later
In addition to comparing current growth with past performance, you should also benchmark it against industry averages. Learn how to do that next.
How to track and analyze sales growth over time
Business owners need to know how to track metrics such as win rates, sales cycles and acquisition costs to identify exactly what to improve for the best results.
Bring your sales performance into sharper focus by tracking sales growth alongside these other important sales metrics:
Win rate |
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Sales cycle length |
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Average deal size |
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By tracking key metrics, you can see what a dip in sales growth actually means.
If your sales cycle length increases, it may indicate a problem with your pipeline. If the average deal size decreases, you could look for ways to cross-sell or upsell prospects.
A CRM lets you track these metrics automatically and centralize them in one place.
For example, Pipedrive customers can use the platform’s customizable dashboards to monitor the sales growth metrics that matter most.
Here’s what a potential dashboard could look like:
Users can also integrate the CRM with sales analytics and visualization tools such as SyncHub or Dear Lucy to create real-time dashboards.
Review key metrics regularly. Weekly or monthly monitoring will be frequent enough to spot issues quickly without requiring a significant chunk of every day for related tasks.
7 sales growth strategies to expand your business
Businesses that want to increase growth must manipulate one or more of four key levers: price, volume, acquisition and retention.
Here’s a summary of how each lever works:
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Here are seven practical strategies expanding businesses can use to pull one or more of these levers for sales growth success.
1. Use AI to speed up prospecting and outreach
AI sales tools enhance sales productivity and performance, allowing reps to spend more time with prospects most likely to convert.
McKinsey lists AI as one of the five ways “growth laggards” drastically improve revenue growth.
Note: In this study, a growth laggard is a company with a negative compound annual growth rate and a negative change in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).
McKinsey finds that companies can increase sales by 100 basis points through AI-driven for prospecting – equivalent to 10% or more of their total annual growth.
For example, Pipedrive’s AI-powered Notifications feature analyzes your pipeline and identifies leads with high conversion potential based on several factors.
The feature is easily accessible from anywhere in Pipedrive, so reps can ask which deals to focus on next.
Rather than sales development reps “guesstimating” which prospects will convert, Notifications flags relevant prospects and suggests next steps.
Sending cold outreach emails is also faster with Pipedrive.
The customer relationship management (CRM) system’s AI email writer creates personalized outreach messages in a few clicks using data from your CRM:
Pipedrive’s AI-powered Marketplace even helps reps work smarter by recommending relevant apps and integrations.
The marketplace analyzes your sales process, team size, industry and current tools to suggest effective app combinations.
When reps spend more time on high-quality leads through AI-assisted nurturing, sales growth quickly follows as they close more (and more valuable) deals.
2. Integrate your tool stack to drive efficiency
Connecting disparate tools through native automations means reps can spend more time selling and less time on busy work.
If your CRM, marketing automation platform and customer support tools don’t talk to each other, team members waste time copying and pasting data between platforms. Worse, they may miss important information.
Pipedrive’s Marketplace solves this disconnect by tying your CRM to the rest of your tech stack.
When a lead fills out a web form on your content management system (CMS), it creates a new lead in your CRM. When a deal moves to a new stage, it triggers an email without the rep having to open Outlook.
Alternatively, Pipedrive’s workflow automation feature lets you automate tasks without connecting different tools.
For example, when adding a lead to Pipedrive, you can automatically create a deal, assign it to the right sales rep and schedule a follow-up call.
Pipedrive in action· Home décor and interior design company Pole Design saves over two days each week using Pipedrive’s automations.
Integrating Pipedrive with Shopify through Zapier automatically creates form submissions and website orders into deals. It significantly simplifies order processing and customer interactions.
As owner Samuel Ficek says, Pipedrive is positioning the company for future success:
We’ll rely heavily on our efficient and automated processes as we continue to grow.
Pipedrive’s workflow automation and native integrations enable sales teams to complete essential tasks without lifting a finger. Reps get more time to spend on prospects, meaning more –(and potentially higher value) sales.
3. Create a cohort of customer advocates
A customer advocacy program helps growing businesses compete on shoestring budgets by turning delighted customers into high-converting sales tools.
An advocate’s authentic and organic recommendations are key factors in the decision-making process.
