You've shipped three major launches this quarter, enabled sales on competitive positioning, and completely revamped your messaging architecture. Your boss asks: "So what impact did PMM have on the business?"
You freeze. You know you drove value, but you don't have the numbers ready.
I spent two years in this position. Every QBR felt like defending my team's existence rather than celebrating wins. I'd present slide after slide: "We created 47 assets. We ran 12 enablement sessions. We launched 3 products on time."
My CFO would nod politely and ask: "But did win rates improve? Did we close more deals? What's the ROI?"
I had no answer. Not because PMM wasn't driving impact—we absolutely were—but because I was measuring the wrong things.
The turning point came when our CMO asked a simple question: "If I cut your team by 50%, what revenue would we lose?" I couldn't quantify it. Two months later, we got budget cut 30% and lost a headcount. That hurt, but it taught me the most valuable lesson of my PMM career:
Executives don't care what you did. They care what changed because of what you did.
The Dashboard Nobody Cares About
Most PMM dashboards are activity reports disguised as impact metrics. They track what PMMs are busy doing, not whether that busyness matters.
I see dashboards tracking:
- Number of assets created (47!)
- Enablement sessions delivered (12!)
- Product launches shipped (3!)
- Competitive battlecards updated (8!)
These are all activities. They tell executives you're working hard. They don't tell executives whether you're moving the business forward.
The brutal truth: executives can't tell if 47 assets is good or bad. They can't tell if 12 enablement sessions made sales more effective. They definitely can't tell if those 3 launches drove any pipeline.
Activity metrics feel productive to PMMs but look like noise to executives.
I learned this the hard way when I proudly presented our Q3 dashboard showing we'd created more assets than any previous quarter. My VP of Sales asked: "Great—did it help us win more deals?"
I didn't know. We'd never connected asset creation to deal outcomes.
That was the moment I realized: if I can't draw a line from my work to revenue, I can't defend my budget.
What Changed When I Fixed My Dashboard
I rebuilt our PMM dashboard from scratch with one rule: every metric must connect to revenue, pipeline, or customer outcomes. If it doesn't, it's not on the dashboard.
The first metric I added: Win rate for sales reps who completed PMM certification vs. those who didn't.
This single metric changed everything.
It turned out reps who completed our product training had a 31% win rate. Reps who skipped it had a 22% win rate. That's a 41% relative improvement.
Suddenly, enablement wasn't "we ran 12 sessions." It was "certified reps close 41% more deals, and we increased certification completion from 68% to 89% this quarter."
That's a number my CFO cares about. That's a number that justifies headcount.
I added four more metrics in the same vein:
- Launch-generated pipeline: How much pipeline each launch created in 90 days
- Competitive win rate: Our win rate when we faced specific competitors
- Deal velocity: How much faster deals closed after new positioning
- Messaging adoption: % of sales calls using our approved messaging (via Gong)
Every metric connected PMM work to business outcomes. Every metric told a story executives could understand.
The result: Next budget cycle, we got a 40% increase and approval for two new headcount. Same team, same work—just better storytelling through data.
The Metrics That Actually Matter
After building dashboards for PMM teams at three companies, I've learned there are really only five metrics executives care about. Everything else is supporting detail.
1. Revenue Influenced by PMM
This is the big one. How much pipeline or closed revenue can you credibly attribute to PMM work?
I use a tiered attribution model:
- 100% attribution: Launch-generated pipeline (campaign-sourced within 30 days)
- 75% attribution: Competitive wins where battlecards were documented as used
- 50% attribution: Deals closed by certified reps (training impact)
- 25% attribution: General pipeline from teams using PMM materials
Example from last quarter:
- Launch campaign: $2.1M pipeline (100% attribution)
- Competitive wins with battlecard usage: $3.2M × 75% = $2.4M
- Certified rep win rate lift: $4.8M incremental × 50% = $2.4M
- General enabled team pipeline: $18M × 25% = $4.5M
Total PMM-influenced revenue: $11.4M
My team cost $400K that quarter (salaries + vendors). That's a 28.5x ROI.
That number gets you budget. That number gets you headcount. That number makes executives see PMM as revenue-driving, not a cost center.
The key is being honest about attribution. Don't claim 100% credit for everything. Be transparent about your methodology. Execs will trust conservative numbers more than inflated ones.
2. Win Rate Lift (Enabled vs. Non-Enabled)
This metric proves enablement works. It's simple, defensible, and impossible to argue with.
Track win rate for two cohorts:
- Reps who completed PMM certification
- Reps who didn't
If there's no difference, your enablement isn't working. If there's a 10-20% lift, you've proven ROI.
At my last company:
- Enabled reps: 28% win rate
- Non-enabled reps: 19% win rate
- Lift: 47% relative improvement
Sales leadership started mandating certification after seeing that number. When certification is mandated, usage goes from 68% to 95%. Higher usage means more enabled reps. More enabled reps means more wins.
One metric created a flywheel that increased our impact without changing what we did.
3. Launch Pipeline Contribution
Every launch should generate measurable pipeline. If it doesn't, either the launch failed or you're not measuring correctly.
I track pipeline created within:
- 30 days post-launch
- 60 days post-launch
- 90 days post-launch
Set targets based on launch investment. A $50K launch (team time + external costs) should generate at least $250K in pipeline (5x ROI minimum).
