1. Secrets To Successful B2B Sales And Marketing Metrics
Welcome to the age of math marketing. Sales, inherently, has always been about numbers. Metrics: Three Defining
But in B2B especially, marketing is increasingly asked to take responsibility for the Measures Of Sales And
Marketing Success 2
measurable output of its efforts.
Big Data Is Overrated,
Of course, there are no shortage of numbers to track and evaluate. Choosing to focus on Focus On These Types
exact sales and marketing measurement is one thing, focusing on the right numbers that Of Data Instead 3
help you focus and make better decisions is still another. Ten B2B Sales And
This collection of short essays and best practices span across the entire sales and marketing Marketing Metrics
Worth Tracking 4
pipeline, and offer a specific, actionable perspective to help you start honing in on not just
a better metrics discipline for your department and organization, but better improvements B2B Lead Generation:
Four Better Measures
and results for your efforts.
Of Success 5
I look forward to hearing your feedback! Four Sales-centric
Social Media Metrics
You Should Be Tracking 6
Matt Heinz
Four Critical Components
President, Heinz Marketing Inc. To Maximize Webinar ROI 7
matt@heinzmarketing.com
The Five Most Meaningless
Sales Metrics You’re
Still Using 8
Three Important Sales
Metrics You’re Probably
Not Tracking Today 9
Stay Focused On The
Right Number 10

2. Metrics: Three Defining Measures Of Sales and Marketing Success
Much has been written on the vagaries, metrics 2. Qualified Pipeline For The Next Two Selling Periods
and particulars of driving true sales and marketing Most sales organizations (let alone marketing groups) put
collaboration in B2B organizations. This goes well beyond their entire focus on the current selling period, and don’t
just attending more meetings together. Ultimately, it’s start looking at the next selling period until, well, the first
about having the same objective and working as a cohesive day or week of that next period. But if you wait that long,
unit to drive higher sales. you’ll always be playing catch-up.
But how do you measure that success? Which metrics do If you sell on a monthly sales cycle, you should constantly
sales and marketing leadership watch on a weekly (if not keep an eye on the growth of opportunities 60 and 90
daily) basis to determine the health of their combine efforts? days out. Your models should tell you exactly how big of
I’ve seen several organizations experiment with this, using a pipeline you should (ideally) have going into the month,
a variety of metrics and depth of scorecard. And although which gives the marketing team in particular a bogey for
each respective team must watch and manage to a broader finding new short-term sales opportunities out of their lead
set of metrics, these three should lead sales and marketing generation efforts.
discussions, and guide where they focus next to ensure This might be one of the most important sales and
they remain on course and above expectations. marketing alignment metrics available to teams today, not
only because it cleanly combines short-term, outcome-
1. Current Selling Period Pipeline Health
oriented measures for both sales and marketing, but it also
Whether you sell based on a monthly or quarterly sales provides very tangible, actionable next steps for each group
cycle, how healthy is the current pipeline (qualified based on what the numbers are telling you.
opportunities expected to close this period), and how
confident are you based on that pipeline sales and quality 3. New Opportunities Created
that you’ll hit or exceed your sales goal? This measure is independent of specific closing date, but
Most marketers, at this point, claim that there’s very little is absolutely tied to your common definition of what a
they can do to impact current-month or current-quarter qualified, new opportunity looks like. It’s unlikely you’re
sales. And in a world where marketing’s role is primarily setting up new qualified opportunities for nine months
about lead production, that might be true. But if sales and from now if you’re on a monthly sales cycle, but those
marketing are working closely together, there’s still plenty opportunities will likely be spread out across 1–4 months
marketing can do to help bring more deals over the line. in the actual sales pipeline.
If you look a level deeper at the current pipeline, for So this measure is more about ensuring that sales and
example, what could possibly keep those deals from marketing are working together to generate enough
coming through? Are there decision makers who need regular opportunities to generally spread out across your
more information, need more assurance, more context- model and fuel near-future closed business.
building or more urgency, to get the deal done? What You can look simultaneously at how these new
messaging, validation tools and more can marketing opportunities actually spread across close-date months, but
provide to support sales in their effort to close as many your model should indicate how many new opportunities
current opportunities as possible? are required each month independent of close date. Where
should that production be month-to-date or quarter-to-
date, and where are you currently?
