A few days ago I was watching a seminar by Dan Kennedy (copy writer and marketing guru). He said that whether he was in the office or not, he would ask his assistant several times a day “How much money have we made so far today?”. Dan makes it quite clear to himself and to his staff, that daily sales is the number one measurement to ensure the success of his company. There are other numbers that he usually asks for daily, but sales are the only measurement he asks for several times every day.
Now there is a reason for his obsession over the amount of daily sales. It focuses everyone on the ultimate goal. For every decision they have to make, they consider what to do, when and how, to ensure that the decision will have a positive impact on sales. If the day is progressing and they are not making their target sales, Dan will jump in and find ways to get sales back on track. He does not wait days or weeks to make changes, he makes changes hourly.
Some of the other numbers that Dan looks at daily are:
- Average client transaction dollars
- Number of orders being processed
- Number of orders that are past their promised delivery date
- Opportunity dollars broken down by sales funnel categories
On a weekly basis, Dan likes to compare his numbers to last month, last quarter, last year. By doing comparisons, he can track whether he is on track and of course then make adjustments.
Dan uses a real time marketing and management system to give him the numbers at any point in the day. If his system did not give him numbers in real time but took weeks or months to generate (many of us wait for our numbers, if we even check them at all) by the time Dan found out there was a problem, it might be too late to do anything about it and never mind the lost opportunities.
With the technology that is available, all of us can have a real time system so we can manage our company “by the numbers”. This system can quickly pay for itself with the better decision making it allows.
Could you image going on a cross country car trip for an important meeting held next week and have no knowledge of how to get there, no map, no GPS, and no road signs. No way of knowing where you are or if and when you would arrive at the destination? Without having a real time marketing and management system you are running your business in the same way. Don’t run your business by chance, run your business “by the numbers”.
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