How do you balance the need for immediate feedback through leading indicators with the longer-term tracking of lagging indicators to measure the success of a GTM strategy, and how do you ensure that attribution across cross-functional teams remains clear and actionable?

Before determining what metrics you use to track success, it's critical to first align on the Objective—what you seek to achieve with your GTM strategy—stated in plain, clear language.

For example, if the Objective is to determine the best channel for generating sales pipeline, then:

• Leading indicators may be cost per lead, quantity of leads, and quality of leads

• Lagging indicators may be $ value of pipeline created, and conversion to MQL/SQL/Customer/revenue.

That being said, if your Objective was different—e.g., let's say you wanted to break into a new vertical—the relevant metrics shift:

• Leading indicators may be # of design partners secured

• Lagging indicators may be referencable customers or case studies.

Balancing Leading & Lagging Indicators

To balance immediate feedback with long-term tracking:

1. Establish a measurement cadence – Leading indicators should be monitored weekly/monthly, while lagging indicators require a longer time horizon.

2. Validate directional accuracy – Early signals should correlate with long-term outcomes; if not, recalibrate tracking methods.

3. Build a feedback loop – Use leading indicators to adjust tactics in real time while ensuring they ladder up to lagging indicators.

Ensuring Clear Attribution Across Cross-Functional Teams

• Start with alignment on the Objective & strategy. Every team should understand their role in driving outcomes.

• Define clear ownership of metrics. Assign leading and lagging indicators to the appropriate teams to prevent overlap or confusion.

• Leverage a centralized reporting system. Ensure transparency by using dashboards that track contributions from marketing, sales, product, and other key teams.

One common pitfall is focusing too much on optimizing leading indicators without ensuring they drive the desired lagging outcomes. Keeping both in sync ensures a well-balanced GTM approach.

Based on the language you used in your question, I think you already know the answer!  Balance is the right word because the leading and lagging indicators measure very different dynamics.

The leading indicators - I think about engagement, clicks through rates, paid ad conversion and sales pipeline - are all measuring top and mid funnel dynamics.  Those are a really good reflection of the success of your launch messaging and your ability to gain eyeballs and attention and can give you an early indication that you are on the right (or wrong) track. But you really need the down funnel metrics  -  revenue, churn, NPS, CSAT - to know if you’ve got a truly viable product in the market. 

To the point I made about very different dynamics, having great looking leading indicators doesn’t mean customers will convert or pay what you want.  And having weak leading indicators also doesn’t mean that the customers that are in your funnel won’t convert and won’t pay.  So you really need the two together to complete the full picture.

I'm not sure I'm tracking the second part of your question about attribution. Is it attribution you're worried about, as in making sure that the results are trackable down to a person? Or maybe it's about accountability? Not sure but feel free to DM me on LinkedIn for more clarity.