The 5 GTM Metrics That Actually Matter

Category: Product Marketing
Published: February 11, 2026
Reading time: 5 minutes

Most companies track the wrong GTM metrics.

They obsess over vanity numbers: MQLs, impressions, engagement rates. Meanwhile, the metrics that actually predict revenue get ignored.

After 15+ years in B2B marketing and influencing over $20M in pipeline, I've learned which numbers matter and which ones are just noise.

Here are the five GTM metrics I track with every client, and why they matter more than your MQL count.

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1. Win Rate by Sales Stage

What it is: Percentage of opportunities that advance from each stage of your funnel (demo to eval to negotiation to close)

Why it matters: This tells you where your GTM strategy is actually breaking. If win rates drop off after demos, your positioning isn't resonating. If deals die in eval, your sales enablement is weak.

How to track it:

• Pull from your CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.)
• Calculate: (Deals advancing to next stage / Total deals in stage) x 100
• Track monthly, look for trends

What good looks like:

• Demo to Evaluation: 40-60%
• Evaluation to Proposal: 50-70%
• Proposal to Close: 60-80%

Red flags:

• Win rates dropping month-over-month at the same stage = positioning or enablement problem
• Consistent drop-off at one stage = specific gap in your GTM motion

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2. Average Sales Cycle Length

What it is: Days from first meaningful conversation to closed-won

Why it matters: Long sales cycles burn cash and kill momentum. More importantly, increases in cycle length signal buyer confusion. That's usually a messaging or differentiation problem in disguise.

How to track it:

• CRM field: Date of first meeting to Close date
• Segment by deal size, industry, or product
• Calculate median (not average; outliers skew it)

What good looks like:

• SMB: 30-60 days
• Mid-market: 60-120 days
• Enterprise: 120-180 days

Red flags:

• Cycle length increasing month-over-month = buyers can't see value clearly
• Wide variance (some deals 30 days, others 180 days) = inconsistent messaging or undefined ICP

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3. Attach Rate (Cross-Sell/Upsell)

What it is: Percentage of customers who buy additional products or modules

Why it matters: This is the cleanest signal of product-market fit and effective positioning. If customers who buy Product A don't buy Product B, your positioning for B is broken, or there's no real need.

How to track it:

• (Customers with Product A + Product B / Total customers with Product A) x 100
• Track quarterly, set targets per product combo

What good looks like:

• Mature product: 40-70% attach rate
• New product: 15-30% in first year

Real example: We hit 77% attach rate on a cross-sell initiative by repositioning the add-on product from "nice-to-have" to "necessary for realizing ROI on your primary purchase." Sales enablement plus tight messaging equals massive attach lift.

Red flags:

• Low attach rate (under 20%) = positioning problem, not product problem
• High attach rate with high churn = buyers don't see value post-purchase

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4. Sales Velocity

What it is: Speed at which deals move through your pipeline, measured in dollars

Formula: (Number of Opportunities x Average Deal Size x Win Rate) / Sales Cycle Length

Why it matters: This is the ultimate GTM health metric. It accounts for volume, deal size, win rate, AND speed. If your velocity is increasing, your GTM is working. If it's flat or declining, something's broken.

How to track it:

• Calculate monthly
• Compare month-over-month and year-over-year
• Segment by product, region, or sales rep

Example:

• 20 opps x $50K avg deal x 60% win rate / 90 days = $6,666/day in sales velocity
• Increase win rate to 70% (better enablement), and velocity jumps to $7,777/day. That's a 17% increase from one lever.

What moves the needle:

• Better positioning leads to higher win rate
• Tighter ICP targeting leads to larger deals and faster cycles
• Strong enablement leads to faster movement through stages

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5. Pipeline Influenced (Not Generated)

What it is: Total pipeline value where marketing played a role (not just "first touch")

Why it matters: "Marketing-sourced pipeline" is a vanity metric. What matters is where marketing helps sales actually close deals: through enablement, competitive intel, customer stories, or analyst validation.

How to track it:

• Tag deals where marketing contributed: enablement used in demo, case study shared, competitive positioning cited, etc.
• CRM field: "Marketing Influence" = Yes/No + Type
• Report: Total pipeline value with marketing touch

What good looks like:

• 40-70% of closed-won deals have marketing influence
• Higher influence = higher win rates (marketing is doing its job)

Real example: I tracked $20M+ in influenced pipeline by implementing a simple "marketing touch" field in Salesforce. Sales tagged deals where they used our battle cards, case studies, or ROI calculators. This shifted exec perception from "marketing generates leads" to "marketing helps us close."

Red flags:

• Low influence (under 30%) = sales isn't using your content (enablement problem)
• High influence but low close rate = content exists but isn't effective

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What to Stop Tracking

These metrics are fine for campaign optimization but terrible for GTM strategy:

• MQLs. Doesn't predict revenue, incentivizes volume over quality.
• Website traffic. Vanity metric unless it converts to pipeline.
• Content downloads. Measures interest, not intent.
• Social media engagement. Fun to watch, irrelevant to revenue.
• Email open rates. Click-through matters; opens don't.

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How to Actually Use These Metrics

Monthly GTM Review (1 hour)

1. Pull the 5 metrics above
2. Identify the biggest gap (lowest performer vs. target)
3. Diagnose root cause (positioning? enablement? ICP?)
4. Run one experiment to improve it
5. Track progress next month

Example: Win rate is dropping at the demo stage.

• Hypothesis: Positioning isn't resonating with buyers
• Experiment: Rewrite demo deck intro to lead with customer outcomes, not features
• Track: Win rate at demo stage over next 30 days

The Rule: Fix one thing at a time. Changing multiple variables makes it impossible to know what worked.

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The Bottom Line

Your GTM strategy is only as good as the metrics you track.

Most companies drown in data but lack insight. These five metrics cut through the noise and tell you exactly where your GTM is broken, and what to fix next.

If you're struggling to move the needle on GTM metrics, let's talk. I help B2B SaaS companies diagnose what's broken and fix it fast.

Book a discovery call

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