Renegade Marketers Unite – Episode 429: The B2B Marketing Performance Index

Date: December 27, 2024
Host: Drew Neisser
Guest: Grant Johnson
Episode Theme: A Deep Dive Into the Marketing Performance Index for B2B Marketing
Format: Bonus “Huddle” with actionable, candid expertise

Overview

This episode is a “bonus huddle” of Renegade Marketers Unite, where Drew Neisser sits down with five-time CMO Grant Johnson to walk through his Marketing Performance Index (MPI). The conversation unpacks why traditional metrics like revenue and pipeline are incomplete, and how Johnson’s holistic, simplified dashboard captures all the ways marketing truly impacts the business. The goal: give CMOs a practical, board-ready tool to measure and communicate marketing’s broad value—without getting lost in a sea of vanity metrics.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Why Most Marketers Get Metrics Wrong (02:26–03:40)

• Too Many (Irrelevant) Metrics:
  Many marketers track “vanity metrics” that look good but don’t matter to leadership.

  • Quote (Grant, 02:52):
    “They track far too many... metrics only that matter to marketing.”

• No Alignment with Leadership:
  Marketers often fail to get CEO/CFO/CRO buy-in for reported metrics.

  • Quote (Grant, 02:52):
    “They don’t get agreement on which metrics the CEO, CRO, CFO, or the board care about.”

• No Baseline Established:
  Without a baseline, trends and improvements are impossible to demonstrate.

The Purpose and Power of the Marketing Performance Index (MPI) (03:40–09:08)

• Beyond Revenue & CAC:
  Standard KPIs are lagging indicators; they don’t reflect all of marketing’s impact.

• A Broader Lens:
  MPI captures three primary dimensions:

  1. Market Presence – Are you visible and findable?
  2. Brand Strength – Are prospects and customers engaged and loyal?
  3. Pipeline Health – Are you generating quality leads and conversions?
  • Quote (Grant, 06:32):
    “If you’ve got market presence going well and brand strength going well, your pipeline is going to be more productive.”

• Educating the C-suite:
  Johnson stresses the “language of business is numbers” and urges showing how leading indicators (like awareness and engagement) ultimately improve revenue.

Structure of the Marketing Performance Index (10:52–23:10)

• MPI = 3 Main Buckets, Each with 2 KPIs, Each with 4 Metrics (24 total):
  • You can “ladder up” and report at a high level with just 6 supermetrics for the board.
  • Adaptable: Swap in metrics relevant to your business, but keep the agreed framework consistent.

1. Market Presence

• Reach Metrics:
  Earned media, social media, site traffic, event participation (12:36)
  • Quote (Grant, 11:20):
    “Events reach is about: are you present when they’re exploring new solutions?”
• Share Metrics:
  Share of voice, indirect sales %, unbranded/branded search
• Trends matter more than absolutes.
  • Quote (Drew, 14:13):
    “The point is it’s more about the trend than it is the absolute in almost all of these.”

2. Brand Strength

• Engagement Metrics:
  Social engagement, owned events, growth of customer communities, third-party events
• Loyalty Metrics:
  NPS, CSAT, gross retention, net retention
  • Quote (Grant, 27:01):
    “These are defined... for SaaS at least two decades... If you’re getting more of your customer’s wallet, that's a good thing.”

3. Pipeline Health

• Key Metrics:
  MQLs (qualified leads), conversion rates, pipeline multiples, ROI, stage progression (MQL→SQL→Closed Won), close rate, competitor win rate
• Qualify what a “lead” really means for you (32:11):
  • Quote (Grant, 32:11):
    “You have to determine leads where it’s going to be meaningful to your business.”
• Pipeline Multiple:
  Amount of pipeline vs. target; vital for accurate forecasting (35:00).

MPI in Practice: Visualizing & Diagnosing Performance (38:23–46:13)

• Color-Coded Dashboards:
  Easy scoring by area quickly identifies strengths and weaknesses (yellow = solid, green = standout, red = problem area).
• Three Scenarios:
  1. Balanced, but missing PR/Social investments (39:00)
  2. Great brand strength, poor pipeline progression—likely a sales qualification problem (40:03–43:39)
  3. Trends Over Time:
     Showing two-year improvement. When the overall score goes up, so does business performance (45:10).
     • Quote (Grant, 45:22):
       “Business was better over time. The company was doing better. We were just executing better as a team, holistically.”

Using MPI Strategically (46:13–49:05)

• Align with Company Outcomes:
  Overlay revenue on MPI to show the connection (46:13).
• It’s a Cross-Functional Effort:
  Real impact requires close coordination with sales, product, customer success.

Practical Advice: Dos and Don’ts for Metrics Dashboards (47:56–49:05)

Do:

• Use numbers that stand up to scrutiny (“not making these numbers up”—Salesforce/source of truth).
• Get positive “affirmation” from execs on which metrics matter most.

Don’t:

• Don’t ignore your audience: Get feedback, customize for board, and involve CEO.
• Don’t “drive your team crazy” measuring everything—focus on what truly demonstrates impact.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Selling MPI to the C-suite:
  “There’s no substitute for just showing the numbers because that’s the language of business that everybody understands.”
  (Grant, 09:08)
• On The Value of Trends:
  “If you get stuck in the absolute, you’re going to hurt yourself in this thing.”
  (Drew, 14:13)
• On Balance:
  “You can’t cut your way to growth.”
  (Grant, 33:16)
• On Connecting Dots:
  “It took all these things working together... product, sales, marketing, customer success...”
  (Grant, 46:13)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:26 – 03:40: The three most common mistakes marketers make with dashboards
• 04:33 – 09:08: The educational sell-in of broader marketing metrics
• 10:52 – 23:10: Walkthrough of the MPI framework and first dimension (Market Presence)
• 24:20 – 29:12: Brand Strength metrics (Engagement & Loyalty)
• 29:30 – 37:29: Pipeline Health metrics explained, including the nuances of MQLs, conversion, and win rates
• 38:23 – 41:15: Diagnosing company health with color-coded MPI dashboards
• 41:15 – 46:13: Interpreting MPI trends over quarters/years and linking to actual business results
• 47:56 – 49:05: Metrics dashboard do’s and don’ts for CMOs

Tone and Takeaways

The conversation is grounded and practical, with both Grant and Drew offering relatable, C-suite-level candor, and humor about the challenges marketers face (“You can’t cut your way to growth—don’t tell PE that!”). Grant’s MPI is not just more metrics—it’s a mindset shift to tell the whole marketing story and drive organizational agreement on what really matters.

Additional Resources

• MPI Template & Beta Testing:
  Grant invites listeners to beta test the index (granitemomentor.com), offering a hands-on walkthrough and custom dashboard PDF.

This episode is a must-listen for CMOs who feel boxed in by lagging financial metrics and want to champion marketing’s broader influence on company growth—with a framework built to foster alignment, focus, and real improvement.