80 employee performance goal examples for SaaS teams

Setting clear performance goals is critical for measuring individual success in a SaaS company. A well-defined performance goal helps employees understand what is expected of them, provides a benchmark for evaluating their effectiveness, and ensures they contribute meaningfully to the company’s success.

In this article, performance goals refer specifically to individual employee goals. These goals assess how well someone is performing in their role, whether they are meeting expectations, and where they may need to improve. These goals are essential for onboarding new hires, conducting performance reviews, and setting clear expectations for success.

Below, we’ve compiled 80 performance goal examples across key SaaS functions, from sales and customer success to engineering and marketing. Whether you’re hiring, managing a team, or refining your evaluation process, these examples will help you set clear, measurable goals that drive both employee growth and business impact.

What makes a good performance goal?

A strong performance goal should be clear, measurable, and actionable—which is why the SMART framework is a useful guideline. SMART goals ensure employees understand what’s expected of them and how success will be evaluated.

The SMART Criteria:

• Specific – Clearly defines what needs to be achieved.
• Measurable – Includes a way to track progress or success.
• Achievable – Realistic given resources and role responsibilities.
• Relevant – Tied to the employee’s job function and contributions.
• Time-bound – Has a deadline or timeframe for completion.

Example of a SMART vs. Non-SMART Goal:

❌ Non-SMART: “Increase website traffic.”

✅ SMART: “Increase website traffic by 20% to 90% by the end of Q2 through SEO improvements and content updates.”

By using SMART goals, managers can set clear expectations, employees can stay focused on meaningful outcomes, and performance reviews become more objective and actionable.

Performance goal examples for SaaS roles

‍Whether you’re onboarding a new hire, preparing for a performance review, or refining job expectations, these examples provide clear, measurable, and role-specific goals to guide success.

Sales & Business Development performance goal examples

1. Close 10 new deals per quarter with an average contract value of $5,000.
2. Increase outbound call volume by 20% to generate more leads.
3. Achieve 120% of quarterly sales quota through improved conversion strategies.
4. Increase demo-to-close conversion rate by 10% by refining pitch techniques.
5. Reduce sales cycle length by 15% through better lead qualification.
6. Upsell or cross-sell to 3 existing clients per quarter to expand revenue.
7. Maintain CRM hygiene with 95% accuracy to improve pipeline forecasting.
8. Generate 50 SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads) per month through outbound efforts.
9. Improve follow-up response rates by 15% with better email sequences.
10. Convert 30% of trial users into paying customers through proactive outreach.

Customer Success & Support performance goal examples

1. Maintain a CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) score of 90%+ on support tickets.
2. Reduce average response time for support tickets to under 2 hours.
3. Increase NPS (Net Promoter Score) by 8 points through proactive engagement.
4. Onboard 95% of new customers successfully within their first 30 days.
5. Reduce customer churn by 10% by implementing a risk alert system.
6. Resolve 80% of Tier-1 support tickets within 24 hours.
7. Create 10 new knowledge base articles per quarter to improve self-service rates.
8. Increase customer advocacy program participation by 30%.
9. Conduct 5 customer health checks per week to monitor engagement.
10. Achieve a 90%+ renewal rate for all contract-based customers.

Marketing performance goal examples

1. Increase organic website traffic by 30% through SEO improvements.
2. Generate 500 new MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) per month.
3. Improve landing page conversion rate by 10% via A/B testing.
4. Publish 8 high-quality blog posts per month to drive inbound traffic.
5. Achieve 40% email open rates and 8% CTR through improved email marketing.
6. Reduce customer acquisition cost (CAC) by 15% through ad optimisation.
7. Grow social media engagement by 25% across all platforms.
8. Increase webinar attendance by 20% through better promotion strategies.
9. Secure 10 guest blog placements or backlinks from high-authority sites.
10. Launch 3 new lead magnet campaigns per quarter to drive conversions.

Product Management performance goal examples

1. Deliver 100% of roadmap features on time without scope creep.
2. Reduce feature delivery time by 20% through better sprint planning.
3. Increase user adoption of new features by 25% through better onboarding.
4. Conduct 10 customer interviews per quarter to refine product priorities.
5. Reduce customer-reported product issues by 15% by improving QA processes.
6. Achieve 95%+ stakeholder satisfaction with product roadmap decisions.
7. Increase average session duration by 10% through UX enhancements.
8. Improve onboarding experience to reduce time-to-value by 30%.
9. Conduct quarterly competitive analysis and suggest 3 feature differentiators.
10. Increase internal team collaboration by conducting 4 cross-functional meetings per quarter.

