Stop Measuring Activity, Start Tracking Outcomes

In terms of metrics, traditional go-to-market is very much activity-based rather than outcome-based. People are focused on what are people doing—are they making calls? Are they delivering MQLs? Are they sending emails? We're less focused overall on the big results that we want to drive that are actually going to move the needle for the business.

This is one of the most pervasive problems I see in go-to-market functions, and it's costing companies real money. Because when you measure activity instead of outcomes, you get a lot of activity that doesn't actually lead anywhere.

Let me give you a real example. We dramatically increased inbound leads for a client this year—tripled them, actually. Significant growth. The kind of result that should translate directly to revenue. Except they haven't closed any of them. Not a single one.

Now, if we're measuring activity metrics—leads generated, form fills, MQLs delivered—we look like rockstars. We're crushing our targets. But if we're measuring outcomes—pipeline created, revenue generated, customers acquired—we're failing. Because none of that activity is actually moving the needle for the business.

Why Activity Metrics Are Seductive

Activity metrics are easy to track. They're concrete. They give you something to report on weekly or monthly. They make people feel productive. And they create the illusion of progress even when nothing meaningful is actually happening.

Marketing can point to traffic growth, email open rates, content downloads, social engagement, MQLs delivered. Sales can point to calls made, demos completed, proposals sent, pipeline created. Everyone's hitting their numbers. Everyone's busy. And yet the business is missing its revenue targets.

The problem is that activity metrics measure effort, not results. They tell you that work is happening. They don't tell you whether that work is effective. And because they're easier to move than outcome metrics, teams naturally optimize for them—even when doing so doesn't serve the business.

Here's what happens: marketing optimizes for lead volume because that's their metric. So they lower the qualification bar, they gate more content, they run more aggressive campaigns. Lead numbers go up. Marketing looks great. But sales gets flooded with low-quality leads that waste their time and don't convert. Sales then complains about lead quality, marketing gets defensive about hitting their numbers, and the cycle continues.

Meanwhile, the only metric that actually matters—revenue—isn't moving.

What Outcome-Based Metrics Look Like

The metrics should be more focused on the actual outcomes for the business—the things that are going to move the needle. I think you can still look at things like calls and MQLs and emails sent. Those are leading indicators and have some weight when it comes to indicating what the performance of the business might be. But ultimately what we really should be focusing on is the outcomes—what we are delivering in really quantifiable, hard terms. Because that's the only way to prove ROI and make sure you keep earning your spot on the team.

So what are outcome-based metrics? They're the things that actually impact the business's ability to make money and grow. Revenue. Profit. Pipeline. Customer acquisition cost. Customer lifetime value. Win rates. Retention rates. Expansion revenue.

These metrics are harder to move. They take longer to show results. They're influenced by factors outside any single function's control. And that's exactly why they're better metrics. Because they force you to focus on what actually matters instead of just generating activity that looks good on a dashboard.

Let's be specific about what this looks like in practice. Instead of measuring MQLs delivered, measure qualified pipeline created. Instead of measuring content downloads, measure how content influences deals. Instead of measuring email send volume, measure revenue from email-influenced opportunities. Instead of measuring sales calls made, measure conversion rates and average deal size.

The shift is from "did we do the thing" to "did the thing we did actually work."

The Challenges of Shifting to Outcomes

I'm not going to pretend this shift is easy. There are real reasons why companies default to activity metrics, and those reasons don't just disappear because you decide to focus on outcomes instead.

First, outcome metrics require better data infrastructure. You need to be able to track leads through the entire funnel, not just hand them off at some arbitrary stage. You need to connect marketing activity to closed revenue, which means your CRM needs to actually work and people need to actually use it properly. You need attribution models that make sense for your business. None of this is trivial.

Second, outcome metrics take longer to show results. If marketing shifts strategy, you might not see the revenue impact for six months. That makes it harder to experiment, harder to course-correct quickly, and harder to justify budget and headcount in the short term. Activity metrics give you faster feedback, even if that feedback isn't actually meaningful.

Third, outcome metrics cross functional boundaries. Revenue isn't just marketing's responsibility or just sales's responsibility. It requires both functions working together, plus product, plus customer success, plus probably others. Which means you can't hold any single team accountable for outcomes without also requiring cross-functional collaboration. And most companies aren't set up for that.

Fourth, outcome metrics are harder to game. It's relatively easy to inflate activity metrics if you're so inclined—lower qualification standards, send more emails, make more calls. But you can't fake revenue. You can't pretend pipeline exists when it doesn't. So shifting to outcome metrics requires more honesty about what's actually working, which can be uncomfortable.

How to Make the Shift

Start by defining what outcomes actually matter for your business. This sounds obvious, but most companies haven't explicitly articulated this. Is it new customer acquisition? Expansion revenue from existing customers? Faster sales cycles? Higher win rates? Be specific.

Then work backward from those outcomes to identify the leading indicators that actually correlate. Not just the activities you're currently doing, but the activities that have a proven relationship to the outcomes you care about. This requires analysis. You need to look at your data and figure out what actually predicts success, not just assume that more activity equals better results.

Next, align incentives around those outcomes. If you want marketing and sales to work together on pipeline generation, then both teams need to have pipeline in their goals. If you want to improve win rates, then sales comp needs to reward quality over quantity. If you want customer success driving expansion revenue, they need to be measured on it. Misaligned incentives will sabotage any attempt to focus on outcomes.

Then build the infrastructure to track and report on these metrics. This probably means better integration between your marketing automation, CRM, and analytics tools. It definitely means getting sales to actually update deal stages and close dates. It might mean building custom dashboards or reports. The technical work matters because you can't manage what you can't measure.

Finally, be patient with the transition. You can't flip a switch and suddenly have perfect outcome-based reporting. You'll need to run both systems in parallel for a while. You'll need to validate that your new metrics actually correlate to business success. You'll need to teach people how to think about and act on these different metrics. This is a multi-quarter process, not a single meeting.

Why This Matters Now More Than Ever

The reality is that no one is going to make the decision to keep your services based on the fact that you sent 50,000 emails last quarter. They're going to make that decision based on whether you helped them hit their revenue targets, acquire customers more efficiently, or grow faster than their competitors.

Activity metrics made more sense when go-to-market was simpler and more linear. When you could reasonably say "if we generate X MQLs, we'll get Y customers." But in a world of multiple simultaneous motions, complex buying journeys, and attribution ambiguity, activity metrics are increasingly disconnected from outcomes.

You need to focus on what actually moves the needle for the business. Revenue. Pipeline. Profit. Customer acquisition. Growth. Those are the things that determine whether a company succeeds or fails. Everything else is just theater.

And here's the thing—when you focus on outcomes, the activities take care of themselves. Because you naturally prioritize the activities that drive results and stop doing the activities that just generate busy work. You become more efficient, more effective, and more valuable. Which is the whole point.

Measure What Actually Matters to Your Business

Activity metrics create the illusion of progress. Outcome metrics drive actual growth. At Winsome Marketing, we help companies shift from measuring effort to measuring results—building accountability around the metrics that actually move the needle for your business.

Ready to focus on outcomes that matter? Let's build a measurement framework around revenue, pipeline, and growth—not just activity.