B2B enterprises – from commercial cleaning providers to IT management consultants – need to underscore the effectiveness of their lead generation campaigns. But if they ever experience a fall in revenue, they might want to review their performance in terms of winning sales.
ZoomInfo.com presents the most important marketing metrics that managers need to maintain sales productivity.
Number of Qualified Leads Generated – Knowing the number of leads that marketing generates and passes to the sales team can help identify if their efforts are working. The number should always be increasing and can help determine when campaigns need to be adjusted.
Lead to Customer Conversion – How many leads turn into opportunities, and how many opportunities turn into sales? If this ratio seems low, you might want to take another look at your current database. For instance, what are the most common job titles, departments, company sizes, and industries? Once you’ve found this information, you can create content to match your buyer personas.
Inbound Calls Per Campaign – Your phones may always be ringing, but are the right people calling? If your inbound leads aren’t qualified, then you’ll have to adjust your campaigns. A marketer’s job isn’t just to get the phone to ring, but to ensure that they’re driving conversations with people who are most likely to buy.
Opportunities Per Campaign – This is one of the most important sales metrics to consider. Did your best opportunities come from email/nurture campaigns, tradeshows, webinars, social media sites, or some other source? Keeping track of this information will help you understand what strategies work well, so you can conduct more successful campaigns in the future. Also note that it’s important to keep track of multiple touches. An opportunity could have come in through a tradeshow, but a webinar could have closed the deal.
Sales to New vs. Returning Customers – Sales is about building lasting relationships, so it’s helpful to understand this metric. However, these two types of customers may have different needs and interests. Are you nurturing your leads with relevant content, and seeing results?
Average Deal Size – If you’re aware of the average deal size, it is much easier to notice when the sales team closes large deals. When this happens, you can then go back and pay attention to the patterns in your data. How are your best customers different from your other contacts?
Average Sales Cycle – The average sales cycle has increased 22% over the past 5 years due to more decision makers being involved in the buying process (source: SiriusDecisions). If you notice that the average cycle seems particularly long, talk to your sales team. It might be helpful to create some more targeted content so they can better educate buyers at different stages of the pipeline.
