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đź“Ź 3 Non-Negotiable Metrics Every B2B Marketer Needs to Track
How FranklinCovey's VP of Marketing turns messy data into actionable insights
Marketers have more data at their fingertips than ever before. The truth is, we're all swimming in numbers but starving for actionable insights.
Matt Murdoch, VP of Marketing at FranklinCovey, has a solution: a Crawl-Walk-Run framework that helps him measure what actually matters…
3 Non-Negotiable Metrics Every B2B Marketer Needs to Track
“Data is like oxygen. It’s not flashy... but live without it and see how far you get. Without it, you’re flying blind.”
Crawl: 3 non-negotiable metrics
Tracking everything sounds smart - until you’re stuck, unsure what actually moves the needle.
Matt’s take: Cut through the noise and lock in on just three key metrics.
“There are three that I think every marketing leader needs to focus on. One is conversion rates, a second one is your cost per lead (your CPL) and then a third one is your MQL to SQL ratio. They’re the three critical ones.”
1. Conversions
For Matt, conversions are the ultimate reality check for your marketing strategy.
“Conversion rates tell you: are people clicking you or are they ghosting you, right? Conversion rates are one of those key lead indicators because it’s your marketing compass. They tell you if people are actually doing what you want them to do. Whether it’s downloading your positioning paper, registering for a webcast, whatever it might be.”
If conversions are low, Matt says it’s like when people walk into a store, have a quick browse, and walk right out again. Tracking conversions will show you where they’re bailing.
2. Cost Per Lead
Matt explains that your Cost Per Lead (CPL) is your marketing price tag.
It’s what you’re paying to bring in each prospect. If it’s too high, your budget won’t last very long. But lower isn’t always better either...
“A low CPL might be great, but only if those leads are converting, right? So cheap leads are kind of like cheap shoes. They look great at first, but they may not last. And so, you have to be careful: do you really want the lowest cost lead? There’s probably some, yeah. Your salespeople will let you know quickly if the leads are bad or not.”
And you don’t have to guess whether your CPL is good or bad - benchmark data is everywhere. Look at industry reports, talk to peers, and study your own historical trends.
3. MQL to SQL Ratio
Ever sent an MQL to sales only to hear crickets?
Matt stresses how important it is to track how many MQLs turn into SQLs. If sales aren’t biting, your leads might not be hitting the mark.
“And so, do they hit the right criteria that the sales team is looking for? And if not, then you're not going to succeed at all. So it’s really the ultimate test on whether or not marketing and sales are totally in sync… Or if you're just awkward roommates trying to avoid eye contact.”
Nail the MQL to SQL ratio and everybody’s happy.
You've got your three core metrics locked in - you’re crawling. But data without action are just numbers on a screen. Time to get on your feet and start walking...
Walk: Dial in your market, message and media
“You know, it's interesting as a marketing leader. There's just a lot you have to be aware of all the time. It's nonstop and it's changing every day. Like, now with AI, the whole landscape has changed… But there's still some things that remain constant.”
Matt says the 3Ms (market, message, and media) are still at the heart of marketing. The only reason we need data is to dial in those 3Ms.
Use data to fix problems: The whole point of tracking metrics isn’t just to collect numbers, it’s to pinpoint what’s working and what isn't - whether it’s the audience you’re targeting (market), the message you’re using, or the channels you’re choosing (media).
“If we're finding that people attending our webcast are the wrong title, then that means we're hitting the wrong persona, right? We need to change the aim. We need to change our database, whatever it might be. We need to target a different audience.”
Collaborate and communicate with sales: You can’t dial in your market, message, and media if sales and marketing are out of sync. If the leads you’re generating aren’t converting, you can’t just blame your sales team… it’s a signal that something in your targeting, messaging, or channel strategy might be off. Marketers need a strong feedback loop with sales.
“I've always tried to treat my salespeople like they're my client. I think a lot of times marketers come in with this kind of holier-than-thou attitude. It's like, “I'm the marketer, you do what I say.” But for me, my sales leaders are like my clients. And if I'm not serving them and giving them what they need, then that's on me.”
Ok, you’re making data-driven decisions to dial in your market, message, and media. But the finance team wants more…
Run: Attribution and impact on revenue
You can have the slickest campaigns and the prettiest metrics, but at some point, you’re going to hear the question:
"What's the ROI on that?"
And when that question comes, you’re going to need more than just flashy metrics.
Revenue is king: With buyers touching 20+ channels before converting, pinpointing what actually drove revenue is tough. Attribution will never be perfect, but the closer you can get to tying efforts to revenue, the stronger your case for justifying your budget. Matt recommends pushing as far as you can.
“If you can go all the way to ROI, do it. Because that then shows the true value of marketing all the way to the revenue you're bringing in. But it is hard. It is very, very hard. I have 20 different activities. I have a webcast. I have lead magnets that people are downloading. I have podcasts. I have social media. I have all these things that are driving my event. But how do you segment those out, right? Is it an even touch model? Is it a first touch, or the last touch? What value are you giving to your webcast versus your social media? So unless you have a really sophisticated data analytics machine, it's hard to do.”
Get a data analyst: If you ask Matt, every marketing leader should have a data analyst on their team.
“I hired a data analyst a couple of years ago, and it changed everything. It really did. Because before you were managing everything with like 20 different spreadsheets, trying to dig out the data. But now we have a data analyst and then if you can actually get a BI tool like Microsoft BI or like Domo or some of these others, that is a game changer. Because now you can visualize all the data and when your sales team comes to you saying, ”these are garbage leads”... you've got this whole visualization to say, this is why they’re not.”
Let data tell the story
Marketing magic happens when bold creativity meets solid data. Matt’s roadmap can help any marketer build their data muscle and prove the impact of their creative decisions.
“Data is one piece of the whole marketing puzzle… it is a critical piece of it. You can have the best creative in the world, but unless you have the data to prove that it actually moved the needle, it doesn't really matter.”
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