How much does each person in your company sell?

Revenue per employee is what a company sells in a year divided by everyone who works in it. It is the simplest number for checking whether your operation produces what it should with the people it has.

We calculated it from DANE's 2024 microdata (Colombia's national statistics office) for 15,557 Colombian companies selling between COP 3 billion and COP 80 billion a year, and from its micro-business survey for the smallest ones. Three numbers to start:

1. Retail and wholesale trade: COP 507 million per person per year (median, 7,532 companies).
2. Manufacturing: COP 177 million (3,078 companies).
3. Services: COP 130 million (4,947 companies).

Comparing sectors with each other tells you little. A distributor moves someone else's goods; a plant makes them; a services firm sells hours. What helps is comparing yourself with your own sector and with companies your size.

How to use it in five minutes

1. Take your 2024 sales and divide them by everyone who worked with you: payroll, temporary staff, apprentices and working partners.
2. Find your sector and sales bracket in the table below.
3. If you are below the median, half of your peers sell more per person than you do. Above P75, you are in the most productive quarter.
4. The gap between your number and P75, multiplied by your headcount, is what closing it is worth in pesos.

See where your company stands

Enter your numbers and we place you against your sector, your size, your niche and your department, using the same data as this page.

Companies with COP 3 billion to 80 billion in sales

Millions of 2024 Colombian pesos per employed person per year. Source: DANE annual trade, manufacturing and services surveys, 2024.

Two readings come out of this table. First: companies that sell more also sell more per person. In trade and manufacturing, the COP 30 billion company sells more than twice as much per person as the COP 3 billion one; in services, only 28% more. Be careful reading it as “growth raises productivity”: if size is measured by headcount instead of sales, revenue per person in services falls from COP 160 million at companies with 10 to 49 people to COP 89 million at those with 200 or more. In services, growing usually means hiring at the same pace.

Second: the most productive quarter of each sector sells 58% to 70% more per person than the median company. For a 100-person services firm with median revenue, reaching P75 means roughly COP 9 billion more in annual sales with the same people.

Inside each sector, the spread is wider

In trade, median revenue per person runs from COP 218 million in footwear retail to COP 955 million at fuel stations. In services, from COP 38 million in staffing, security and cleaning (its headcount includes workers placed at clients) to COP 259 million in real estate. A “services” average blends businesses that look nothing alike. The full file covers 56 subsectors and a regional view for trade and manufacturing.

Companies with COP 360 million to 3 billion in sales

Public data has a gap here, and we would rather show it than cover it. DANE's annual surveys only see a small company if it has 10 or more people (40 or 75 in services). For businesses of up to 9 people there is the Micro-business Survey. This bracket's number comes from there and is published separately, never blended with the one above.

Formal micro-businesses of up to 9 people (with tax ID and business registration) that sold between COP 360 million and 3 billion in 2023: median of COP 236 million per person in trade and COP 120 million in both manufacturing and services. These are owner-reported, rounded sales; read them as an order of magnitude.

Services companies with 10 to 39 people (10 to 74 in some activities) and sales under COP 3 billion do not appear in any of the sources we reviewed. We do not publish a number for them.

What this number does not say

Revenue per person does not measure margin. A distributor can sell COP 900 million per person and earn little; a consultancy can sell 150 and earn well. Nor does it tell you whether your people spend their time on what creates value. It helps you ask the right question. The answer comes from looking at processes, pricing and where each person's time goes.

Method and sources

Revenue per person = 2024 sales (trade and manufacturing) or operating revenue (services) ÷ total employed persons, including agency temps. Current 2024 pesos. Percentiles calculated by Satoro from DANE's anonymized microdata; cells with fewer than 10 companies are not published. The COP 3 billion cut-off is where all three annual surveys are required to include every company in the sector, whatever its headcount (97% to 99.6% coverage). Manufacturing plants are aggregated to company level. Services covers the 20 activities in DANE's annual services survey; construction, passenger and freight transport, and finance are not included. Micro-businesses report 2023 sales. For reference, COP 507 million is about USD 125,000 at the 2024 average exchange rate (COP 4,072 per dollar, Banco de la República series).

Sources: DANE, EAC 2024 · DANE, EAM 2024 · DANE, EAS 2024 · DANE, EMICRON 2024.

The useful question for your company is a different one: what it is worth, in pesos, to reach the top quarter of your own sector.

When this has to be solved in an organization rather than in one head, it is Satoro IE. satoro.ai/en/ie