One of the chapters in my new book, Pilot To Profit: Navigating Modern Entrepreneurship to Build Your Business Using Online Marketing, Social Media, Content Marketing and Sales, is near and dear to my heart – that chapter is Measure What Matters.
We don’t always measure what matters, let me give you an example…
When I left Florida early this year I was a size 10 creeping towards a size 12. Now that I’ve been back in Canada, and after having been sick for a little while, I’ve been a lot more careful about what I’m consuming. Now I’m a very comfortable size 8, and I feel really good as a size 8 who is comfortable in her size 8 clothing.
I did not feel so good about being a size 10 who was creeping towards a size 12.
The truth is, sometimes when we measure what matters, we don’t really like what the numbers tell us.
No one likes it when the scale is creeping up because it makes us feel bad about ourselves. And, I really, really like food and I don’t really like exercise. So when I look at that number of the scale I tend to want to avoid it, not look at, hide my head in the sand and pretend it’s not there. Pretend that I haven’t gained weight, pretend that I’m not eating too much, and pretend that I’m exercising enough.
The same thing happens in business.
When you don’t look at your sales numbers on a weekly basis, or when you finally do and you don’t like what they say, you are still faced with the fact that the numbers don’t lie.
I pulled up the annual report for TELUS and I scoured it for Twitter followers, Facebook likes, and Periscope hearts and I could not find those numbers anywhere!
Why don’t they report Facebook followers and Twitter numbers on their annual report? They’re a multi-billion dollar organization – shouldn’t they be measuring Facebook likes?
No.
They’re not measuring Facebook likes in their annual report because it does not matter.
They’re not measuring Periscope hearts in their annual report because it does not matter.
What they’re measuring is bottom line results.
They are measuring what matters – their earnings, expenses, and all the things that go into demonstrating their profitability and what their shareholder value is to the street.
You are your shareholder – are you measuring what matters to you?
Are you looking at your sales, your traffic, your profitability, and your average sale? Are you figuring out how to do a better job of converting the people who are coming into your sales funnel that aren’t buying?
