Be True To Your Numbers For a Prosperous 2010
Welcome to 2010.
Yup… we’re still in a recession and I don’t think it’ll end this year. In fact, I’m of the school that thinks it may get worse.
Now one caveat to that prediction. It is an election year and I think the odds are pretty good that the politicians will do things to keep it from getting worse, at least until after the election… if they can. And whether they can or not is very much up for debate.
Fact is, they’ve screwed things up so much, they may not be able to stave off heightened economic problems until next Christmas.
But hey, regardless of the economy, you still have a business to run, right? I mean, if you’re looking for an excuse to fail, you’ve got plenty.
But if you’re committed to prosperity with no excuses, even this economy offers opportunity.
How? Because most of your competitors will be buying into the trouble and excuses, leaving you to scoop up the abandoned market share they’re leaving to you as they fold, or stop marketing and advertising.
So here is what I suggest…
1. Make a commitment to SALES and SELLING this year.
Remember, marketing (and sales) is the engine that drives your business. Got a business problem? Sell your way out. Strong sales is your best safety mechanism for whatever ails your enterprise. You can have perfect management and accounting systems in your business, but they give you NO margin for error if you don’t have the revenue. On the other hand, if you have strong sales, and a strong sales and marketing system that produces predictable results, you’ll have flexibility enough to either live with less than perfect management and accounting system, or to get them fixed.
I’m not saying management and accounting aren’t vitally important. I’m saying you need revenue first, and that comes from sales and marketing.
2. Pay attention to the vital numbers.
In my business, I have a sales scorecard on which I set sales and sales activity goals every week, and carefully track those results.
Here are the things I look at…
* Sales goal in dollars for the week
* Goal for number of attempts at contact. (I simply call it attempts)
* Goal for actual contacts made
* Goal for mail/email/faxes sent
* Goal for meetings
* Goal for closings
You may have somewhat different metrics to track, but believe me, you need to identify and track performance in several marketing-related areas and faithfully track them day by day.
And by the way, whatever you call them, your metrics probably need to come down to how many people are you trying to reach, how many are you successfully reaching and what level of successful outcome are you achieving.
A note about being true to your numbers…
Of the metrics I described, you only have complete control over two…
* Number of attempts
* Number of mail/email/faxes sent.
Here is the most vital point. If you pay attention to, and make sure you hit your numbers in the metrics you have control over, the odds of hitting your numbers in all the rest of your metrics go up dramatically.
WARNING:
You may start out paying attention to your numbers. But sometime during the year, you’re likely to get sidetracked. Don’t give in to the distractions. Don’t feel guilty if you have a couple of lapse weeks. Get back in there and respect those numbers.
You do that, and you may find 2010 to be your most prosperous year ever, as you clobber the competition.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim Ackerman is a marketing speaker, advertising speaker, sales trainer, marketing coach, author and publisher. He is founder of The Marketing Wizards Alliance.
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