Effectively communicating the value of education initiatives to leadership is crucial for securing support and driving strategic decisions. By presenting the right metrics in a compelling way, you can demonstrate the impact of your programs and align them with the company's vision.
Metrics aren’t just numbers; they are the key to telling a story about the value of your programs. But not all metrics are equally important, and knowing how to curate them can make the difference between an insightful presentation and a mind-numbing or insignificant data dump. There's power in knowing which metrics matter to which leader.
Debbie Smith, Sr. Director of Visier University and President of the Customer Education Management Association, recently shared her best practices for reporting up to leadership at Intellum’s Metrics That Matter Summit.
Get To Know Your Leaders’ Metrics
For starters, the most important thing you can do is understand which metrics matter most to your leaders—and maybe even more critical is highlighting the numbers in a way that speaks specifically to how education impacts THEIR goals. And while having data to prove your point is necessary for this process, you don’t always need to share those numbers in a chart. Instead, emphasize a single metric that you know aligns with leadership's strategic focus, and bring it up in the context of a conversation. Debbie reminds us that a well-placed number can change the tone of the conversation altogether.
So, let’s talk about the six categories of numbers that Debbie regularly shares, and how:
1. Engagement Metrics: Beyond the Basics
Engagement metrics (like course enrollments, completion rates, and CSAT scores) are valuable for tracking the health of your learning programs. But don’t make the mistake of putting these front and center when speaking with leadership! While these numbers are helpful to you, as an education leader, they’re not relevant or useful to your executive team. Likewise, metrics such as the number of unique users or total time spent in courses can certainly be informative, but they don’t always drive strategic conversations.
If you share engagement numbers, Debbie suggests reframing how you present this data–here’s how she did this: Rather than naming this chart “Number of users in our database,” Debbie gave it a more descriptive title to reflect exactly what she wanted the audience to take away from it. She used the trend line to highlight a change that would have significant impact if left unaddressed.
2. Penetration: Depth and Breadth of Reach into Accounts
Penetration metrics measure how extensively your training programs are reaching your customer base—they serve as a key performance indicator for growth. A low penetration rate might indicate that customers are not aware of the training materials available to them within your product. You’d then have an opportunity to rework your approach for reaching unengaged customers or accounts.
Tracking year-over-year changes to these numbers is important! For example, if you started to see a 10% increase in customer training, this could signal major improvements in customer satisfaction and retention.
Debbie shared that a key metric to consider in this category is attachment rate—qualitatively, how often is paid training included in sales deals? Depending on who you're speaking with, the answer to this question could be a crucial measure for the CRO. They might care more about attachment rates, while the CMO might focus more on customer reach.
3. Impact: Showing Tangible Business Value
Impact metrics are where the rubber meets the road. For sales and customer success team leaders, metrics around churn reduction, Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR), and adoption speak directly to the effectiveness of your education program(s). Remember, a powerful story can often be told with just one number. For example, "Training reduced churn by 15% this quarter" could be more impressive than showing a chart of how that number has fluctuated over quarter-over-quarter or year-over-year.
Similarly, for your Support Team leaders, metrics like time to resolution and the number of support cases are critical. Debbie reminds us that leadership doesn’t need to hear that you’re eliminating support tickets altogether—some tickets can actually help push product development to the next level. The focus should be on metrics that demonstrate improvement over time, like decreasing time to resolution.
Pro Tip: In both cases, the goal is to highlight how education is helping to drive business outcomes—whether that's revenue growth, risk reduction, or increased adoption.
4. Financial Metrics: Connecting to the Bottom Line
Financial metrics include total revenue, investment revenue, actual revenue and margin. Although leadership will want to know about your total revenue from education, it's just as important to track investment revenue. In this context, we’re referring to investment revenue as the return on money that has been invested in various financial assets.
For instance, if you’re investing in paid training, only tracking total revenue can result in a problem. Why? In Debbie’s example, this was a problem because the total dollar amount that the company was delivering on was almost 87% less than what it was giving away.
So ask yourself: are you giving away more training than you're selling? This insight can shift your next conversation with leadership, especially if your data shows that customers who are paying for training have higher ARR than those who aren’t.
Pro Tip: Tracking margins, not just dollar amounts, can provide deeper insights into the financial health of your program. Are the costs of delivering your courses in line with revenue generated? This is a vital metric to include in any leadership report.
5. Productivity: Efficiency and Alignment with Business Goals
Productivity metrics are often tied to Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). For example, if your team sets an OKR to create 14 courses in a quarter, showcase how that achievement ties back to overall business goals.
One way to make these metrics stand out is to go beyond charts. Debbie shared that her team uses tools like Canva to help create personalized graphics that add context to the data, which turns what they're reporting on into a visually compelling narrative. A well-crafted infographic can sometimes do more to convey progress than a table of figures ever could.
6. End of Year Reporting: Summarizing with Context and Clarity
When delivering an end-of-year report, focus on showing year-over-year improvement clearly and concisely. By including the previous years’ numbers, you provide essential context and can more easily demonstrate growth over time. This helps leadership see the bigger picture and align the success of your programs with overall business goals.
Pro Tip: Instead of forcing leadership to do the math while looking at a summary of numbers, highlight percentage changes in metrics like enrollments, completions, and revenue.
Remember: Metrics Tell a Story
At the end of the day, the metrics you present should reflect the story of how your customer education program is driving growth, improving retention, and contributing to broader business objectives. By choosing the right metrics, framing them effectively, and tailoring your presentation to your audience, you can ensure that leadership understands—and appreciates—the true impact of your learning initiatives.