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3. Big Data Is Overrated; Focus On These Types Of Data Instead
Just because you can get more of it, doesn’t mean it’s Fast data is key to this, and we have both access to this
good for you. The world is enamored right now with as well as the technology to act fast. In 2013, more Web
“big data”, and the wealth of information around us sites will publish dynamic content on their home and
does hold promise. landing pages based on what they know about the visitor.
But our efforts to analyze and leverage as much data It’s happening already today, with significant increases in
as possible could be keeping us from seeing two more engagement, stickiness and conversion.
accessible, more important segments of data that can have What’s also more important than big data is the right data.
a more immediate impact on your business. Sounds self-evident, right? Maybe not.
What’s more important than big data? Look at your own company’s key metrics dashboard.
Are all of those metrics important? Do they really help
For one, fast data. At least for now, being able to access
you make decisions? Could you teach the organization—
and react to real-time data is more important than waiting
your leadership team, management team, and front-line
for whatever “big data” tells us to do. This will evolve over
employees—to look at less information but the right
time as big data gets easier and faster to analyze, but your
information to make critical decisions for the business and
customers and prospects today are working in real-time.
your customers?
That Web site visitor is here now, but might be gone in a
More data isn’t necessarily better. Focus on getting and
minute or less. How do you engage them? What message
leveraging the right data, faster.
should they see on your site first?
What action did they just take that means they’re ready
for the next step? How quickly can you identify and take
action on that step?
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4. Ten B2B Sales And Marketing Metrics Worth Tracking
Quick Disclaimer: Just because you can track it, doesn’t Depending on the maturity of your market, you may
mean you should. Just because you can track it, doesn’t also want to make sure your addressable market is small
mean it’s important. Choosing the right metrics that will enough. Are you unique enough for your immediately most
give you clarity and drive action in your business is most addressable customers, or are you reaching too broadly?
important.
6. Lead-to-Opportunity-to-Sale Conversion Rates
1. Marketing Cost Per Sale You can quickly over-complicate this one, but at minimum
You absolutely must track leads through to close and make sure you understand two numbers: How many
beyond. This helps you understand not only spend leads does it take to create an opportunity, and how many
efficiency but cost per lead source and, eventually, lifetime opportunities end up closing? Bonus points, of course,
value of leads you may be generating from higher-priced if you can further break this information down by lead
channels. Even better if you can track those leads through source, vertical industry, sales rep and any other angles that
to renewals, referrals and other post-sale activity. help you optimize for acquisition cost and sales volume.
2. Customer Lifetime Value 7. Deal Size
What are you willing to spend to acquire a new customer? Are some deals not worth pursuing? Do you know where
It’s more than just the first purchase or first month’s your sweet spot is, and are you proactively targeting it? Are
revenue. Which customers are most profitable to you? you adjusting your sales and marketing strategies based on
What do they look like, where do they come from, and revenue, margin and lifetime value yield potential?
how can you get more of them? How will this insight drive
sales incentives and behavior as well? And is your customer 8. Qualified Leads
experience team involved in defining target customers and First, ensure that sales and marketing agree on a common
setting expectations before the sale? definition of a qualified lead. And it’s OK to have different
stages of qualified leads. But make sure there are explicit
3. Nurture Database Performance
next steps for managing these leads moving forward, and
First off, how are you defining a lead that’s in a “nurture” explicit roles for both sales and marketing to do that. Now
category—someone who’s somehow qualified but not yet look back at your lead sources, nurture paths and other
ready to buy? What number and percentage of deals come activities to determine where you’re most successfully
out of your growing nurture database? Do you know what generating qualified leads from, and double down there.
catalyzed their movement out of nurture and into an active
buying cycle? 9. Referrals
Bonus points if you can use this insight to predict future Too often companies constrain potential referral volume
revenue from your nurture database over time. What’s a by making the act of generating a referral too difficult.
new “nurturable” lead worth to you based on this model? A cumbersome form or registration process may be easier
for you to track, but may lower your capture rate. What
4. Sales Cycle Length
programs and incentives do you have in place to drive
How long is each sales stage once a lead is qualified and the right referrals? And are you segmenting referrals from
in the market to buy? What catalyzing events (internally customers vs. prospect, influencers, etc.?
