In this week’s episode of Incredible Factor TV, I am taking on a question I’ve been asked a lot. This week, it’s being asked by Cabreya:
“Hi Darnyelle. I’m always hearing you say “know your numbers” and I’m sure that it’s important, but what numbers do I need to know and what will knowing them do for me?”
See my response to Cabreya’s question in this week’s episode:
As I shared in the episode, it’s important to note that what you focus on expands and the reason that understanding and focusing on your numbers is important is because, quite simply, business is a numbers game.
As a business coach, I can learn a lot about you as a business owner by your numbers; they speak much louder than you ever could about what’s going well or what’s not in your business. When I first engage with a new client, I have them take a series of assessments. As a part of those assessments, I learn about their business, but more importantly the holes in their business. And believe it or not, the numbers (or lack thereof) always tell me the story. Depending on what they say as it pertains to their sales process – from lead generation to new client, I can learn if they are actually going to accomplish the goals they set.
So, as Cabreya asks what numbers should you know, here is a post that I wrote for Lion Magazine previously that answers this question:
Key Performance Indicators: How To Track Your Way To A Profitable Business
In addition to what is shared in that post, here are a few other key numbers that will help you to gauge your success daily, weekly and monthly.
New Leads – a lead that hasn’t been qualified. This is a person who has self-selected into your offerings but you don’t yet know whether or not they will actually be an investor when they opt in to your lead generation magnet.
New Prospects – a prospect is a lead that you have validated is ready for and the right fit for your offerings. This validation can occur in several ways, but it almost always ends in a sales conversation.
New Clients – a new client is someone who has made an investment to access the solutions you offer to the problem they have.
New Revenue In – new revenue in is just what is seems like. An opportunity to keep track of the new money you have generated in your business. I recommend playing a game with yourself by focusing on selling something every day. Ask yourself: how can I be of service enough to generate new sales from current, previous or new prospective clients every day? Note: this will mean that you’ll have to focus on business development daily (*wink, wink*).
New Sales – sales are not the same as revenue unless the person is paying for the product or service in full. And depending on your business’ revenue model, you may have to allow for a payment option to serve more clients. So each day, I recommend tracking your new sales.
QUICK TIP: Create a spreadsheet that houses all of your KPIs so that you can quickly review and see your conversion rates without calculation.
Because I believe that speaking in one of the best ways to grow your business, I also recommend that you track new speaking opportunities. You want to track the opportunity itself. And, you also want to track the number of attendees present, the number of attendees who opt in to your lead magnet and the number of attendees who express a real interest in your offerings. Doing so will help you to determine how many new prospects you can get every time you speak to an audience. This is true gold for business development reasons (you’ll see why below).
So, lastly why should you track your numbers? Here’s why.
1. To be able to determine the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Marketing is the oxygen in your business. If you don’t market, you won’t be in business very long. And as it goes in business, marketing is how you get found so that you can position yourself to get paid. And, as Mary Kay Ash shared with us, “Nothing happens until somebody sells something.” So, if you aren’t tracking everything that leads to a sale, you can’t even validate that you have a business.
2. To see where you are and to course correct to ensure goal achievement. This reason denotes that you have to know what your numbers are telling you. For instance, let’s say you are trying to determine how many sales conversations you need to have to achieve your new client goal of 5 clients this month. If you are unaware of how many people you have to talk to in order to get a yes, it may be hard for you to determine how many sales conversations you need to have on your calendar. Conversely, if you know that you close one out of every five people you talk to or 20% and you want five new clients, then you’ll know that you need to have 25 sales conversations in a month. If you don’t track and know your numbers, you’ll work way too hard and likely not achieve your goals.
One last tip for Cabreya: Create Your Company Leader Board. Get a dry erase board for the main wall in your office. On this board, add your daily, weekly and monthly KPIs so that you can:
- See them daily.
- Use them to validate your successes.
- Quickly determine what your shortfall is compared to your goals so that you can leverage your numbers to grow your business.
Now I want to hear from you: What’s your two cents? Do you have a company leaderboard? Do you have a process for tracking your KPIs?
If you want to grow your business period, we should talk. Understanding and using your numbers to grow is just one of the keys to building a business that serves you.
©2017 by Darnyelle A. Jervey. All Rights Reserved. Darnyelle A. Jervey, MBA, The Incredible Factor Business Optimization Coach and Mentor, is the founder of Incredible One Enterprises®, Incredible Factor University® and the Leverage Your Incredible Factor System®, a proven step-by-step program so you experience financial and spiritual abundance in your life because of your business. For more information and a FREE audio CD “7 Critical Mistakes Even Smart Entrepreneurs Must Avoid for Clients, Connection and Cash Flow!” just fill out the form below.
