Remind me again what those quarterly targets are really after… oh yeah, REVENUE! It’s inevitable, at some point the success of Marketing and Sales is measured by one metric, revenue growth. In fact, 9 out of 10 organizations in the recent Q2 2012 survey on Marketing Campaign Management (n=234) indicated revenue was a primary metric for measuring marketing success. But surprisingly few organizations take the time to really explore the factors that truly influence growth in revenue. You’ve probably heard of dozens and dozens of different marketing metrics that are all supposedly “essential” to marketing and sales. Seems overwhelming – well, not exactly.
Research from Gleanster has actually identified a handful of metrics that EVERY organization should be measuring to optimize the lead lifecycle (from lead to prospect to customer). How do we know? Well, Top Performing organizations that consistently achieve as high as 6x industry standard revenue growth are using a unique combination of simple metrics to optimize performance in marketing, sales, and customer retention and ultimately — REVENUE!
The Lead Lifecycle Analytics metrics have been classified into the following sub-categories:
Marketing Success Metrics
- Spend per marketing channel
- Number of inquiries per marketing channel
- Total number of inquiries in marketing
- Total number of Marketing Qualified Leads (MQL)
- Ratio of Inquiry to Marketing Qualified Lead
Marketing & Sales Alignment Metrics
- Cost per Marketing Qualified Lead
- Total number of Sales Accepted Leads (SALs)
- Ratio of MQL to SAL
- Cost per SAL
- Total number of Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)
Sales Success Metrics
- SQL to Closed Sales Ratio
- Average Deal Size
- Sales Cycle-Time
Lifecycle Revenue Metrics
- Number of SQL not ready to purchase
- Cross-Selling & Up-Selling Revenue Growth/Decline
For more a more comprehensive definition and explanation of each metric in the Lead Lifecycle Analytics Dashboard, download the Lead Lifecycle Analytics: Essential Metrics for Perpetual Revenue Growth Deep Dive.