or externally) accelerate deal velocity? Where are your
opportunities getting stuck and is there anything you can If you’re doing it right, the biggest source of referrals for
do to proactively move them through more quickly? your business may be a group that’s never given you money,
and never been an active customer. How are you engaging,
Many lead generation models don’t take into account sales capturing and measuring referrals with that audience?
cycle length and duration, and therefore overestimate new
sales in too short of a period of time. This metric is critical 10. Customers
to accurate forecasting. Quantify your best customers, and ensure that your sales
and marketing efforts are focused on finding and closing
5. Addressable Market Size
more of them. Is your core or most-valuable customer
Does your entire organization define your target market segment growing or shrinking? Can you quantify your share
the same way? How do your sales goals translate to market of wallet? What additional opportunities do you have to
penetration expectations? Based on your funnel input and increase loyalty, lifetime value, referral potential and more?
conversion assumptions, are those market penetration
expectations realistic?
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5. B2B Lead Generation: Four Better Measures Of Success
If you work for or with a marketing team that drives Deal Size: If you look deep into your lead generation
leads for a sales team, it’s likely a mistake to measure your metrics, I guarantee you’ll find trends that help you
success based on lead volume. increase deal size at the lead level. Do particular industries
buy more? Do certain titles tend to buy more products?
Lead volume doesn’t matter.
Certain company sizes, geographies? Find the trends that
What matters, of course, is revenue. Your job as a marketer lead to bigger deals, and find ways to generate more leads
is to give your sales team the best opportunities possible like that moving forward.
to close business, increase sales, and grow the value of the
overall business. To that effect, there are far better ways to 3. Percent and Number of Deals from Nurture Database
measure marketing success instead of pure leads. Here are If a lead isn’t ready to buy, but hasn’t said no, it’s
four good things to evaluate. marketing’s job to nurture that prospect until it’s
ready to be passed back to sales. How well does your
1. Lead Quality marketing team drive interest and urgency with your
Leads are only good if they represent individuals or nurture database? How well does marketing identify when
companies who can buy. Sit down with your sales team nurtured prospects are ready to buy? This is a great way
and agree on a common definition for a qualified lead. to ensure your marketing team is innovating ways to drive
This can include things like company size, title, industry, urgency among your prospect database, and many of
and purchase timeline—whatever you agree on. Leads you those urgency drivers will work in primary lead generation
generate that aren’t quite “in profile” aren’t necessarily channels and campaigns as well.
bad—some will still have revenue in them—but your
primary job is to focus on optimizing volume and cost of 4. Cost Per Lead All The Way Through To The Sale
the in-profile leads first. Too many B2B marketers measure cost per lead (and
sometimes even cost per in-profile lead), but fail to look
2. Pipeline Contribution at relative marketing cost of the opportunity and sale. A
Simply put, how many of those leads generated become certain lead source can look great based on cost per lead,
active sales opportunities? Sure, this step requires work but if the conversion to opportunity and sale (not to
by your sales team, but it’s another good indicator of mention lifetime value) is too low, leads that cost more
lead quality. This step also requires marketing to work can actually be better for the business after sale price and
collaboratively with sales to get the job done. No more renewals are factored in.
passing leads over the wall and walking away. Marketing’s
job includes helping the sales team continue working with
new prospects until they’re ready to buy.
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6. Four Sales-centric Social Media Metrics You Should Be Tracking
There are dozens of social media scorecards, and most as a means of prioritizing publishers at the top of search
of them are good but lacking. It’s not enough to track results. So if your content is relevant AND your social
followers and traffic. There’s a deeper story you need to followers are actively sharing it, your changes of ranking
be telling and tracking. high in search increase significantly. Your social strategy, in
other words, has a direct and significant impact on SEO.
