This year’s success is hidden in these numbers

It’s that time of year again when we all turn to goal setting. And it’s not just because it’s the beginning of the year and people are setting New Year’s resolutions to exercise more, eat more healthily, and spend more time with family. In our business lives, the start of a new fiscal year causes us to look ahead to what we want to accomplish in the new year.

I’m not one to set New Year’s resolutions. It won’t surprise you to learn that I don’t believe you have to wait until January 1st to set resolutions that will change your personal or professional path. I also don’t believe that you have to wait until January 1st to start what you know needs to be done.

“Do it now!” is my motto.

Most recently I set goals in October, announcing to my team that the next 12 months will be a year of numbers. The salesperson in me would love to be spontaneous and make decisions based on my gut instincts. But the business owner in me knows that your gut can only take you so far before you must confirm and adjust your direction based on the numbers.

And it’s never been easier to track numbers whether you’re a business owner, salesperson or marketer. It seems that CRM, email, marketing automation, accounting and operations applications all track just about everything you can imagine. Why not use those numbers to our advantage?

So, this year my goal is to use the numbers available to us to guide our business. Here are the top 4 numbers that I’ll be monitoring:

1. Profitability and monthly revenue, of course. Every business owner has to monitor these. I also have my team leads monitoring them because frankly, why should I shoulder all the risk?
2. Lead generation campaign metrics from clicks, views and downloads to conversions and closes. People tell us they love our content. The metrics confirm specifically what they love and help me determine our content and solution offerings direction.
3. Prospecting metrics including appointments set, length of the sales process and closes. As authorities in prospecting, I have to constantly research what’s working and what’s not. But we’re a business, too, and every business needs a consistent influx of new clients.
4. Social conversion, monitoring discovery, engagement and conversion. Social networking is a necessarily piece of business today and consumes resources to do it right. I want to be sure it’s not just “right” but also generating revenue.

Even if numbers don’t seem as fun as gut instincts, they provide insights that will allow you to quickly shift your business without waiting for the next New Year. What numbers are in your goals this year?