It's All About the Data!

It's All About the Data!

“How many orders did you close today?” the Chief Sales Officer asked the head of the call center.

The head of the call center took a deep breath. “I'm not sure. Quite a few.”

The CSO frowned. “Well, how many calls did your team make?”

“Oh, I'm not sure about that either, but I did spend part of the day sharpening our sales pitch. I also sent out emails to the customers who are up for renewal.”

The CSO hadn’t lost her frown. “It would be nice to know how many orders you actually processed. That might tell us if the sales pitch we already have is working before drafting a new one.”

The head of the call center opened his mouth and then closed it again. “Good point. I just started to work on a new pitch because we’ve always changed it at the end of the month. But I don’t happen to know if that helps us close deals or not.”

The CSO crossed her arms and blurted, “I’m also pretty sure your time would have been better spent making new calls to prospects rather than emailing our current customers. Our renewal emails should have been automated.”

The head of the call center started to look crestfallen. He’d worked hard all day, but his boss was not happy with the results. In this one five-minute conversation, the employee’s enthusiasm and engagement with the company had lost significant ground.

His sad state could have been avoided - and he might have obtained more orders - if he had been informed and encouraged by data displayed on a Key Performance Indicator dashboard.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are signposts that help the sales team and its leaders gauge the result of their efforts. By measuring the right KPIs, you can measure the success of your various sales activities. These KPI numbers should help you optimize and prioritize those activities that lead to the greatest success.

KPIs and Analytics are the Competitive Advantage

A KPI is a form of communication. Every KPI should be related to a specific business goal that can be measured.

For the simple example above, the company goal might be to add 5,000 new customer orders by the end of the year. Progress toward that goal can be measured by the number of new orders processed. A KPI, then, might be the number of new customer orders per day per salesperson.

KPIs can get much more involved and creative, but in this case, the head of the call center would have a KPI dashboard available on his computer monitor showing how many orders he is processing for the day and to date.

Once he sees how many orders he’s signing in a day, he can match that to the tactics and activities that generated the orders. He can then prioritize those activities that lead to a higher number of orders processed.

His boss will be happy. He will be happy. And the company will meet its goals.

A KPI is a way for the data to speak to the employee and tell him how he’s doing his job and how he might be able to improve. The Chief Sales Officer may have her own KPIs that are related to the overall goals of the company. Both she and the CEO will be able to gauge how well the company is doing on a regular basis.

Key Performance Indicators are driven from the data

The more data collected regarding sales and customers, the more meaningful and relevant the KPIs are going to be.

This data is vital. With it, a company can devise clear metrics that will motivate people who want to achieve more. The competitive advantage of using data wisely is one you will want to enjoy.

Make the KPIs clear and give easy access to data that is used for analytics. Then your company’s data is relevant daily and will make a difference in the company’s success.

Data in action!

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Rubenstein / Justman Management Consultants (RJMC) is expert in identifying the right KPIs for your company that will support mission critical decisions. RJMC provides Project Management for important financial and operations improvement projects. Give us a call today at 310-445-5300 - We Get Projects Done!