Maybe I’m a hammer and everything looks like a nail, but
And that connection is only going to get stronger over
I expect social media to play an active role at the top of
time from this point forward.
the sales funnel. It’s not a direct response channel, and
shouldn’t be managed as such. But, there are symptoms 3. Non-Brand Keyword Traffic
of an active and productive social media program that Look within Google Analytics for most companies and
indicate its preliminary value to the sales funnel. the top performers will be branded terms—variations of
Here are four specific metrics I recommend you watch the company name and/or product names, for example.
in particular. These can be tracked on your social media But if you’re succeeding with great content and social
scorecard right alongside your volume and activity metrics. sharing, you are over time increasing the non-branded,
more buyer-centric keywords and phrases driving traffic to
1. People Talking About You your site. You should be tracking overall volume as well as
Followers don’t really tell you anything. There are dozens percent of overall traffic with non-branded keywords.
of companies you can pay to pad your follower count on
This is particularly important if you consider how your
Twitter, for instance, but I guarantee 90 percent of those
buyer thinks. If they’re farther along in the buying cycle,
followers will be crap. And even if you get relevant people
they may know your name and use it in their search. But
to follow you, that’s no guarantee they’ll pay attention or
chances are significantly more prospects are searching
actively engage. A real indication of social media strength
based on more generic buying signals—pain points, needs,
and value to the sales process is engagement.
obstacles, desired outcomes, etc.
How many people are re-tweeting your content? How
These are the keywords and phrases you should be using
many are mentioning you by name in their tweets and
in your content, and threaded throughout your social
posts? How often, in other words, does your network
channels. Do this consistently and you’ll increase the
recognize and consume your content, then point it out to
consistent volume of qualified prospects coming your way
others? This not only is a proxy for message penetration,
who are earlier in the sales process, and less likely to be
but also indicates how effectively you’re driving pass-along
engaged with your competitors.
for those messages to new audiences.
4. Number Of Keywords Driving Traffic
2. Number Of Pages Driving Traffic On Your Site
It would be much easier if all of your prospects used the
This may sound like an SEO metric, and it is, but you can
same keyword to search for your solution. But this, of
directly impact this metric over time with a robust content
course, is not the case. In fact, the majority of searches on
publishing strategy. If you’re regularly publishing quality
Google continue to be for “long tail” searches, or those
content on your blog (or curating third-party content
that aren’t often used and are far more obscure than the
that’s still published on your site via services like Scribit),
high-traffic keywords that are more expensive via paid
you should see a steady acceleration of the number of
search and harder to rank for via natural means.
pages across your site driving traffic from a variety of
sources—SEO, social links, etc. Good content, however, over time can help you unlock
and rank for that long tail of keywords. And deeper you
If you’re active in creating content, this represents a
get into that list, the more likely a prospect searching for
residual, ongoing source of traffic. Create a post that
that string will see relevance in your content and engage.
the social Web likes and Google ranks, for example, and
Again, this isn’t just about SEO. The keywords you want
it’ll drive incremental traffic every day as you create new
to rank for need to be threaded through your content,
content that does the same. And it goes on and on.
but also actively used in your tweets, LinkedIn updates,
How does social directly impact site traffic? In addition Facebook posts and more.
to your followers driving traffic via their own posts and
retweets, Google is increasingly looking at social influence
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7. Four Critical Components To Maximize Webinar ROI
Are webinars already a core component of your 2013 Email invitations aren’t the only way to promote your
marketing strategy? Not only do your events need to stand webinar. Post details to your social networks, such as
out from the mass of others out there, it is also critical to Twitter and LinkedIn. Even asking any co-workers or
do so cost effectively with measurable results of Marketing co-presenters to spread the word to their network is a
Qualified Leads. great way to reach new contacts. Some Webinar service
providers (such as BrightTalk) may also have marketing
There are some important steps while preparing and
channels you can use, such as newsletters, banner ads, etc.
following up that can increase your effectiveness and ROI
down the line. Here are four worth keeping in mind at all 3. Extended Webinar Lifecycle
times. Don’t forget how to up-cycle your webinar after the live
1. Desired Outcomes version is completed. Record your webinar to be used in
other campaigns, such as nurture campaigns, or assets to
First, ask yourself, “What is the end goal of this webinar?”
gate throughout your site!
Is it to generate leads, to use in your nurture campaign,
or to establish thought leadership and credibility? All have It is also important to offer the recorded version to all who
their uses and purposes, but the reason will determine your registered for your webinar but were unable to attend;
audience, layout and metrics to measure success. they could still be very interested in viewing the webinar.