Consumers in the US and Europe report that recommendations from friends and family have the greatest influence on their purchasing decisions. Online reviews are the second-most-trusted source of recommendations.
Advocacy takes several forms, including:
Writing online reviews
Creating user-generated content
Participating in customer success stories
Referring colleagues and peers
Well-designed customer loyalty programs are an effective way of encouraging customer advocacy.
For example, hosting platform WPEngine offers agencies a range of benefits for agencies who join its partner program:
WPEngine incentivizes partners to recommend the brand to clients and colleagues in return for priority support and a directory listing.
Collaborate with the most active advocates to develop customer success stories and other sales tools that reps can leverage to convert more deals and drive sales growth.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys are another way to find and engage potential advocates.
Use Pipedrive’s SurveySparrow integration to send NPS surveys at regular intervals or after customer milestones and support requests. Here’s what a survey looks like:
Ask customers who consistently rate your company a nine or 10 to write a review or leave a testimonial.
4. Sharpen your ICPs and buyer personas
Increase sales growth and conversion rates by focusing on the highest-quality leads with well-defined ideal customer profiles (ICPs) and buyer personas.
Here’s what each term means:
ICPs are semi-fictional representations of your ideal company. These profiles include details such as industry, size and location.
Buyer personas are fictional representations of a specific buyer within a company. These personas include details like job title, responsibilities, goals, pain points, buying behavior and decision-making processes.
Here’s what a complete buyer persona looks like:
Create an ICP or buyer persona by identifying your best customers and their common traits.
Your CRM can help you filter customers with high CLVs, long-running subscriptions and low-support requests.
Then look for similar traits like:
Company size
Industry
Decision maker
Pain point
Goal
Tech stack
Use the information to create detailed ICPs and buyer personas that your sales team can refer to while prospecting.
These overviews make it easy for sales reps to build relevant prospect lists, score new leads and tailor outreach strategies.
Reps can use Pipedrive’s email segmentation feature to send the right message to each persona at scale.
Campaigns by Pipedrive allows sales and marketing teams to filter email lists based on demographic and campaign data – think industry, job role, email open rate and other criteria that align with ICPs or buyer personas.
Pre-made templates and WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editors enable anyone to create professional emails, while built-in email analytics lets teams track and optimize performance.
In both cases, ICPs and buyer personas help reps deliver the right message to the right prospects, thereby increasing sales growth.
Pipedrive in action: Full-service digital agency Spark Interactive has used Campaigns by Pipedrive to drive a 12% average annual increase in sales revenue.
Because the email marketing tool integrates seamlessly with Pipedrive, the agency can create, send and track campaigns from one place.
Spark Interactive also uses:
Pipedrive’s AI-powered Notifications to get real-time insights and personalized sales recommendations
Custom dashboards to track email volume, texts and other core activities
Automated workflows to eliminate repetitive work and keep prospects engaged
Custom fields to tag lead source, type of inquiry and landing page URL to improve marketing analytics
As Mackey Kandarajah, a marketing technology specialist at Spark Interactive, says:
With marketing and sales data housed in one place, the team gains a clear view of which content truly moves prospects, allowing them to refine strategy in real time and convert interest into long-term client relationships.
Centralizing sales and marketing efforts has helped Spark Interactive forecast predictable revenue without expanding its sales team.
Better understand your customers with our Buyer Persona Templates
5. Expand your sales team
Growing businesses with limited budgets need a high-performing team that aligns with their sales goals and customers.
Knowing how to find and hire top performers will help you build an efficient and effective team where each rep adds value and helps you grow.
Start by defining what you’re looking for. If you already have top sales performers, see what qualities make them effective salespeople in your industry. These may be:
Assertiveness
Inquisitiveness
Optimism
Organization
Honesty
Use these as a foundation for creating a compelling job description that highlights the skills, attributes and experience you’re looking for.
Once you’ve got some promising applicants, asking the right sales interview questions is also crucial.
Here are some key questions that help you assess each candidate’s qualities.
Must-ask sales interview questions:
How do you organize your day?
How would you explain our product or service in a single sentence?
How did you land your most successful sale?
How do you keep a smile on your face during a hard day?
