Using the Achieving Dashboard

Your Road Map to a Crowning Achievement

Please note: While this video refers to Response Management, its content applies specifically to Funnel Metrics.

As anyone who's ever made a New Year's resolution can tell you, making goals is easy. Sticking to them? That's the hard part.

Your Achieving dashboard makes it easier. It can't help you cut back on sugar or run 10 miles a day or write the great American novel, but it will help you stay on track as you pursue the marketing goal you set in the Planning phase of the Full Circle Method. The more regularly you check in on your progress, the more effectively you can course-correct and optimize as you go along. These check-ins don't have to be labor-intensive. Your Achieving dashboard makes data available at a glance, giving you insight into metrics like:

• Revenue goal
• Opportunity coverage
• MQL volume, conversion rate, and velocity rate
• SAL volume, conversion rate, and velocity rate
• SQL volume, conversion rate, and velocity rate
• Opportunity volume, conversion rate, and velocity rate
• Sourced revenue by department
• Average deal size
• Opportunity volume and revenue: Wins
• Opportunity volume and revenue: Wins, Losses, and Open Opportunities
   

Example Use Case: Opportunity Coverage (aka Pipeline Coverage)

Think of Opportunity Coverage as a crystal ball, but instead of a spooky lady giving you vague predictions about your destiny, it's your data giving you a specific, quantifiable picture of how much revenue potential you can expect in future fiscal quarters. It's the amount of business in your pipeline relative to your current Opportunity to Closed/Won conversion rate and your revenue goals for a given period. Looking to avoid unpleasant revenue surprises? Opportunity Coverage is the metric you need.

Let's say you just started our Q1 of a new fiscal year and your organization has a $2M goal for revenue (closed sales) in Q2. From the earlier Planning example, you know your opportunity-to-won conversion rate is 25%. Since 25% of your opportunities typically become closed-won sales, you determine you'll need $8M in opportunity value to achieve $2M in revenue. To put it another way, you'll need four times more opportunity value than you want to make in revenue (4 x $2M = $8M).

While this same concept can also be applied to future fiscal quarters, there's one very important nuance to consider, and it has to do with timing.

Here's the deal. Let's assume it's still the start of Q1. You know you're going to need to close another $2M in Q3 (just like you planned for Q2), and your opportunity-to-won conversion rate is holding steady at 25%. At first glance, it's easy to assume you'll need another $8M in opportunity value. Well, that might be true...but it ultimately depends on when the metric is being calculated.

Because Q1 is just beginning, there's still plenty of time for more opportunities to be created for Q3. Several future months of marketing and sales activity should contribute to revenue creation. In light of this, if you're in Q1, you might choose to reduce the amount of opportunity coverage needed in Q3 at this given time. Rather than the 4x ratio you settled on for Q2, you might instead choose a 3x ratio for Q3. That would mean predicting a need for $6M in opportunity value, rather than $8M.

Of course, you don't want to make these decisions lightly. Marketing, Sales, and Finance should determine opportunity coverage ratios collaboratively. Many organizations use a 4-3-2-1 ratio schema: 4x for the upcoming quarter, 3x for the quarter after that, and so on, but opinions differ. Your specific circumstances, including the effect of your velocity rates on the timing of lead/opportunity creation, will dictate what's best.

Your Achieving dashboard gives you a more nuanced look at those circumstances, including volume, conversion, and velocity rates for each of your funnel stages. Let's dive into the metrics you'll find on this dash.

Achieving Dashboard Components

Revenue Goal

This gauge shows won revenue compared to your revenue goal. In this example, the organization has currently achieved 24% of its annual revenue goal. (Time Parameter: Fiscal Year to Date)

MQL Metrics: Volume, Conversion Rate, Velocity Rate

Here's your hub for MQL information. This component shows your total MQL volume, with the MQL to SAL Conversion Rate as a percentage underneath. Below that percentage, you'll find the MQL to SAL velocity rate in days. (Time Parameter: Fiscal Year to Date)

SAL Metrics: Volume, Conversion Rate, Velocity Rate

Look familiar? This component shows the same information as the one above, but it focuses on SALs instead: Total SAL volume, MQL to SAL Conversion Rate as a percentage, and MQL to SAL velocity rate in days. (Time Parameter: Fiscal Year to Date)

SQL Metrics: Volume, Conversion Rate, Velocity Rate

You guessed it - here you've got your total SQL volume, SQL to Pipeline conversion rate as a percentage, and SQL to pipeline velocity in days. (Time Parameter: Fiscal Year to Date)

Pipeline Metrics: Volume, Conversion Rate, Velocity Rate

Once more, with feeling! This component gives you your total pipeline volume (the sum of all pipeline opportunities created so far), followed by the Pipeline to Win conversion rate percentage and the Pipeline to Win velocity rate in days. (Time Parameter: Fiscal Year to Date)

Average Deal Size

Moving on from our funnel stage components, this gauge lets you check on the average deal size across all the deals you've won so far. (Time Parameter: Fiscal Year to Date)

Opportunity Volume and Amount: Won

This chart shows your cumulative win revenue (on the left-hand Y axis) and volume of wins (on the right-hand Y axis). Note the blue dot indicating the volume of wins. As more fiscal quarters are added, that blue dot will become a trend line to help visualize the volume of wins by quarter. Each fiscal quarter's cumulative win revenue will be reflected on its own green bar for the given quarter. (Time Parameter: Fiscal Year to Date by Quarter)

Opportunity Volume and Amount: Won, Lost, Open

On this chart, you'll find total opportunity pipeline value on the left-hand Y axis (including wins, losses and open opportunities), and volume of pipeline opportunities on the right-hand Y axis. As above, the blue dot indicates the volume of total pipeline opportunities; as more fiscal quarters are added, that blue dot will become a trend line to help visualize the volume of wins by quarter. Each fiscal quarter's cumulative win revenue will be reflected on its own green bar for the given quarter. (Time Parameter: Fiscal Year to Date by Quarter)

Sourced Revenue: By Department

The Achieving dashboard closes out with a donut chart showing the distribution of revenue by organizational department, based on campaign sources. In other words, check here to determine how much revenue each organizational department is expected to bring in. (Time Parameter: Fiscal Year to Date)