Another great way to repurpose your webinar is to use the
2. Target Audience and Promotion
manuscript to create white papers, best practice guides,
Now you can determine the ideal audience, and what fact sheets or infographics. Get creative!
they know about your company. Get creative on your
invitation; don’t stick to the overdone simple letter format. 4. Follow Up
It is important for the invitation to address the audience Lastly, determine the appropriate follow up steps, not
correctly, and share information they don’t know without only to take with those who attended, but those who did
providing info they many already know. not attend as well. If you have a lead scoring program in
place, determine the appropriate change in score based on
If the webinar is targeted for your in-house list, an
attendance. Based on your desired outcome from above
intimate, personalized invitation will work great and fits
decide the best follow up.
the relationship. Whereas, if inviting new contacts from
a purchased list, or first contact, an informative and well If your webinar was an intimate, product specific event for
branded layout will be more appealing and provide more hot leads, it makes sense for sales to follow up with calls.
insight into your brand. If the webinar was to establish credibility, the attendees
should be sent into a nurture campaign to further qualify
the leads.
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8. The Five Most Meaningless Sales Metrics You’re Still Using
The only thing that really matters in sales is closed business, metrics look great, but with low conversion she’s not
but to get there (and to help your team more predictably creating real closeable pipeline (and wasting time that could
exceed expectations month after month) there are always a have been spent qualifying other prospects).
series of leading-indicator metrics we track to ensure we’re
3. Talk Time
on the right path, that our proven processes are being
followed, and that activities are being executed that will lead Sales managers often incorrectly correlate talk time with
to closed business. quality prospect conversations. In some cases that may
be true, but it’s not universal. Long phone conversations
Unfortunately, in our zeal to measure and manage, we often (especially with early stage prospects) can just as often
focus on the wrong metrics. If left unchecked, this not only be small-talk than qualifying. Small talk can be great for
allows reps to game your system, but can also reinforce rapport-building at the early stages of a sale, but it can also
and/or require behavior that is in fact counterproductive to fill valuable selling time with chatty prospects who like to
finding, qualifying and closing good business. talk but have no intention of buying (or who may not be
Here are five of the most meaningless metrics still actively qualified as a near or long-term buyer at all).
tracked and enforced in many current sales organizations. This is also one of the easiest metrics to game. Smart reps
1. Dials can dial a number and leave their phone off the hook when
taking a break or leaving for lunch. They might also fill their
Of course, the one thing that every sales rep can control is
talk-time by checking in with existing or past customers
how often then pick up the phone and talk to a prospect.
to see how they’re doing (which often leads to more small
They can’t control inbound lead volume, market conditions,
talk). Good relationship-building for the company (and
weather events or other external factors. But they can
sometimes for a renewal or upsell), but not always the new
control dials.
sales rep’s job.
Problem is, dials rarely if ever have a direct, independent
4. Salesforce.com Log-ins
correlation to pipeline-building and closed business. When
aggressive dial expectations are in front of a sales rep, they This metric is especially used in field sales environments,
too often fill their daily-dial quota with unqualified dials, where reps are distributed and not in the office often. The
too many dials to a not-ready-to-buy prospect, or (if they assumption is that Salesforce.com log-ins are equivalent
really want to game your system) they’ll dial the same dead to how often they’re working, or updating their pipeline.
phone number over and over to inflate their numbers. Even if you want to better enforce CRM usage, this metric
is completely irrelevant. Sure, if a rep hasn’t logged in for
There’s no question that increased activity can lead to over a week, there’s probably something wrong. But having
more opportunities. But dials alone—without watching this one on a metrics scorecard belittles your reps and
list quality, dial-to-conversation conversion, and output of takes focus away from externally-focused metrics that really
dispositioned leads and/or new opportunities—is a shallow matter.
and often irrelevant number.
5. Logged Activities In Salesforce.com
2. Demos Or Appointments Scheduled Let’s just say that nobody is going to get an award for
The idea of tracking appointments isn’t the issue. It’s recording the most touchpoints and actions with a prospect
doing it without context or qualification that represents to get the sale. Measuring daily actions (calls, voicemails,
the biggest challenge for sales organizations nationwide. emails) without context or qualification not only is way too
A demo or appointment should imply a level of interest on broad of a metric, but the micro-management implication
the part of the prospect. Even if you’re offering something to the sales team is nearly always counterproductive.
of independent value in exchange for some of their time
(a market analysis or audit or similar), the rep shouldn’t Rather than measure overall logged activities, start with
even waste their time with the demo or appointment if the a well-defined sales process and intent for each action.
prospect hasn’t been pre-qualified somehow. Ensure that certain logged activities or milestones imply
a commonly-understood level of qualification or progress
A good rep who wants to inflate her numbers will grab time with the prospect. That way, you’re looking at the right
with as many prospects as possible, even though most of metrics, but also can better interpret what they mean as it
those conversations are going nowhere. Her appointment directly relates to pipeline size and velocity.