Have you ever asked a prospect you lost why they chose not to buy?
Finally, keep the hiring process moving by tracking applicants’ progress so you can quickly see where each stands and follow up quickly.
Pipedrive customers can use their CRM as an applicant tracking system by creating a customized pipeline like the one below:
Add each candidate as a deal in your pipeline, complete with all the necessary information (resumes, notes, etc.) for decision-making.
The pipeline keeps you organized and on track so you can equip your team with the best available candidates and start growing sales faster.
6. Prioritize customer retention
Customer retention increases sales growth by delivering recurring revenue and reducing acquisition costs.
Every customer your business retains is one less prospect your sales team has to convert to meet your sales targets.
Businesses can use the following strategies to increase loyalty and boost retention rates:
Create a loyalty program | Why: Meaningfully reward continued business. How: Create a program that offers discounts, exclusive access to new features or other benefits based on spending. |
Provide exceptional customer support | Why: Keep customers happy by resolving issues quickly. How: Offer 24/7 chatbot support for instant responses. Create a knowledge base and community forum for self-service support. |
Personalize customer experiences | Why: Increase value by tailoring solutions to each customer. How: Use CRM data to personalize messaging. Create bespoke onboarding workflows. |
Collect and act on customer feedback | Why: Show users you value their opinions. How: Create a customer-led product roadmap. Offer multiple ways for customers to provide feedback, including web forms and email. |
While the strategies above encourage customers to renew on their own volition, reps should do everything they can to renew contracts before they lapse.
Give them the tools they need in the form of a customizable pipeline like this one:
Use Pipedrive’s workflow automation feature to create a trigger that moves a deal into the renewal pipeline three months before the contract ends.
Create a sales activity for the sales rep to contact the customer about their renewal and set periodic reminders every 30 days to ensure the rep doesn’t forget.
Combining rep-led outreach with the above retention strategies will minimize churn and maximize sales growth.
7. Experiment with new sales tactics
Sometimes, growing your sales requires an innovative new sales strategy or approach that reinvigorates your team and unlocks bigger deals.
Consider trying a new sales tactic if your sales growth has been in steady (but not severe) decline for the past few quarters. This new tactic could be the revitalizing approach your team needs.
Here are four proven sales methodologies to try:
Focus on four types of questions (situation, problem, implication and need payoff) to quickly identify the root of the problem and build a foundation for long-term success. | |
Teach prospects, take control of conversations and tailor sales processes to customer needs. | |
Outline how your product or service can help prospects overcome a problem. | |
Treat salespeople and prospects as equals who are both invested in the sale and want to come to mutually beneficial conclusions. |
Choose the right sales methodology for your business by pinpointing your team’s struggles.
If reps can’t gauge a prospect’s pain points, for example, a buyer-focused methodology makes sense. Try SPIN selling in this case.
If sales are taking too long to close, try a methodology that encourages reps to take more control. Challenger sales may work well.
Whichever method you choose, run regular sales coaching sessions to get your team up to speed and keep them on track. Observing your sales growth periodically – along with other sales KPIs – is an effective way to monitor team performance progress.
What does good sales growth look like?
What good growth in sales looks like depends on your company’s size, market and competition. The key is to compare yourself with similar companies in the same industry.
Well-established businesses may experience annual growth rates of 5%–10%, while tech startups can grow by 50% or more.
While specific industry benchmarks can be hard to find, the NYU Stern School of Business publishes a handy list of historical growth rates by sector that you can refer to.
Here are statistics for common business sectors as of January 2026:
Sector | Expected revenue growth, next two years |
Advertising | 8.26% |
3.15% | |
Business and consumer services | 5.13% |
10.49% | |
Green and renewable energy | 13.01% |
12.90% | |
19.73% | |
3.65% |
While you may be eager to beat industry benchmarks, sustainable growth is about generating steady, consistent sales and strong profit margins.
Final thoughts
Business sales growth results from deliberate choices, experimenting with new strategies and obsessively tracking your sales performance.
Consider using an AI-powered CRM like Pipedrive to give your sales team all the tools they need to succeed. Sign up for a 14-day free trial to see how your reps can work harder and smarter to close more deals.
