Computing strike rates is one way for a manager to determine the efficiency of his sales force. The strike rate tells a manager how often a sales person closes a sale. This is a useful analysis tool. If the sale person is effective, he'll have a high strike rate. Tracking this data over time also helps analyze long-term performance and shows areas where improvements may be needed.

Determine the total number of sales an employee makes during a set time period. For example, a manager in Firm A looks at the sales records of Employee B and sees that he made 40 sales in the month of July.

Determine the number of opportunities the employee had to make a sale. In the example, the manager notices that Employee B went on 45 sales calls outside the office and received 20 sales calls that were not related to his out-of-office calls. Thus, Employee B's total opportunities for sales were 65.

Divide the total number of sales by the total opportunities to make a sale. In the example, 40 divided by 65 equals a strike rate of 0.615 or 61.5 percent.