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9. Three Important Sales Metrics You’re Probably Not Tracking Today
It’s easy to evaluate your sales team based on pipeline size, worse than the team average? This is an important and often
closed business, performance against quota. But there are overlooked metric, especially in markets where small deals
other metrics you probably have access to already that can take just as much work to close as large deals. Your reps may
help you improve individual and overall sales performance. feel good about closing the small guys, or feel good about
Here are three of my favorites. closing the “back up” sale of a smaller product to a bigger
customer, but is that where their (and your) time is best
1. First-Month Customer Satisfaction
spent? Make sure your reps are going after big-enough deals.
One month in, most customers haven’t yet realized the
value of the product or service. But they should already 3. Current vs. Previous Territory Performance
have developed an opinion of how well what they’re now Sales teams too often ignore historical performance. They
experiencing matched the expectations set by the sales don’t use the precedents set in previous selling periods
rep. If your sales team is selling right—setting the right or by previous sales teams to predict or expect future
expectations, selling on outcomes and benefits instead of performance. Let’s say you have an experience rep working
features—the customer should know exactly what they’re a new territory or vertical industry. Is their performance
getting into and have a solid satisfaction level even in the dramatically different than what you saw from that territory
first couple weeks. previously? There may be good reasons—you may be
saturated, or inventory could be low. But if you’re seeing
2. Average Selling Price vs. Team Average Or Expectations
significantly lower performance vs. what was previously
Simply put, is the average deal size from each rep living up achieved, it could be a sign that potential sales are somehow
to expectations? Is an individual rep performing better or being left on the table.
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10. Stay Focused On The Right Number
It’s easy to get focused on numbers that make you feel business—basically food and beverage—was about a 15–20
good, but don’t do much to drive real business results. percent margin business. Highly visible and nice to fill the
rooms.
Take sales, for example. If you close a ton of sales but price
too low, or bring on the wrong customers who increase But membership is an 80 percent margin business.
your operational costs and decrease employee morale, it’s
The rest of our meeting, as you would expect, started
a recipe for disaster.
focusing on a very different objective.
Your organization might also get excited about some of the
Top line doesn’t matter unless it’s driving profit. Sales don’t
most visible metrics, which are good for top-line but don’t
really matter unless they’re driving long-term relationships
add up to much profit.
with the right customers that maximize margin opportunity.
A client recently asked us to help them accelerate the
Focus on the right numbers. There aren’t that many of
number of events their facility hosts each month. They’re
them. Nothing else matters nearly as much, and the right
a private club. It became quickly clear that their events
decisions across the entire business will get you there faster.
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11. More Information About Us
About Matt Heinz 8201 164th Ave. NE, Suite 200
Matt Heinz is the Founder and President of Heinz Marketing Inc. Matt brings more Redmond WA 98052
Ph. 877.291.0006
than 12 years of marketing, business development and sales experience from a variety of www.heinzmarketing.com
organizations, vertical industries and company sizes. His career has focused on deliver-
ing measurable results for his employers and clients in the way of greater sales, revenue
growth, product success and customer loyalty.
About Heinz Marketing
Heinz Marketing is a Seattle marketing agency focused on sales acceleration. Heinz
Marketing helps clients achieve sustained sales success by growing revenue from existing
customers and cost effectively identifying and winning new customers.
Contact Heinz Marketing
Heinz Marketing Inc.
8201 164th Ave NE, Suite 200
Redmond, WA 98052
877.291.0006
www.heinzmarketing.com
acceleration@heinzmarketing.com
Learn More About Heinz Marketing
Interested in learning more creative ways to make the most of your marketing?:
Request your FREE 10-minute brainstorm at www.10minutebrainstorm.com
Join our newsletter:
www.heinzmarketinginsights.com
Check out our blog: www.mattonmarketingblog.com
Follow Matt on Twitter: www.twitter.com/heinzmarketing
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