Objective

Create an executive-friendly dashboard that connects marketing activities to revenue and pipeline metrics.

Instructions

1. Understand Your Audience

Key Question: What do executives care about?

Typical executive concerns:

• Are we on track to hit revenue targets?
• Is marketing spend efficient (ROI, CAC, payback)?
• What's the pipeline health and forecast?
• Are we winning or losing vs. plan?

2. Select 5-7 Key Metrics

Choose metrics that matter to leadership:

Revenue & Pipeline Metrics:

• Marketing-sourced pipeline ($)
• Marketing-influenced revenue
• Pipeline coverage ratio (pipeline/quota)
• Win rate on marketing-sourced deals

Efficiency Metrics:

• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
• CAC Payback Period
• Marketing ROI or ROAS
• Cost per Opportunity

Volume & Quality Metrics:

• MQLs/SQLs delivered
• Lead-to-opportunity conversion rate
• Average deal size from marketing leads

Pick 5-7 that tell a complete story.

3. Design the Layout

Sketch a one-page dashboard with these sections:

Top Section (Status Summary):

• 1-2 sentence executive summary
• Overall status indicator (Green/Yellow/Red)

Main Section (4-6 metric cards):

For each metric, show:

• Current value
• Target or goal
• Trend (↑↓ vs. last period)
• Visual indicator (on track = green, at risk = yellow, behind = red)

Bottom Section (Insights & Actions):

• What's working well
• What needs attention
• Recommended actions

4. Add Context, Not Just Numbers

Bad Example:

"450 MQLs generated"

Good Example:

"450 MQLs generated (90% of 500 target, tracking to exceed goal by month-end)"

For each metric, add:

• Comparison to target
• Trend direction
• Brief interpretation

5. Include a Forecast

Executives want to know:

• Will we hit our numbers?
• What's the outlook for next quarter?

Add a simple forecast section:

• "Based on current trends, we project [X] MQLs and [$Y] pipeline by quarter-end"
• "This puts us on track to [meet/exceed/miss] our $5M pipeline goal by [X%]"

6. Make It Actionable

End with 2-3 clear action items:

Example:

1. "Increase webinar frequency from monthly to bi-weekly to close MQL gap"
2. "Shift $20k from underperforming display ads to LinkedIn where ROI is 3x higher"
3. "Sales enablement session needed on new lead scoring criteria (20% more SQLs being rejected)"

Example Dashboard Structure

MARKETING PERFORMANCE DASHBOARD - Q3 2025

Status: 🟡 Slightly Behind - On track for 85-90% of pipeline goal

---

KEY METRICS

Metric	Current	Target	Status
Pipeline Created	$3.8M	$5.0M	🟡 76%
MQLs Delivered	450	500	🟢 90%
SQL Conversion	22%	20%	🟢 +10%
Marketing ROI	4.2x	3.5x	🟢 +20%
CAC	$2,800	$3,000	🟢 -7%

---

INSIGHTS

✅ What's Working:

• SQL conversion improved 10% due to new lead scoring
• LinkedIn campaigns delivering 4.5x ROI (60% above target)

⚠️ Needs Attention:

• Pipeline 24% behind target, but strong late-quarter activity expected
• Webinar attendance down 15% - testing new formats

---

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS

1. Increase webinar frequency to close MQL gap
2. Shift budget toward top-performing LinkedIn campaigns
3. Launch enterprise ABM pilot next month

Deliverable

Create your one-page dashboard (sketch, slide, or simple spreadsheet) including:

• Status summary
• 5-7 key metrics with targets and trends
• Insights section
• 2-3 action items

Outcome

You'll learn to present marketing performance in executive language, focusing on outcomes over activities and making it easy for leadership to make decisions.

Note: Capstone Save Point

Use this dashboard layout as your "one-slide exec view" for Section 7 (Executive & Stakeholder Alignment) of your Module 22 plan.