Learn what numbers are really crucial each week…
When you’re bragging to your buddies or when it’s time to actually sell your business, the revenue and profits are important numbers… While you’re actively improving your business, they are secondary.
However there are numbers that every business needs to review each week. These should be part of your Weekly Action Snapshot report (WacSnap).
Keep in mind, without tracking, everything you do in your business from marketing, to incentive plans, to scheduling, to hiring a new employee is a big guess.
To make it simple, categorize your numbers based on department:
- Sales – # of new leads, # of outstanding leads, conversion rate (i.e. # of new customers divided by the # of new leads)
- Marketing – # of leads per marketing project, $$ in revenue generated per $$ in marketing spent
- Service/Operations – completed work orders, unfinished work orders, on a monthly basis track your profit per person (or per sq. ft. for a retail environment)
- Finance/Administration – past due invoices, accounts receivable aging, total payables, cash in the bank
- Big Picture – YTD Revenue compared with previous year, your P&L should be reviewed monthly; depending on your overall goals, there can be completely different Big Picture numbers. For instant a cell phone retailer might look at the number of service contracts compared with last year or the number of cancellations you saved in the last week.
That’s a lot of numbers; 14 to be precise.
Don’t start tracking all of them at once. If you’re having cashflow issues start with #4. Otherwise, start with #1 and work your way down.
The number of new leads, where those leads are coming from, and the % of leads you convert to customers are your MOST IMPORTANT numbers.
When you go to sell your business, if you can tell people those 3 numbers, the buyer will be extremely impressed and pay more because of it.
The simplest way to have these numbers available each week is by utilizing some industry-specific software.
Brad Sugars developed a Business Chassis, that you can read about on his blog to point out exactly which numbers are key to your sales performance.
You can also read more about tracking the important numbers of your business and the crucial numbers you need to hold your Ad Agency accountable from my blog.
Your action items this week are to research software you can use to track leads and implement that software within 60 days. While choosing and learning the software, use a notepad or Excel spreadsheet to track EVERY lead starting today!
To your success,
Bryan Trilli
P.S. Because this is so crucial, you won’t receive the next step from me for 2 weeks. Take the time in the next 14 days to create your own WacSnap!