In the spirit of short but good, I offer this quick blog about B2B marketing metrics.
When I was a marketing VP, I was (and still am) a big advocate of tracking multiple metrics. I created a scorecard and updated the metrics on a monthly basis complete with green, yellow and red indicators. I recall tracking upwards of 20-25 metrics.
But, at the fundamental level, I always put dominant weight on just a few. They may sound rudimentary, but I think the most important B2B metrics are centered around the customer base. They are:
- How many customers do we have today? One should always know this number and probably a few important sub-segments of the overall customer base. Among other things, it shows you care.
- How many are shrinking, flat or growing? This is all about trends and having your pulse on what is happening with customers. Related: What is our retention rate?
- How many of them are profitable? Gross revenues are obviously important, but it’s all about profit at the end of the day. There may be some (limited) reasons to carry a few money losing customers, but at very least you have to know who is and isn’t profitable.
- Who are our best customers? This is very much related to #3 above but specifically knowing who are your big contributors helps you target more of them (see below), take special care of them and also understand your vulnerabilities should some of these high rollers decide to leave.
Lastly (and I realize that this is not an actual metric but) #5 is what is the firmographic profile of our best customers and how many more companies exist in the marketplace with this same profile? Firmographics are things like NAICS industry, size of company, geographic trends, etc. You need to know what your best customers “look like” so you can target more just like them. See How to Develop a Best Customer Profile for more on this topic.
I hope you find this useful. Thanks for reading my blog and please visit again.
Vincent out.
