Which Metrics Really Matter for LSP Growth?

You're tracking something. Maybe revenue (obviously). Maybe number of projects. Maybe word count. You might have a spreadsheet somewhere with numbers you look at occasionally when you remember.

But are you tracking the metrics that actually tell you if your business is healthy and growing? Or are you measuring activity instead of progress?

Here's the thing: most LSPs track too many meaningless metrics or too few meaningful ones. They're either drowning in data that doesn't drive decisions, or flying blind hoping revenue trends upward.

Let's talk about the metrics that actually matter, the ones that tell you what's working, what's broken, and where to focus your energy for growth.

Why Most LSP Metrics Are Useless

Before we get to what you should track, let's talk about what you shouldn't waste time on.

Total word count. Who cares if you translated a million words this year if half were at rates so low you barely broke even? Volume without profitability is just being busy, not building a business.

Number of projects. Cool, you handled 200 projects this quarter. Were they profitable? Did they come from good clients or nightmare clients? Did they require 10 hours of PM time or 2? The number alone tells you nothing.

Number of translators in your network. Having 500 translators sounds impressive until you realize you only work with 20 regularly and half the database is outdated contacts.

Website traffic or social media followers. Unless you're tracking how many actually convert to paying clients, these are vanity metrics that make you feel productive without moving your business forward.

Response time to inquiries. Sure, responding fast is good. But if you're responding instantly to bad-fit prospects while ignoring better opportunities, you're optimizing the wrong thing.

See the pattern? These metrics measure activity, not outcomes. They make you feel like you're tracking progress when you're really just counting things.

The Core Financial Metrics

Let's start with the foundation: money. If your financial metrics are broken, nothing else matters.

Revenue (But Slice It Right)

Total revenue is fine, but it's not enough. Break it down:

• Revenue by client. Which clients generate the most revenue? This tells you where to focus relationship-building and upsell efforts.
• Revenue by language pair. Where's your bread and butter? This guides marketing focus and translator network development.
• Revenue by service type. Is it translation, interpretation, localization, or transcreation? Knowing this helps you position your offerings.
• Retainer vs. project revenue. What percentage comes from recurring clients vs. one-offs? This tells you how stable your business actually is.

The goal isn't just "more revenue", it's understanding where revenue comes from so you can make strategic decisions about where to grow.

Profit Margin (The Number Most LSPs Ignore)

Revenue is great. Profit is better. You can have a million-dollar revenue LSP that's barely surviving, or a $300K LSP that's highly profitable.

Track your margin by:

• Client. Some clients are nightmares: endless revisions, delayed payments, scope creep. They might bring revenue, but kill profitability. Knowing who's actually profitable lets you make smart decisions about who to keep.
• Project type. Maybe technical translation is highly profitable for you, but marketing copy has razor-thin margins because of revision cycles. This tells you what to specialize in.
• Language pair. Some pairs have high translator costs and limited margins. Others are goldmines. Structure your pricing and marketing accordingly.

Aim for 30-40% profit margins on projects. If you're consistently below 20%, something's wrong with your pricing, your efficiency, or your client selection.

Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

How much does it cost you to acquire a new client? If you're spending $2,000 in time and marketing to land a client who brings $1,500 in lifetime value, that's not growth, it's bleeding money.

Track: Time spent on sales and marketing + direct marketing costs ÷ number of new clients acquired

If your CAC is too high, you either need to improve conversion rates, reduce sales cycle time, or increase customer lifetime value (which brings us to the next metric).

Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)

How much revenue does an average client bring over their entire relationship with you?

CLV = Average project value × Number of projects per year × Average client lifespan

If your average client brings $5,000 in the first year but churns after one project, that's a problem. If they bring $3,000 the first year but stick around for three years bringing $10,000 total, that's a better business.

You want CLV to be at least 3x your CAC. Ideally 5-10x. This tells you whether your business model is sustainable.

The Operational Metrics That Actually Matter

Financial metrics tell you if you're making money. Operational metrics tell you if you can keep making money as you grow.

Translator Utilization Rate

What percentage of your translator network are you actually using regularly?

If you've got 200 translators in your database but only work with 30, you've got a management problem. Either your database is bloated with old contacts, or you're not effectively matching projects to the right translators.

Track: Number of translators who worked on projects in the last 90 days ÷ Total active translators

Aim for 40-60% utilization. Lower means you're maintaining relationships you don't need. Higher might mean you need to expand your network for capacity.

On-Time Delivery Rate

What percentage of projects are delivered on or before the deadline?

This is non-negotiable for client retention. Track it obsessively. If you're below 95%, you have a serious problem that will kill your reputation.

But also track why deadlines are missed. Is it translator issues? Scope creep? Client-provided delays? Fixing the root cause matters more than the metric itself.

Revision Rate

What percentage of projects require revisions?

Some revisions are normal, clients change their minds, catch errors, adjust based on feedback. But if you're doing significant revisions on more than 10-15% of projects, something's broken in your quality process, translator selection, or project scoping.

Track not just how often revisions happen, but why. This tells you where to improve.

Time to Delivery

How long does it take from project start to final delivery?

Shorter isn't always better (quality matters), but knowing your average helps you quote realistic timelines and identify bottlenecks. If projects consistently take 2x longer than quoted, you're either estimating poorly or your process has inefficiencies.

