This time of year is ideal for reflecting on what worked for you in sales and marketing. Get energized by the feedback you're getting and consider what you can tweak to get even better results next year.
If you're a small startup or a lean marketing team, you won't need to extract this from your CRM. You're likely tracking this information informally already: post-its, Apple Notes, a Google Doc, quarterly board decks.
Think About
- Awards and mentions: Which wins or coverage converted to feedback and compliments from your audience?
- Content: Pieces that you and your team reach for again and again — PDFs, webpages, blog posts, decks that get forwarded or referenced in sales calls.
- Events: Where will you return in 2026? Did you have qualified conversations that resulted in valuable opportunities and sales?
- Inbound: How do people hear about you — customer referrals, partners, or media? This is your best predictor of what's working. Consider adding a "How did you find us?" field to your contact form.
- Sales: Take a hard look at your best customers versus your biggest customers. They might not be the same. Consider support needs, infrastructure complexity, deal size, expansion potential, renewal process, and time to close. Think about how you can do more business with the types of customers who won't drain your internal resources.
- Social influence: Which posts resulted in meaningful engagement: shares, comments, DMs, inquiries? Not just likes.
- Partnerships: Partnership announcements are just the beginning. Which activities generated real value? Think introductions, referrals, deal registrations, and co-marketing wins.
- Third-party coverage: Review your analyst briefing notes. Anything you need to follow up on or prioritize in the new year? These relationships and resulting coverage are essential to building long-term credibility in your industry.
Like it or not, these elements work together to establish your reputation and build influence. If you're disappointed with results in any of these areas, it's time to create a triage table that will help you improve.