Our marketing director refuses to own our weekly lead generation metric because we outsource our digital ad spend to an agency. How do we enforce scorecard accountability when a critical number relies on an external vendor?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Accountability cannot be outsourced. If you let a leadership team member off the hook because they use an agency, contractor, or vendor, you are rendering your Accountability Chart useless. The seat on your chart must own the outcome, period.

Your marketing director must own the weekly lead generation metric on the leadership scorecard. The external agency is simply a resource they use to hit that target, much like a software tool or an internal employee.

To make this work, your marketing director must hold the agency to the exact same standards. They need to establish a weekly reporting rhythm with the vendor. The agency must provide the weekly data in time for the marketing director to enter it onto your scorecard before the Level 10 Meeting™.

If the agency misses the target, your marketing director does not get to say, the agency failed. They must say, we missed our target because our vendor failed, and here is how I am managing them to fix it.

If the vendor consistently fails to hit the targets, the marketing director must find a new vendor or bring the capability in-house. By holding your internal leader accountable for the scorecard row, you force them to manage their external resources with the same intensity as an internal team.