It’s no mystery that I’ve been touting the use of metrics as a key principle for any business. Why is this SO important? Does it even matter? Is it just BUSY work?
If done incorrectly (i.e. you’re measuring the wrong things), it can be a waste of time. If you’re measure the RIGHT things, what many call KPI’s or key performance indicators, you should be gaining valuable insight into what’s really happening in your business.
Let me give you a REAL WORLD example. One of our KPIs is the number of “open bugs”. We track which bugs are reoccurring. If we see a spike in bugs we can be proactive instead of reactive. We don’t just wait for our customers to complain.
We operate based on numbers NOT feelings. Humans can be fickle. You can FEEL like something is going great AND be wrong. Without numbers to confirm what you FEEL about your business, you’re operating in the dark. You can feel like sales are down, but what’s really causing it? What are the closing ratios of ALL your staff? Are you giving leads to someone who talks a great talk but can’t close an internet lead to save their life?
Next, what do you do with all this valuable insight you’ve gained (remember you need to START measuring to gain insight and this can take some time so begin today)? You use the insight to PREDICT the future. Analyzing your past results (metrics / KPIs) will give you a pretty good handle on the future which is very powerful in business. Create a feedback loop and gain even greater insight into the key drivers for your business.
If you haven’t even begun this process, feel free to contact me and I’d be happy to give you a starting point. Bottom line, start measuring today.