Outcome, Not Activity
A Team That’s Never Been Busier
My team has never been more productive. Dozens of campaigns. Hundreds of deliverables. More tradeshows, more webinars, more emails. Higher conversions. Higher traffic (yes, even in the age of AEO).
By my old metrics of success, this would be the biggest slam dunk of my career. Every dial was pointed up and to the right.
The Question That Changed Everything
But somewhere along the way, I stopped asking “how much are we doing” and started asking a much harder question: what is marketing actually doing for the business?
How is this activity resulting in outcomes? How are we growing pipeline? How are we keeping customers?
It felt a lot like running on a treadmill. You may have just run five miles. But you’re standing in exactly the same place you started.
The Pivot
So here’s what I told my team: “Outcome, not activity.”
It sounds simple, but it changes everything about how you plan a quarter. Instead of celebrating volume — more campaigns, more channels, more content, more “miles logged” — we started asking what specific business result each piece of work was supposed to drive, and whether it actually did, even when that meant slower, messier, harder-to-measure progress.
“We’re on a treadmill instead of on a cross-country run. Running as fast as ever, but not any closer to reaching our destination.”
Why This Matters More Than Ever
There’s a reason this question feels urgent right now: 80% of CEOs say they don’t fully trust their CMOs. That’s not a coincidence — it’s a direct result of marketing teams walking into the boardroom with treadmill stats (miles run, calories burned, activity completed) when the CEO is asking a cross-country question: are we any closer to where we actually need to go?
If you’re leading a business, what do you actually need to see from marketing to trust that it’s working — the numbers on the display, or proof you’re covering new ground?
I write about moments like this every week — the twists that force a pivot, and what actually changes as a result.
If you’re a marketing leader wrestling with the same question, I’d love to hear how you’re answering it. If you’re leading a business, what do you actually need to see from marketing to trust that it’s working? Message me on LinkedIn and let me know.