Engineering & Development performance goal examples

1. Reduce bug resolution time by 25% through improved debugging processes.
2. Maintain 99.99% uptime across all production environments.
3. Achieve 100% test coverage for all new feature releases.
4. Reduce pull request (PR) review time to under 48 hours.
5. Implement CI/CD automation to improve deployment efficiency by 50%.
6. Refactor 10% of legacy code each quarter to reduce technical debt.
7. Decrease API response time by 20% to improve app performance.
8. Conduct quarterly security audits and fix vulnerabilities within 30 days.
9. Reduce incident resolution time by 30% by refining on-call processes.
10. Improve backend system efficiency by optimising database queries.

Data & Analytics performance goal examples

1. Improve data accuracy by 15% by refining ETL processes.
2. Reduce dashboard load time by 30% to improve user experience.
3. Conduct 5 deep-dive data analyses per quarter to drive business insights.
4. Increase forecasting accuracy by 10% to support sales and marketing.
5. Implement new data governance policies to reduce compliance risks.
6. Increase data pipeline efficiency by 25% through optimisation.
7. Develop 3 new predictive models to improve decision-making.
8. Ensure all data requests are fulfilled within 48 hours for internal teams.
9. Optimise customer segmentation models to improve targeted marketing.
10. Standardise reporting formats across teams to improve decision-making speed.

Finance & Operations performance goal examples

1. Reduce billing errors by 20% through process automation.
2. Shorten month-end closing process by 25% via workflow improvements.
3. Improve cash flow forecasting accuracy by 15%.
4. Increase budget variance accuracy to within 5%.
5. Automate 50% of manual finance processes to improve efficiency.
6. Achieve 100% compliance with financial reporting regulations.
7. Reduce vendor processing time from 10 days to 5 days.
8. Improve invoice accuracy to 98% by the next quarter.
9. Conduct quarterly financial audits to minimise compliance risks.
10. Increase operational efficiency by implementing 3 new automation tools.

Human Resources & Talent Acquisition performance goal examples

1. Reduce time-to-hire by 20% by streamlining recruitment processes.
2. Achieve 90%+ employee satisfaction in annual engagement surveys.
3. Implement quarterly DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) initiatives.
4. Improve onboarding NPS to 85+ by optimising new hire experience.
5. Reduce employee turnover by 15% through retention programs.
6. Conduct 4 company-wide learning & development sessions per year.
7. Improve internal promotion rate by 10% through career development programs.
8. Achieve 100% compliance on HR audits by year-end.
9. Increase job offer acceptance rate to 80% through improved candidate experience.
10. Launch an employee mentorship program to improve career growth opportunities.

How to set and track performance goals in a SaaS business

‍Setting performance goals is just the first step—how you track and evaluate them determines their effectiveness. The key is to balance clear measurement with a holistic view of an employee’s contributions.

Here’s how to ensure performance goals are meaningful, actionable, and fair:

Conduct regular performance check-ins

‍Performance goals shouldn’t be something employees hear about once a year. Frequent check-ins—whether monthly or quarterly—help employees stay on track, address challenges early, and make adjustments if needed. These conversations allow managers to provide feedback, recognise progress, and clarify expectations.

Without regular reviews, goals lose their impact. Employees may either forget about them or struggle with obstacles that go unaddressed. A quick one-on-one discussion to review progress, remove blockers, and align priorities ensures that goals remain relevant and achievable.

Take a holistic view of employee performance

‍While individual performance goals provide valuable benchmarks, they shouldn’t be assessed in isolation. Employees don’t work in a silo, and judging performance based only on individual metrics can lead to misaligned evaluations.

Instead, consider the bigger picture:

• How does their work contribute to team success, company OKRs, or key business KPIs?
• Are they collaborating effectively, mentoring others, or solving complex problems?
• Are there external factors (e.g., shifting priorities, market changes) affecting their ability to meet goals?

By aligning individual performance goals with business goals, managers can avoid over-indexing on numbers and make more informed evaluations.

Encourage self-assessment and feedback

‍Performance goals should be a two-way street. Encouraging employees to reflect on their own progress helps them take ownership of their work and fosters a growth mindset. When employees assess what’s working and where they need support, they become more engaged in their own development.

If your employees are failing, it could also be a signal that you’re failing as their manager. Managers should provide constructive, role-specific feedback that is actionable. Instead of vague comments like “You need to be more proactive,” an effective review might include:

• Observation: “Your response times on support tickets have improved, but customer satisfaction scores remain flat.”
• Guidance: “Let’s analyse recent feedback and see if adjusting ticket responses or tone can improve CSAT scores.”

Work together to help your employees succeed because it’s in both of your best interests.

Final thought: Track goals, but don’t lose sight of the person behind them

‍Performance goals are useful tools, but they don’t define an employee’s full value. Some contributions—like fostering team morale, adapting to change, or mentoring teammates—can’t always be quantified but are equally important.

When assessing performance, consider all available data points, including qualitative insights. A great employee may not always hit every goal, but their contributions could still be invaluable to the company’s long-term success.

By balancing structured goal tracking with a human-centred approach, SaaS teams can support employee growth, recognise hidden contributions, and build a culture that values both results and people.