Navigate the Winding Road from Metrics to Accountability

We’re surrounded by metrics, from the weather forecast, to the crime rate, to our blood pressure. In business we use metrics to gauge some quantifiable component of our company's performance, for example ROI (return on investment). Functions within a business have metrics too, and in marketing we have no shortage of them. There are now many books (of which we’ve written two) devoted to the topic of marketing metrics and measurement.

Marketing metrics include:

• Activity measures related to productivity, cost, and timing
• Output measures such as response rates, download rates, open and share rates, and site traffic rates; operational metrics such as cost per lead and leads per rep
• Outcome metrics such as win rate, pipeline contribution, share of preference, and share of wallet.

Accountability describes a perspective. Accountability is about making a commitment to a particular action, accepting responsibility for completing that action, and then reporting on how well you performed again your commitment.

In our conversations with Best-in-Class (BIC) marketers who are doing a great job tackling marketing accountability, we have found they share these five common traits, they:

1. Are Guided by Outcomes. Marketing objectives, programs and activities are tied to business outcomes. Outcomes are those things your company needs to accomplish to achieve financial targets (revenue, profit, margin, etc.) in order to declare success. This step seems to be the most critical. To have the right level of accountability to the business, marketing efforts cannot be orphaned from outcome.
2. Establish Commitments. The BIC have clear and specific performance targets. Their marketing commitments are typically incorporated into marketing objectives. Can you frame your commitment into a quantifiable meaningful and relevant statement? The BIC can. This step essentially sets the expectations for what you will deliver to the business.
3. Clarify Constraints. BIC marketers clarify all of the moving parts associated with achieving their objectives. For example, the owners, the data, the process, the timing, and the investment. To set yourself and your team up for success, you need to be clear about what you need. Identify three to five resources you will need to be successful. Usually these have something to do data, tools, processes, time, people, and/or money. It’s important that your leadership team understand any constraints that might affect your performance and commitment.
4. Seal Deals. Speaking of leadership, the BICs know how important it is for their leadership team to be on board and in sync regarding their performance targets. Marketers who set their performance targets in isolation and march to their own drum are less likely to earn high marks even if the metrics and targets are good.
5. Report Performance. A key part of marketing accountability is to “account”. And to account means to report. This is where you will need to select metrics to support your accountability. The metrics of the BIC form a hierarchy and not just a “mixed bag” of measures. The hierarchy enables them to tell both a story about how the activities are effecting the results. The performance reports/dashboards of the BIC reflect this hierarchy. You may need to revisit your dashboard/performance report, if you created these simply by clicking on your marketing and/or sales automation platform options or by importing data from your digital platforms. 

Accountability is the foundation for creating a performance management oriented organization. While these five capabilities aren’t the only things you can do to be a more marketing accountable organization, they are essential to the process. But accountability for the sake of accountability is a shallow goal. Ideally Marketing’s impact on the business is substantial. Make your marketing accountability efforts about more than merely reporting on your performance. Use the process, the metrics, and the reports to glean insights into what the organization can do to be more successful.