If your growth report opens with marketing-qualified leads, the room quietly stops listening. Everyone knows the metric can be gamed, and nobody can connect it to revenue. Replace it with numbers a CFO can defend.
What we put on the first slide
- Sourced pipeline, by channel, against target.
- Cost per opportunity — and the trend, not just the snapshot.
- Sales cycle length and where it is shortening.
- Net revenue retention on cohorts we touched.
Report on revenue you can defend in a board meeting, or do not report on it at all.
When the report ties to dollars, the conversation changes from “is marketing working” to “where do we put the next dollar.” That is the conversation you want to be in.
CJ
Colin Johnson
Chief Revenue Officer, Northbound