The past year has highlighted just how important it is to have measurable goals in a B2B setting. With the business environment evolving faster and more drastically than ever before, your plans and strategies need to adapt just as quickly.
There are many ways to reach your B2B goals, but it’s always easier once you know exactly what they are. A practical approach is the best approach. To help you set clear marketing goals for the year ahead, we’ve also created a free tool: a downloadable Excel template.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- How to set up your B2B goals
- How to create a SMART goal
- How to use our Reverse Funnel Analysis Tool
- What OKRs are and how they work
- How to map your marketing activities
- Why dashboards can keep your team aligned
Setting Up Your B2B Goals
So, how do you go from a broad business goal to specific KPIs you can track? What’s a good benchmark for funnel conversion rates at each stage?
One important step is to tie marketing goals directly to business goals. For example, do you want more website visitors? More qualified leads? Your goals must be measurable and connected to broader revenue objectives.
Let’s say your overall business goal is to reach $390 million in revenue. Marketing will need to contribute a portion of that. Say, $43 million. From there, set supporting goals. For instance:
- How will increasing LinkedIn traffic help generate those leads?
- How many LinkedIn leads will help hit that $43 million target?
- What’s the deadline?
Work backward from the big number, and detail all the steps that will get you there.
Creating Your SMART Goal
The next step is to make your goals SMART:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Relevant
- Time-bound
Example:
“We want to increase LinkedIn traffic by 10% starting in February, and hit a 50% increase by June.”
Just as important, share these goals with your team. Goals are only useful when everyone is aligned around them.
The Reverse Funnel Analysis Tool
Once you’ve set your SMART goal, how do you translate it into daily tasks for your team?
That’s where the Reverse Funnel Analysis Tool comes in. It starts with your overall business target (e.g., $390 million) and breaks it down across departments (sales, marketing, channel partners) into daily or monthly objectives.
Here’s an example:
- Goal: $10 million/month
- If each new customer brings in ~$8.3K, you’ll need 1,200 new customers/year
- With a 1:4 conversion ratio, that means 43 qualified leads/month
- How many contacts do you need to generate those 43 qualified leads?
- Keep breaking it down until you reach actionable numbers for daily activity
This approach helps every team member see their impact on the bigger goal.
What Are OKRs?
Another great way to track progress is by setting OKRs (Objectives and Key Results).
Let’s say your objective is to increase revenue by $100 million. Your first key result might be:
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“Generate 40% more qualified leads”
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Another key result might be: “Hire two new revenue-driving team members”
OKRs bridge the gap between strategic goals and measurable outcomes, and help you align team efforts across departments.
Mapping Your Activities
To get there, you also need to track the right activities, like buyer journeys and lead scoring.
Marketing automation tools can help qualify leads more efficiently, so your team isn’t wasting time on prospects who aren’t a good fit. The more you understand the full journey, the more you can optimize it.
Do You Need a Dashboard?
If you’re managing a team of 10+ people, manually compiling spreadsheets to track activities becomes inefficient.
This is where real-time dashboards shine. Tools like HubSpot’s CRM (free) or other paid options allow you to monitor performance and KPIs at a glance, keeping everyone focused on the target.
Final Thoughts
If there’s one takeaway from all this, it’s this:
Involve your team in goal-setting, and track performance daily.
You can’t hit your goals if you don’t monitor progress.
For more support, check out our online video on B2B goal-setting and download the SMART Goals & Funnel Analysis Template to get started.