Tools like Awtomated help you automatically track delivery timelines across projects, making it easy to spot patterns and identify which types of projects or which translators consistently hit deadlines vs. which cause delays.

The Client Health Metrics

These tell you if your client relationships are strong or about to break.

Client Retention Rate

What percentage of clients who worked with you last year are still working with you this year?

Client retention = (Clients at end of period - New clients) ÷ Clients at start of period × 100

Aim for 80%+ retention. Lower means you're constantly having to replace lost clients, which is expensive and exhausting.

Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Would your clients recommend you to others?

Ask: "On a scale of 0-10, how likely are you to recommend our services to a colleague?"

• 9-10 = Promoters
• 7-8 = Passives
• 0-6 = Detractors

NPS = % Promoters - % Detractors

Aim for an NPS above 50. Below 0 means you have serious problems. This is one of the best predictors of whether clients will stick around and refer others.

Repeat Client Rate

What percentage of your revenue comes from repeat clients vs. new clients?

If 80%+ of your revenue comes from repeat clients, you've built a sustainable business. If you're constantly chasing new clients just to maintain revenue, you have a retention problem.

Average Project Value

Is the average project value increasing or decreasing over time?

Growing average project value usually means you're moving upmarket, landing bigger clients, or upselling existing clients. A shrinking average project value might mean you're competing on price or attracting smaller clients.

The Growth Indicators

These metrics tell you if you're actually growing (not just staying busy).

Month-over-Month Revenue Growth

Are you growing? Most businesses should aim for 5-10% month-over-month growth in the early stages, stabilizing to 2-5% as you mature.

Track this consistently. Three months of declining MoM revenue is a red flag that needs immediate attention.

Pipeline Value

What's the total value of potential projects in your sales pipeline?

Your pipeline should be 3-5x your monthly revenue target. Lower means you're not generating enough opportunities. Higher might mean your closing rate is too low.

Break pipeline by stage (lead, proposal sent, negotiation, verbal commitment) to see where deals are getting stuck.

Closing Rate

What percentage of proposals turn into actual clients?

Closing rate = Won projects ÷ Total proposals sent × 100

Aim for 30-50%. Below 20% means your proposals aren't resonating, you're targeting the wrong prospects, or your pricing is off. Above 70% might mean you're underpricing.

Time to Close

How long does it take from first contact to signed contract?

Shorter sales cycles mean faster growth and less opportunity for prospects to ghost or find competitors. If your average time to close is over 90 days, look for bottlenecks, slow response times, unclear positioning, too many decision-makers.

The Metrics Dashboard That Actually Gets Used

Here's the problem with most metrics tracking: it's too complicated to maintain, so people stop doing it.

Build a simple dashboard you'll actually check weekly. Include:

Financial

• Monthly revenue (total and by source)
• Profit margin
• Cash flow (money in vs. money out)

Operational

• On-time delivery rate
• Projects in progress
• Capacity utilization

Client Health

• Repeat client percentage
• Active clients this month vs. last month
• Outstanding invoices

Growth

• New clients acquired
• Pipeline value
• MoM revenue growth %

That's it. 12 numbers you can check in 5 minutes. More than this and you won't maintain it. Less than this and you're missing critical information.

Using PM platforms built for LSPs (like Awtomated) can automate much of this tracking, pulling data directly from your projects without manual spreadsheet updates. The easier it is to see these metrics, the more likely you'll actually use them to make decisions.

What to Do With All This Data

Tracking metrics is pointless if you don't act on them. Here's how to actually use this information:

Weekly: Check your operational dashboard. Are projects on track? Any fires to put out? Are you hitting capacity?

Monthly: Review financial and client health metrics. How did this month compare to last? Any concerning trends? Which clients to focus on?

Quarterly: Deep dive into growth indicators and strategic metrics. Are you on track for annual goals? What needs to change in the next quarter?

Annually: Big picture review. Which metrics improved? Which got worse? What will you change next year?

The goal isn't to obsess over numbers, it's to make informed decisions instead of guessing.

The Metrics That Signal It's Time to Change

Certain metric patterns are red flags that demand immediate action:

Declining profit margins = Your pricing is wrong, your costs are too high, or you're taking unprofitable work

Shrinking average project value = You're competing on price, losing larger clients, or failing to upsell

Low client retention = Something's broken in quality, service, or relationship management

High revision rates = Quality issues with translators, poor project scoping, or misaligned client expectations

Pipeline drying up = Marketing isn't working, positioning is off, or you're in a seasonal slump

Increasing time to close = Your sales process is broken, messaging isn't clear, or you're targeting the wrong prospects

Don't just notice these patterns, diagnose why they're happening and fix the root cause.

The Bottom Line

You can't manage what you don't measure. But measuring everything is just as useless as measuring nothing.

Focus on the metrics that actually tell you:

• Are you making money? (financial)
• Can you deliver consistently? (operational)
• Are clients happy? (health)
• Are you growing? (indicators)

Build a simple dashboard you'll actually use. Review it regularly. Make decisions based on data, not gut feel.

The LSPs that scale profitably aren't the ones tracking the most metrics. They're the ones tracking the right metrics and actually doing something with the information.

So stop counting words and start counting what counts. Your future self (and your accountant) will thank you.