Whether you have a process or technology in place to drive revenue in your business it is crucial to understand what you are measuring and how this supports the goals of your business. As the world of marketing and business development has accelerated toward digital (no events, lunches, in person seminars etc) it is crucial that we adjust our indicators to the new way of working. 

Below are some examples that I have observed to work in professional services firms. The lagging indicators will not have changed much however there might be a few new leading indicators to consider: 

Leading Indicators 

Everything that leads up to closing business:

  • Insights created by your experts/lawyers/consultants
  • Suggested insights for your experts/lawyers/consultants to create by business development/marketing
  • The people you want to win work from (clients/prospects) subscribing to your insights
  • Invitations to the people you want to win work from to subscribe to your insights
  • Engagements on platforms like LinkedIn (or Lexology in the legal world)
  • Attendees at webinars and relevant follow-ups
  • Targeted emails sent to the right people
  • Are your experts/lawyers/consultants social platform behaviours changing
  • Levels of focused digital advertising

Lagging Indicators

  • Closing sales
  • The average number of days an opportunity takes to close
  • Closing rate (in software a demonstration to close is typically 20-30%)
  • How much more your clients buy from you or other departments each year