A different metric

When you measure leads, all you are going to get is leads.

And there might be some very good reasons why you measure leads. You might know that a given amount of leads will translate into a given amount of deals. You might know that one lead has a monetary value attached to it. You might know that people feel motivated in trying to get more leads. You might have evidence and proof of these and many other things. But when you measure leads, all you are going to get is leads.

So, what happens when the team that sits in the other room, the team that gets leads as an input and needs to transform that into deals, cannot complete that transformation reliably and consistently?

Well, of course they are going to say that the leads are not good, that they are not quality leads.

And that’s exactly how the relationship between marketing, sales development, sales, and sometimes customer success, works in most B2B companies. There’s always somebody, further down the funnel, that complains because the quality of what they get is not good enough.

Because when you measure leads, all you are going to get is leads.

Quality needs a different metric.

Get started yesterday

Brand is not for your startup only if by brand you mean one of the following things.

A new logo.

A different color palette.

A TV ad.

A celebrity endorsement.

A brand typography.

A cutting-edge website.

If brand instead is your story, the unique point of view you are offering, thought leadership content, reputation, then you should get started with that yesterday.

Caution does not spread

It might be that everyone is out there waiting for you to come out with the new feature. Perhaps your detractors are just waiting for you to trip and your competitors can’t wait to see the sneak peek of your new product. Somebody for sure has also set an alert to track everything that you are doing and beat you to it.

Or maybe not.

The point is that the time you spend worrying about all these unlikely scenarios – let’s accept it, in most cases we are not that important – is time you could invest to put your work out there and get people excited about it.

Caution does not spread.

Breakthrough

You don’t have to tell, to explain, to convince, to persuade.

You just have to listen, understand, and play back.

That’s copywriting.

Copy cannot create desire for a product. It can only take the hopes, dreams, fears and desires that already exist in the heart of millions of people, and focus those already existing desires onto a particular product.

Eugene Schwartz, Breakthrough Advertising (1966)

P.S.: Thanks Katelyn Bourgoin for sharing this in the first place.

An important metric

There is one important metric that should be considered in any report.

It’s the cost of what you have achieved.

Not only monetary cost – though that is always a fantastic way to start, that would immediately set you apart from the vast majority of people – but also the cost in terms of energy, in terms of time spent, in terms of forgone opportunities.

Adding the cost to your reports can very much give you a clearer picture of how effective your work is.

It’s surprising how many teams are not aware of how much their achievements cost.