Aligning on Metrics That Matter

Investors often need help understanding marketing metrics and their context, creating confusion and tension between CEOs, marketing leaders, and themselves. You’re thinking about money in, money out, growth, valuation, and returns, but the marketing data presented doesn’t align with that framework.

Every week, I hear the same types of questions:

1. Pipeline clarity: Do we understand the pipeline? Is it healthy? What’s valid, when will deals close, and what needs attention?
2. Customer health scores: Do we know what’s red, amber, or green? How do we interpret this for customer success and marketing?
3. Clarity on activity: Are we doing the right things? Are we signing enough customers within our ICP?
4. Lead quality: What do these metrics say about the quality of leads, and what can we do to improve?

This disconnect causes investors to interrogate CEOs, CEOs to miscommunicate with marketing leaders, and marketing leaders to overcompensate with too much irrelevant data. The relationship between investor, CEO, and marketing becomes strained because there’s no alignment or shared understanding of what the metrics mean for the business.

You usually solve this by asking the CEO for more metrics. The problem is that the CEO doesn’t always fully understand the context of marketing metrics. Next, more metrics are created, compounding the issue and creating even more confusion.

At the same time, the marketing leader is often left out of the direct communication loop. Instead of being able to clarify what’s needed, they make assumptions about what to present. This results in reports with irrelevant or incomplete data that don’t address your questions.

Adding more metrics doesn’t solve the core issue. Instead, it often makes things worse:

• Communication gets lost in translation.
• Marketing leaders feel misunderstood and try to solve the problem by overloading you with more data, leading to more confusion.
• You begin to question whether the marketing team focuses on the right activities.

And here’s the key point: although marketing is the Master of Business and drives revenue, you cannot attribute every single thing marketing does directly to revenue. For example, you don’t expect HR, Finance, or Product to justify every action in terms of revenue. The same should apply to marketing.

Here’s another important consideration: do you have a top-of-funnel problem or a messaging problem? These are two very different challenges, and they inform the type of metrics you need to see. If the marketing leader presents funnel metrics without providing insight into whether the messaging resonates in the market, you may focus on the wrong things.

1. Open a direct line of communication with the marketing leader. Be clear about what confuses you and what you need to understand. Spell out what a “dream outcome” looks like for your understanding of marketing’s contribution. But also appreciate that not everything can be neatly measured or directly attributed to revenue.
2. Set clear expectations for board reporting. Right now, marketing leaders are making assumptions about what to share—often guided by the CEO. Instead, establish a clearer communication process. For example, agree on the following framework:some text
   • What’s not working?
   • What challenge can we set for ourselves to hit?
   • What’s the metric to track progress?

When everyone agrees, marketing can focus on producing relevant insights and metrics that help.

3. Focus on leading indicators, not just lagging indicators. Leading indicators help you predict future performance and pipeline health. Examples include:some text
   • Conversion rates
   • Early-stage customer engagement
   • Event attendance
   • Net Promoter Score trends
   • MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads)
   • Demo requests
   • Trial activation rates
   • Campaign testing velocity

Make sure the marketing leader provides the context for these metrics. What do they say about the pipeline, messaging, and overall market response?

Action, action, action:

1. Agree on North Star metrics. Sit with the CEO and marketing leader to decide on the key metrics. These should clearly show whether the business is on track. Don’t leave it to the marketing leader to guess what you need—this wastes time and doesn’t solve the problem.
2. Prioritize leading indicators. Metrics like demo requests, pipeline velocity, and early-stage engagement offer early warnings of future success or issues. Ask for their context, not just the raw numbers.
3. Align around the real problem. Don’t assume every issue is about funnel performance. Ask whether the problem is with top-of-funnel leads or if the messaging isn’t resonating. These require different solutions and different metrics to track. Without alignment, you may be focusing on the wrong things.

To wrap up:

To solve the problem of unclear marketing metrics:

1. Open communication channels with your marketing leader.
2. Simplify the metrics you ask for by agreeing on what matters most.
3. Educate yourself on how marketing works and the context behind its metrics.

This will strengthen the relationships between investors, CEOs, and marketing leaders, ensuring everyone is aligned and working toward the same goals.

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