We tracked 332 metrics across 17 companies last year.
Want to know how many actually moved the needle?
Four…just four.
If you’re drowning in dashboards but still missing your targets, these are the four (4) “Impact Metrics” that made the biggest difference for my companies that you should start tracking, too.
Impact Metric #1: Engaged Leads
Most marketers love bragging about “new leads,” but new leads are not only expensive, they frequently take the longest to close.
But re-engaging old leads?
Not only is it practically free…they’re frequently faster to close, too.
That’s why we shifted from emphasizing new leads to emphasizing total engaged leads.
How you define an engaged lead is up to you. It could be anyone who:
Opted in to a lead magnet…
Registered for a webinar…
Replied to an email, or even just…
Stayed on-site for 30+ seconds in the last 7 days…
…you get the idea.
Eventually, we introduced more sophisticated lead scoring, but the concept is the same. You’re counting all the leads, new or “old,” that perform the actions that make them look “new” again.
The result? Sales meetings surged without increasing ad spend because the marketing team was incentivized to create more middle-of-funnel campaigns instead of focusing exclusively on filling the top of the funnel.
How to track it: Define what an “engaged” lead means to you, then start tracking the number of engaged leads and reporting on it weekly. If the number is shrinking, so is your pipeline. If the number is increasing, you’re making deposits into your “future bank.”
Impact Metric #2: Offers Made
Revenue doesn’t start with a sale...it starts when an offer is made.
The problem? Our teams were obsessing over conversion rates, which meant they were only making offers to the leads they felt were “ready.”
The result? Conversion rates went up, but sales (and revenue) went down.
That’s when we asked: “What if we just made more offers?”
Conversion rates dipped slightly, but revenue skyrocketed.
More offers = more sales.
How to track it: Count every offer your marketing team sends and every proposal your sales team makes. Establish a minimum qualification standard to ensure they aren’t blasting out offers to anyone with a pulse, but shift from rewarding the highest conversion/close rates to rewarding the highest sales totals.
Impact Metric #3: Customer Stories Collected
Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction Scores (CSAT) are lagging indicators of customer delight. Testimonials and customer stories, on the other hand, are instant proof that you delivered value.
A client who says, “This is the result I got, and I’ll sign my name to it” isn’t just happy...they’re successful.
And it’s the successful customers who refer and buy again, not merely the “happy” customers.
How to track it: Start asking for testimonials and reviews as soon as you deliver the first big win (not just at the end of an engagement or delivery process). Build it into your fulfillment flow, establish a monthly quota for customer stories collected, and have your customer success team report on (and celebrate) the number of new testimonials and reviews they receive weekly.
Impact Metric #4: Distributable Cash
The ultimate sign of a healthy business isn’t revenue or growth...it’s the ability to distribute big, fat chunks of cash every quarter.
That’s why the most important metric of all is “Distributable Cash” (a.k.a. cash on hand for distribution after all expenses and reserves).
When our growth goals were centered around sales and revenue targets, the team would celebrate when we hit those targets, even when it came at the expense of profitability.
But when we tied bonuses to distributable cash, everyone began caring about the whole picture…top line, margins, and overall operating efficiency.
Before long, bank balances started swelling, which not only put more money in all of our pockets, it also gave us the fuel we needed to fund more growth.
How to track it: At the end of every month, calculate the cash in your operating account above a minimum reserve (usually 1 - 2 months’ operating expenses). If it’s zero, your “profit” is just on paper.
Bonus Tip: Establish a dedicated bank account for your distributable cash using the Cash Flow Waterfall system I describe here.
Taking Action
If you want more clarity from your KPIs, scrap the noise and start tracking these four “Impact Metrics.”
And if you really want to lock it in, build a one-page CEO Scorecard and review it with your leadership team every Monday.
⚡ Action Step: Pick one (or more) of these four metrics to start tracking and optimizing on a weekly basis. Add it to your company scorecard, report on it weekly, and watch what happens.
Stop letting broken systems hold you back. Let’s create a plan that “de-bottlenecks” you from your business so you can scale your company…without sacrificing your soul. Schedule a free “Scale Session” today.
Quick Hits
Here’s some other content from the Scalable network, plus some other cool stuff I liked and thought you might like, too:
🧰 Tool of the Week: This free “CEO Dashboard” template allows you to manage your entire business in just 14 seconds from a single spreadsheet.
🤑 We spent $8.2M on marketing tests and made $54M in sales. These are the three (3) biggest lessons we learned. (YouTube)
🤡 Salesforce just released the STUPIDEST “Small Business Trends” report ever, so Ryan and Roland ripped it to shreds. (Business Lunch Podcast)
📈 How we 2X’ed revenue without adding a single customer. (IG carousel)
🤷 60 seconds on why you should NEVER call yourself a “Business Buyer” (even if you’re buying a business) and what you should call yourself, instead.
Tweet of the Week
“Visionary” is not a job title.
It’s what founders call themselves when they've read too many of the wrong books and hired too many of the wrong consultants.
— #Ryan Deiss (#@ryandeiss)
1:36 PM • Aug 1, 2025
Want more from us?
Whenever you’re ready, here are 3 ways we can help you scale your business (without sacrificing your soul in the process):
Download the “$200M Operating System Case Study.” This 46-page “manifesto” (and accompanying video) reveals how we’re scaling six (6) different businesses simultaneously inside our $200M holding company using the Scalable Operating System™.
Get a free copy of my book. If your goal is to own a business that can run and scale without you, then Get Scalable is your playbook.
Work 1-on-1 with me and my team. If you’d like direct, 1-on-1 support systemizing and scaling your business, you can get more information and schedule a complimentary Scale Session here.