What metrics should sales and marketing track together?

Sales and marketing should track four shared metrics together: qualified enquiries per month, first response time, qualified enquiry to meeting conversion rate, and revenue sourced from marketing. The four numbers are available in any mainstream CRM (HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho, Salesforce) with a basic configuration. Both leaders are measured on all four and the shared primary metric (usually the conversion rate) is on both leaders' bonuses together. The specific numbers matter less than the fact that both teams agreed on the same four and look at them in the same weekly meeting.

Why only four shared metrics?

Four is the practical limit of how many numbers a leader can keep in working memory during a weekly meeting. Beyond four, the review turns into a dashboard review rather than a decision-making conversation. The four shared metrics are a floor, not a ceiling: each team tracks additional team-specific numbers in their own reports, but the shared four are the common language in the joint review. Field experience suggests that teams with more than six shared metrics usually have no shared metric at all, because arguments happen about which chart matters most instead of what to do next.

What is a qualified enquiry and how is it counted?

A qualified enquiry is a new contact that passed the automated qualification check written in the SLA (role, company size, country, service match), was accepted by a sales rep within one business hour, and was given a first human reply. It is counted at the point of sales acceptance, not at form submission, because an enquiry sales rejected was never qualified in the first place. The count is pulled from the CRM by filtering new contacts with a lead status marked qualified by sales within fourteen days of creation. The specific CRM query differs between platforms but the definition is the same.

How is first response time measured?

First response time is measured from the moment the enquiry is created in the CRM to the first outbound email or call from a human sales rep. Auto-responders and confirmation emails do not count as a first response, because the enquirer can tell the difference. The measurement is reported as a median rather than an average, because a few slow responses skew the average and hide the typical experience. HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Zoho all expose this report natively; the configuration takes under an hour. Response time above four business hours is the point where buyers who were ready to buy routinely go to a competitor.

What is the qualified enquiry to meeting conversion rate?

The qualified enquiry to meeting conversion rate is the percentage of qualified enquiries in a month that resulted in a scheduled discovery meeting within thirty days. A typical range for a 10 to 50 person B2B services business is between thirty and sixty percent. The number is sensitive to the quality of the first outreach (the chapter three failure modes directly affect it) and to the qualification strictness. If the conversion rate is below thirty percent, the usual causes are either weak first outreach or qualification rules that let through enquiries sales does not want. A review of the conversion rate alongside rejection reasons usually tells you which cause applies.

How do you measure revenue sourced from marketing?

Revenue sourced from marketing is the share of closed-won revenue in a quarter where the first touch recorded in the CRM came from a marketing source (search, referral marketing campaigns, event, outbound campaign). It is calculated by filtering closed-won deals by original source and summing the deal values. The source taxonomy (the list of possible first-touch categories) is agreed between the two leaders before the metric is tracked, so marketing cannot reclassify a referral as a search touch mid-quarter. Both leaders audit the taxonomy quarterly. In a 10 to 50 person business, this number is usually between twenty and seventy percent depending on how much of the business runs on partner referrals.

Which metrics should both teams stop tracking together?

Both teams should stop tracking vanity metrics together, including website sessions, impressions, bounce rate, cost per click, and raw form fill counts. Those numbers belong in the marketing team's own report, not in the joint review, because sales cannot act on them. The joint review focuses on the four shared metrics plus one or two decision-driving views: the structured rejection reason breakdown and the first touch source breakdown. Everything else creates arguments without changing decisions. The marketing team can still measure vanity metrics internally; they just do not appear on the shared scorecard.

How often are the four shared metrics reported?

The four shared metrics are reported weekly at the Monday joint review, which runs thirty minutes with both leaders present. The owner reviews them monthly as part of the broader business review, and quarterly as part of the SLA audit. Weekly is the right cadence for first response time and qualified enquiry volume because those numbers can and do move within a week. Monthly is the right cadence for conversion rate because single-week samples are too noisy. Quarterly is the right cadence for revenue sourced from marketing because deal cycles usually span multiple weeks.

What CRM is best for tracking the four shared metrics?

HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho, and Salesforce all handle the four metrics with a basic configuration, and the choice between them depends on the broader business needs rather than the shared scorecard specifically. HubSpot's SLA report is the most polished out of the box for the response time and conversion rate numbers. Pipedrive is lighter and faster for a sales team that does not need the full marketing automation stack. Zoho is the lowest cost for a small team. Salesforce is the richest for a team that already uses it. The CRM choice is covered in the HubSpot for SMBs guide (and in parallel comparisons the other platforms publish on their own sites); the four shared metrics work on all of them.

