 In order for any company to successfully improve its sales process, there needs to be a way to measure the effectiveness of specific sales and marketing efforts. Team members from both departments must also take ownership of the KPIs that directly relate to their roles. Of course, the first step is to determine which metrics are actually KPIs (or key performance indicators). There's certainly no shortage of metrics from which to choose! But identifying the ones that truly reflect the health and power of your sales process is a fundamental step toward measuring effectiveness — and ultimately making adjustments as needed. Let's dive into some of the more common sales and marketing metrics, see which department should take ownership of them, and also discuss ways you can keep all of your team members on the same page. Common Marketing KPIs Many marketing teams will use the following metrics as KPIs as they monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their campaigns:
Common Sales KPIs After a prospect moves past a certain point in the sales and marketing funnel, it's important for the marketing team to hand the prospect off to the sales team — which means the sales team will have an entirely different set of KPIs to quantify their effectiveness at converting leads and closing deals. Some KPIs your sales team may look at include:
Apart from the above metrics that focus on activities your sales team is expected to perform, it's also helpful to measure the makeup of and changes within your sales population (that is, the leads in your sales pipeline). The following metrics are helpful for this:
Keeping Sales & Marketing in Alignment The above metrics are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to potential KPIs. And we haven't even mentioned common high-level KPIs, like revenue, close rate, leads generated, cost per lead, or ROI. Nevertheless, the important thing is to make sure your KPIs are relevant to actual business success and that your sales and marketing teams understand which metrics they own. Setting up a KPI scorecard is only half the battle — it's vital that team members understand their role in the overall sales process and which KPIs they will be held accountable for. Whenever you first institute an integrated scorecard (and whenever you adjust it in the future) make sure that your expectations are clearly communicated to both teams (perhaps in a joint meeting). Keep the lines of communication open throughout any sales or marketing campaign. At the end of the day, identifying which metrics are actually KPIs for your company and communicating ownership expectations to each team will help you to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your efforts, and ultimately improve your company's sales performance. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in our book Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources. If you were taking your family or friends on a road trip, you wouldn't just get in the car and start driving in a random direction. At the very least, you'd first agree on where you were going. Then, as the driver, it's your responsibility to plan your route and any stops along the way.
As a salesperson, you're a guide, helping your customer reach their desired outcome. So why not plan in advance the same way you would if you were any other type of guide? Khalil Benalioulhaj and Martin Holland invited Karl on their podcast, the Cash Flow Contractor, to talk about how Iceberg Selling helps you prepare to be the best guide you can be to your customers. To show someone how to reach a desired outcome, you first need to share a vision. Karl, Khalil, and Martin discuss how salespeople, and entrepreneurs working in a sales capacity, can co-create that vision with their customers and lay out the path from the starting point to that eventual outcome. This episode applies the principles of Iceberg Selling to the construction industry and its unique set of challenges. So, how can exploring the 90% below the surface apply to services like commercial and residential building or remodels? Watch the interview on YouTube or visit their website for links to your favorite podcast platforms.  All companies want to be more successful — whether that means bringing in more revenue, being more efficient, or both. A common thread that's interwoven through all successful sales and marketing operations is careful data tracking and evaluation. It's especially important when assessing digital marketing strategies. This kind of tracking is accomplished most effectively with an integrated scorecard. What is an integrated scorecard? It's a scoring system that includes data points from all metrics in the buyer's journey, including both traditional marketing data and CRM data that the sales team can see. Simply put, an integrated scorecard is a way to track what's working and what's not on both sides of the aisle: marketing and sales. How To Set Up an Integrated Scorecard The highest-performing sales and marketing companies assign specific owners and targets to each section of the integrated scorecard. They also set up target numbers to contextualize each section. For instance, if a student receives 155 points on a test, that's a great score if 175 points is the maximum they could receive. But what if the maximum score is 3000 points? Not so much. In the same way, 155 marketing emails opened may or may not be a good "score," depending on the total amount of emails sent out. The good news is that with modern automation software and CRMs, it's become much easier to track such specific metrics. Sales and marketing data can now be driven by detailed information about customer interactions at each stage of the buyer's journey, and each stage (and sub-stage) of the sales and marketing funnel can now be assigned to specific team members, who will take ownership of the results. Where Does the Scorecard Data Come From? The majority of the data used in an integrated scorecard originates from a few key data points. The most critical sources often include:
If you set up your automations to send data directly into your integrated scorecard, with a minimum of manual data entry required, these reporting tools can work wonders for your data collection and tracking. If you're not sure how best to set up that kind of workflow, keep in mind that there are tech tools on the market (like Easy Insights) that can aggregate data from multiple sources and present the information in a single, easy-to-read dashboard. As a result, you can see all your digital marketing metrics in one place. The Importance of Well-Monitored Data Well-monitored (and well-understood) data can supercharge your digital marketing performance, enabling you to make agile, data-driven decisions that improve your results. It can also reveal critical errors that would not be readily apparent otherwise. For example, imagine that you're running a Google Ads campaign to send traffic to your website. Your marketing team carefully examined search traffic data and competitors' landing pages and collaborated with your sales team to form a keyword-based strategy. Then, the keywords were coordinated across the ads and the landing page to which the ads led. Everything was done "by the book." By the end of the first week, you see that 150 leads had clicked on your ads, and between 10-15% had clicked through to the Google submission form on your website landing page. So far, so good! But then you notice something odd: When website visitors reached your landing page, they weren't taking the next step and completing the contact form. In fact, not a single visitor submitted the form! With that data in hand, you decide to dig further... and you discover that the company that created your Google submission form on the website hadn't set up the permissions correctly. In other words, leads were unable to enter any of their information into the form. Once you identify the problem, you quickly take steps to correct it — and your leads start pouring in. Now, imagine the scenario above without well-monitored data. Would you have suspected a technical issue was the culprit, or would you have simply concluded that your marketing strategy was off-base? How long would it have taken you to identify the real issue? As you can see, careful data tracking and evaluation of digital marketing, made easier by an integrated scorecard, can save a ton of time and money when things go sideways. Judge Your Digital Marketing Efforts With an Integrated Scorecard Simply tracking how many leads enter your funnel and how many end up buying isn't enough to judge your digital marketing strategy's overall effectiveness. To make the most of carefully crafted marketing automations and a well-organized CRM, every team must have KPIs in their integrated scorecard — and each KPI must have a readily discernable purpose for being tracked. Some key questions your KPIs should answer include the following:
Answering questions like these and making any adjustments that are needed will help you progressively craft a winning sales and marketing strategy that delivers consistent results. Granted, it may take some work to set up an integrated scorecard for your business, direct the flow of sales and marketing data toward that scorecard, and get all of your team members on board with a new approach. But the rewards of doing so far outweigh the cost — and in the long run, you're virtually guaranteed to see improved sales performance as a result. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in our book Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources. |
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We are headquartered in Colorado with domestic and international teammates and clients. Please use the contact form on this page to inquire about any of our books, podcasts appearances, speaking engagements and workshops, any of our offerings, or simply to connect.
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