Real example:
- Enterprise Analytics launch cost: $120K
- Pipeline generated in 90 days: $3.8M
- ROI: 31.7x
Another launch:
- Mobile App launch cost: $80K
- Pipeline generated in 90 days: $220K
- ROI: 2.75x (below target)
The second launch taught us something valuable: mobile features don't drive enterprise pipeline. We adjusted our launch strategy accordingly.
Measuring launch ROI forces honest conversations about what's working. It prevents you from declaring every launch a success just because you shipped on time.
4. Competitive Win Rate Trends
This metric shows whether your competitive intelligence and positioning work matters.
Track your win rate against each top competitor over time:
- Q1: 18% win rate vs. Competitor A
- Q2: 24% (after new battlecards)
- Q3: 32% (after positioning refresh)
That trend tells a story. It shows PMM work directly impacting competitive outcomes.
When I showed this metric to our CEO, he asked: "What do you need to get that to 40%?" That led to budget approval for competitive research, analyst briefings, and a PMM hire to own competitive intel full-time.
The metric created the business case for investment.
5. Time to Productivity (New Rep Ramp)
How long does it take a new sales rep to close their first deal?
Reps who go through PMM onboarding should close their first deal 20-40% faster than those who don't.
At one company:
- Reps with PMM onboarding: 52 days to first close
- Reps without: 78 days
- Improvement: 33% faster
When you show that metric to your VP of Sales during a hiring sprint, suddenly PMM onboarding becomes mandatory instead of optional.
Faster rep ramp means faster revenue. Faster revenue means your CFO loves you. Your CFO loving you means budget.
What Not to Put on Your Dashboard
I learned this by making every mistake possible: some metrics feel important to PMMs but mean nothing to executives.
Don't track:
- Number of assets created: Executives can't tell if 40 assets is good or bad
- Enablement sessions delivered: They care if reps got better, not if you presented
- Battlecard update frequency: They care if competitive win rate improved
- Launch completion (on-time/on-budget): They care if it generated pipeline
- Survey results from sales: They care about win rates, not satisfaction scores
I spent six months tracking "sales satisfaction with PMM" on our dashboard. Scores were always 8/10 or 9/10. Great, right?
Then we lost budget anyway, because satisfaction doesn't equal impact.
Delete any metric that doesn't connect to revenue, pipeline, win rates, or customer outcomes. If you can't draw a straight line from the metric to money, it doesn't belong on an executive dashboard.
How to Build This Dashboard in 30 Days
You don't need fancy BI tools or complex integrations to start. I've built effective PMM dashboards in Google Sheets.
Week 1: Pick Your North Star Metric
Choose one metric to prove PMM value. I recommend starting with win rate lift (enabled vs. non-enabled reps). It's the easiest to measure and the hardest to dispute.
Pull CRM data:
- List of all closed opps (won + lost) from last 90 days
- Which rep owned each opp
- Which reps completed PMM certification (from your LMS or manual tracking)
Calculate win rate for each cohort. If you see a 10%+ lift, you have your first data point.
Week 2: Set Up Attribution Tracking
Add two custom fields to your CRM:
- "PMM Material Used" (checkbox)
- "Launch Campaign Source" (lookup to campaigns)
Train sales to check the box when they use a battlecard, deck, or demo script. Make it part of your close process.
After 30 days, you'll have baseline data on material usage. After 60 days, you can correlate usage to win rates.
Week 3: Track Launch Pipeline
For your last 3 launches, pull pipeline data:
- Campaign source = launch campaign name
- Date created = within 90 days of launch
- Sum of pipeline amount
Compare pipeline generated to launch cost. Calculate ROI.
If ROI is weak, dig into why. If ROI is strong, shout it from the rooftops.
Week 4: Build the Dashboard
Create a one-page dashboard with:
- Top: Your 3-5 north star metrics (big numbers, green/red arrows)
- Middle: Trends over time (charts showing improvement)
- Bottom: Key initiatives and what's next
Share it monthly with leadership. Use it in QBRs. Reference it when defending budget or requesting headcount.
The Uncomfortable Truth About PMM Metrics
Most PMM teams resist building dashboards like this because they're afraid of what the data will show.
What if enablement doesn't improve win rates? What if launches don't generate pipeline? What if your battlecards aren't being used?
That fear is why most PMM dashboards track activities instead of outcomes. Activities always look good. Outcomes might reveal problems.
But here's what I learned: if your work isn't driving measurable outcomes, executives will figure it out eventually. They'll cut your budget. They'll eliminate headcount. They'll question whether PMM should exist.
Better to measure honestly, discover what's not working, and fix it while you still have budget to fix it.
When I built my first outcome-based dashboard, it revealed our competitive battlecards weren't being used. Only 23% of competitive deals had documented battlecard usage.
That hurt. But it forced us to fix the problem. We redesigned battlecards, made them easier to find, trained sales on when to use them, and added usage to sales QBRs.
Six months later: 78% usage. Competitive win rate up 12 points. Budget increased 40%.
The metrics that scare you are the metrics you need most.
What Actually Works
Stop tracking what PMMs do. Start tracking what changes because PMMs did it.
Build a dashboard with five metrics:
- Revenue influenced by PMM work (with honest attribution)
- Win rate lift for enabled vs. non-enabled reps
- Launch-generated pipeline (with ROI targets)
- Competitive win rate trends
- Time to productivity for new reps
Share it monthly. Use it in budget conversations. Reference it when requesting headcount.
If your dashboard shows PMM work drives revenue, you'll never worry about budget again.
If it doesn't, fix your work before you fix your dashboard.