What happens when a shared metric target is missed?

A missed target triggers a Monday review conversation about the cause. The agreed focus is why the number moved, so the fix lands in the right place next week. The four most common causes are a bad month in a channel, a shift in the market or season, a stretched sales team due to a product launch or a vacation, and a drift in the qualification rules. Each cause has a different fix: campaign reallocation, forecasting adjustment, coverage rotation, or a filter audit. The agreement is written so that neither leader can hide a missed target, and the rolling quarter average is what the bonus hangs on, so one slow week does not break the whole relationship.

THE PROCESS · Chapter 4

The four shared metrics both teams actually track.

The four shared metrics for a 10 to 50 person business are qualified enquiries per month, first response time, qualified enquiry to meeting conversion rate, and revenue sourced from marketing. All four are available in any mainstream CRM with a basic configuration. Both the marketing lead and the sales lead are measured on all four, and the shared primary metric (usually the conversion rate) sits on both bonuses together. The scorecard is the audit the SLA produces every week.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Four numbers, no more. Beyond four, the review becomes a dashboard rather than a decision meeting.
Both leaders are measured on the same four and lose their bonus together if the quarter misses.
Vanity metrics (sessions, impressions, bounce rate) stay off the shared scorecard. They live in the marketing team's own report.
Weekly for response time and volume. Monthly for conversion rate. Quarterly for revenue sourced.

The four shared metrics in detail.

Qualified enquiries per month

The count of enquiries where a real decision maker gave real contact information and asked a real question tied to a product or service.

Where it lives: CRM, calculated by filtering new contacts with a lead status marked qualified by sales within fourteen days of creation.

Typical SMB range: Between fifteen and sixty per month for a 10 to 50 person B2B services business, depending on channel mix and category.

First response time

The minutes between a new enquiry arriving and a human on the sales team replying with a real message (not an auto-responder).

Where it lives: CRM or help desk, measured from created time to first outbound email or call. HubSpot, Pipedrive, and Zoho all expose this report natively.

Typical SMB range: A credible target is under thirty minutes during business hours. Many SMBs run above twenty-four hours before this is measured.

Qualified enquiry to meeting conversion rate

The percentage of qualified enquiries that result in a scheduled discovery meeting within thirty days.

Where it lives: CRM, calculated by dividing meetings held by qualified enquiries created in the same month.

Typical SMB range: Between thirty and sixty percent for a B2B services business with a well-defined offer and a clear qualification process.

Revenue sourced from marketing

The share of closed-won revenue in a quarter where the first touch recorded in the CRM came from a marketing source (search, referral, event, outbound campaign).

Where it lives: CRM revenue report, filtered by original source. Both teams agree on the source taxonomy before this is tracked.

Typical SMB range: Between twenty and seventy percent, depending on how much of the business runs on partner referrals versus marketing-generated pipeline.

Metrics that quietly derail a weekly review.

These are the metrics teams keep adding to the shared scorecard that nobody can act on in a weekly meeting. Keep them in the marketing team's own report, where they belong, and keep them off the Monday joint review.

Website sessions: a measure of top of funnel traffic. It cannot be acted on in a sales context, and it moves for reasons neither team controls (seasonality, algorithm changes, press mentions).

Impressions: useful for brand measurement, meaningless for pipeline. A chart of rising impressions next to flat qualified enquiries starts arguments rather than fixing anything.

Bounce rate: a page-level diagnostic for marketing. Sales cannot act on it. It belongs in the marketing team's weekly content review, not the joint scorecard.

Cost per click: a channel-level diagnostic for the paid team. It can mislead the joint review because a lower cost per click often correlates with lower lead quality.

Raw form fill counts: these count unqualified enquiries alongside qualified ones. The qualified enquiry count is the version that belongs on the shared scorecard.

How the four metrics connect to the SLA.

Each shared metric is tied back to a specific commitment in the SLA. Qualified enquiries per month is the marketing volume commitment. First response time is the sales response commitment. Qualified enquiry to meeting conversion rate is the shared primary metric that sits on both bonuses. Revenue sourced from marketing is the business-level outcome the owner reviews quarterly. The scorecard is the audit the agreement produces; without the agreement, the scorecard has no reference point and the numbers mean whatever the person reading them wants them to mean.

The takeaway

Four shared metrics, both teams accountable, measured weekly in a thirty minute joint review. The specific numbers matter less than the fact that both leaders can point at the same four cells and agree what they mean. If the review runs out of time at thirty minutes, the agenda has too many metrics on it, not too few.

Chapter 5: the 90 day Vancouver rollout →

Official sources

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