Measuring What Matters Is Arguably The Single Most Powerful Growth Habit For Sellers

 

As a Sales Growth coach, I love the idea of helping my clients with measuring their progress.

There is something so motivating about seeing the incremental fruit of hard labor.

Each scintilla of growth is proof positive that the goal is possible.

So why is there so much resistance to measuring the sales metrics that matter?  Why are so many professionals asking……..

Why the heck do I need a metric?

Metrics are fool’s proof of effective activity.  I’ve watched countless smart people work harder than I ever believed possible with little to show for it because they lacked the consistent habit of measuring their efforts and more importantly the courage to stop doing what isn’t working and start trying something new.

Lost Cost Fallacy is business quicksand!  In other words, the human tendency to continue to pour time and money into something the numbers (that are not measured!) prove is not giving a return on the blood, sweat, and tears investment of sales workmanship.

And then because we don’t have the data to support the wasted hours, we struggle to cut our losses and move on to metrics-proven activities that deliver the results we are after.

I see it all the time with Sales Professionals!  One of my favorite stories was about my client, Kay.

She came to me so frustrated!  She was a Sales Professional successfully setting up countless meetings with Real Estate teams to sell her really cool solutions (she didn’t log the metric)!  Painfully, I helped her to see that this was not her target market.  She had spent months and months of time and effort that could have been spent reaching out to the prospects who really needed her! Ouch!!!

Once we helped her to see that measuring key metrics like the ideal prospect to target for her amazing business and then metrics around messaging and conversions, she was consistently hitting her sales goals and she was so much happier professionally and personally. (You’re welcome family and friends of Kay)

So, if this seems like it’s obvious, why do so many of us resist tracking our growth?  What we measure provides valuable information about the changes we need to make in our lives and our businesses to achieve the things that we say we want. Who would try to lose weight without getting on a scale?

Metrics are necessary.

• Metrics provide accountability.
• When there are no metrics, there is nothing tangible to fall short on. So not having metrics to prove we are not doing all we can do to achieve our goals feels good at the moment but really stinks later!
• Metrics remove the ability to cast blame or rest easy in the role of victimhood.
• Metrics require consistency to be meaningful. Consistency is hard work and that’s just, well, hard!
• Metrics can make us feel uncomfortable. Ignorance is bliss and metrics are never ignorant.

Metrics are wise counselors that always add up!

• Metrics can mean consequences when the activities don’t equal results! Those consequences often mean getting less than we are capable of and that’s the worst of all when we steal from our potential.

And, while I truly have compassion for all of the reasons we don’t measure the things we must in our business, that compassion is fool\’s gold when it comes to what’s really needed which is a kick in the pants reminder of what is possible when we measure our progress!

For Sales Growth Sakes!!! Muster up the milestones and commit today to track some key activity targets.

Do it for a set amount of time – say 3 months- then review and revise.

It’s not difficult!  What’s difficult is staring in the face of what it feels like to go another year repeating the same habits that caused you not to hit your goals from last year.

If you need a little help with this, then reach out to us for our simple tracker model with some key metrics already defined for you!  Or, request a strategy meeting with one of our coaches.

That will help you measure up in no time!