Why Worry Less About the Credit & More About the Wins

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it dozens of times, “we need to make sure Marketing gets credit for our contribution to the business.” CMOs, Marketing Directors, Marketing Operations, and CGOs have all asked us this question. Whether the desired credit is for new opportunities in the pipeline, footprint expansion within an existing customer, or something else, I challenge you to think of “wins” versus “credit.” Yes, of course, we want to know how Marketing impacts the business and we need measures to provide this insight, but the focus needs to be on the contribution to the wins, not the credit.

Why? Because business success is a team sport. Every member of the team has a specific role to play in achieving success. Success is usually not the result of one player, it is about the planning, coordination, and collaboration needed to accomplish the goal.

It's football season and here in Texas football ranks high on the list of obsessions. So, I’m going to do my best, given my level of football knowledge, to use football as a metaphor to explain this perspective. Hope all of the football aficionados among you will cut me some slack.

For the Team, the Focus is the Win/Loss Ratio

In football, it’s all about winning the game so the team can go to the Super Bowl. Wins and losses are the primary measure of success - the win/loss ratio. The entire team and all plays are mobilized around this ratio.

The same is true in business, market dominance is the ultimate measure of success. Achieving it requires high market and customer share, which is a result of more wins than losses for a company’s solution. And it takes the entire team to achieve it.

Well-defined team roles with clear key performance measures are essential in football and in business.

In American football, the quarterback is often responsible for calling the plays in the huddle and touches the ball in almost every offensive play. It is the quarterback’s job to move the ball down the field by collaboratively working with running backs and receivers. Therefore, one of the primary key performance measures for a quarterback is “passer rating.” Passer rating is calculated using the quarterback’s passing attempts, completions, yards, touchdowns, and interceptions.

Of course, while the quarterback is trying to execute the play, the competition is trying to keep him from doing just that. Quarterbacks rely on their offensive line to protect them and make sure they have the opportunity to execute the play.

How to Measure Marketing Quarterback Performance

Marketing is your engine of growth, it is your quarterback. It is Marketing’s job to call the offensive plays and to get the ball into the hands of running backs and receivers. In business that is the Sales, Account, and Customer Success teams. To be successful, the company needs a market-worthy solution that customers want, that is a solid offensive line, which in business are the product/R&D and delivery teams. Teams need the right players in the right role (Talent Management) and the resources and equipment (supply chain and finance) to successfully compete. Like football, where the quarterback touches the ball in almost every play, Marketing touches the customer journey at almost every touch point.

The quarterback doesn’t worry about getting credit. While quarterbacks can certainly score touchdowns, this is not typical. Quarterbacks know it is their job to get the ball into the hands of the people who do the scoring. And the same is true for Marketing.

Hence our proposition is that to truly measure and report Marketing’s success you need to worry less about getting credit and instead develop a key performance measure that provides insight into Marketing’s contribution. What might be the equivalent of a passer rating for your Marketing team?

5 Strong Variables to Consider when Developing a Winning Measure

The passer rating is calculated using 5 variables. We recommend you identify variables to create a passer rating for your organization. Perhaps these five will spark some internal discussions with your team. 1.

1. Positioning/Messaging: Brand preference might be a good measure for this variable.
2. Strategy: A measure around market traction, such as inquiry or engagement rate.
3. Conversion Rate: The conversion rate across the touch points in the customer journey.
4. Deals Won: Include both new and existing customers in your measure.
5. Competition: Product Adoption Rate might be a good measure for this variable.

The bottom line. Worry less about credit. Develop a key measure of success for your Marketing tied to winning. Huddle around it. Cheer successes as displayed for all to see on your dashboard. Learn from any misses and come back stronger the next time.

P.S. 3 Dashboard Requirements

Executive-level strategic dashboards:

• Display all of the outcomes you’ve chosen to include in the calculation of your winning measure in a way that is easy for every stakeholder to digest, so everyone will see that you are winning
• Communicate the most important information for the user based on connecting the measures and metrics between activities, outputs, outcomes, and business results.
• Deliver direct line-of-sight to provide the insights needed to support customer acquisition, retention and growth, competition, touchpoint, and investment decisions needed to run and improve the business on a regular basis.

Is your dashboard helping you win? If not, maybe this would be a good time to review your measures and dashboard.