Another high-end deal lost. Marketing and lead generation teams keep delivering promising leads, yet somehow, the sales team is fumbling the intro calls or forgetting to follow up. Or maybe, just maybe, everything feels perfect. Everyone’s smiling, high-fives are flying around, and life seems great (unless, of course, the delivery team is pulling overtime to patch up project gaps).

The quota has been smashed

But how do we know if things are truly running smoothly? Is it just about feeling accomplished—or is there something more concrete we should rely on?

Here’s the thing: sales is all about numbers. Think of the movie Moneyball, but swap the baseball field for the business battlefield.

Managers tend to pick a strategy that is the least likely to fail, rather than the one that is most efficient

as the film wisely puts it.

From SDRs and marketers to account executives and managers, everyone plays for the same team. But much like in football, every player has a different role. While goalkeepers defend, strikers score, and midfielders connect, business development teams work toward the same target but measure success differently.

In this article, I’ll break down the KPIs for marketing and lead generation, as they’re often intertwined. After all, in many companies, lead generation is just another part of marketing efforts.

A day in the marketing team

Marketing KPIs

Let’s be honest—marketing teams handle a lot. From managing corporate pages and creating brand materials to assisting with conference prep, updating social media, and producing blog content, their plate is full.

But for this discussion, let’s focus on the metrics that really matter for growth—those that measure lead influx and can be tracked monthly.

1. Inbound Lead Generation KPIs

  • Number of Inbound Leads: Total inbound leads from channels like the website, Clutch, email campaigns, partner networks, or social media.
  • Qualified Leads (MQLs): Inbound leads meeting qualification criteria (e.g., industry, company size, or region).
  • Lead Qualification Rate: Percentage of inbound leads converting into qualified leads.

For example, if 50% of your leads are relevant, you can sleep soundly. Measuring lead quality is just as crucial as counting them.

2. Lead Quality KPIs

  • Lead-to-Opportunity (MQL) Conversion Rate: Percentage of MQLs progressing into sales pipeline opportunities.
  • Non-Relevant Requests: Percentage of inbound leads that don’t meet your criteria (e.g., "Build me another OpenAI" requests).

3. Sales Funnel Performance KPIs

  • Cost Per Lead (CPL): The average cost to generate one inbound lead through paid campaigns like Google Ads or LinkedIn.

4. Content and SEO Performance KPIs

  • Organic Website Traffic: Growth in website visitors from organic channels.
  • Conversion Rate (Website to Lead): Percentage of visitors converting into leads.

5. Campaign Performance KPIs

  • Campaign Conversion Rate: Percentage of campaign participants (e.g., webinar attendees) who become leads.
  • Click-Through Rate (CTR): Measures how effectively campaigns drive users to your website or landing pages.

6. Partnership and Referral KPIs

  • Partnership/Referral Leads: Leads sourced through co-marketing, partnerships, or referrals.

These metrics are the basics, but every company tailors them to its specifics. Service companies, product companies, staff augmentation firms, and full-cycle development agencies all have unique KPIs to guide data-driven decisions. You pick whatever matters most to your business and tracks how it changes depending on the decisions made.

When it's time to reassess things

Lead Generation KPIs

When we talk about lead generation, we’re diving into outbound activities like email campaigns, LinkedIn outreach, and calls. The metrics here focus on efficiency and impact.

1. Prospecting and Outreach KPIs

  • Contacts/Accounts Prospected: Total contacts/accounts targeted via outbound methods.
  • Emails Sent/Calls Made: Number of outbound emails or calls made monthly.

2. Lead Qualification KPIs

  • Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs): Outbound leads meeting marketing's criteria for sales handoff.
  • Sales Accepted Leads (SALs): MQLs approved by sales for follow-up.
  • MQL-to-SAL Conversion Rate: Percentage of MQLs converting into SALs.
  • MQL-to-SQL Conversion Rate: Percentage of MQLs reaching the Sales Qualified Lead (SQL) stage, ready for estimation.

3. Meeting/Appointment Setting KPIs

  • Meetings Scheduled: Number of meetings or demos set up via outbound efforts.
  • Meeting-to-Opportunity Conversion Rate: Percentage of meetings resulting in sales opportunities.

4. Pipeline Development KPIs

  • Deals Created: Number of sales opportunities sourced from outbound efforts.
  • Deal Win Rate: Percentage of outbound-sourced deals that close successfully.
  • Outbound Revenue Contribution: Revenue generated from outbound opportunities compared to other sources.

5. Nurturing KPIs

  • Contacts Processed: Total contacts segmented, qualified, or engaged.
  • Accounts Nurtured: Total accounts placed into nurturing sequences.
  • Nurturing-to-SQL Conversion Rate: Percentage of nurtured accounts converting into SQLs.

6. Response and Engagement KPIs

  • Response Rate: Percentage of outbound emails or calls receiving replies.
  • Positive Response Rate: Percentage of responses leading to meaningful engagement.

7. Sales Activity KPIs

  • Sales Activities per Day/Week: Total outbound activities (calls, emails, messages) per sales rep.

8. Efficiency KPIs

  • Cost Per Lead (Outbound): Average cost of generating one outbound lead.
  • Time to First Contact: Time taken to initiate contact after identifying a potential lead.

Numbers don’t lie, and understanding your KPIs is like having a scoreboard for your business development team. They highlight strengths, expose weaknesses, and guide your strategy for closing more deals.

In the next part, we’ll delve into sales and account management metrics—those that shape your company’s financial success and keep your sales team firing on all cylinders.

Stay tuned!

December 15, 2024