$treet $mart$: Everyone Has a Number

Samson Jagoras 21.Mar.2023

$treet $mart$ (vol. 24)

Growth Focus

After years of banging my head against the wall in business, and finding what felt like random success at times, I have come to learn that the most important operating system in our business is a Scorecard. And I am not talking about Key performance indicators (KPIs) because KPIs are really good at telling you what you have done, but they are terrible predictors of future success.

I'm talking about pipeline-building activity metrics

What Is a Scorecard?

To push an organization forward, having a goal isn’t enough - you have to measure progress along the way. Scorecards provide that much-needed metric for success and identify areas in need of improvement each and every week, so teams can stay on track as they march toward their destination. Scorecard metrics are forward-looking, activity-based numbers, with weekly goals, which are the activities that lead to desired outcomes

How To Build a Scorecard

IDENTIFY CATEGORIES

To ensure accurate Scorecards, each department within your organization should have its own unique set of metrics tailored to the roles and responsibilities

ESTABLISH THE GOALS FOR EACH CATEGORY

For customer service, you may want to measure improvement in complaints; for marketing - leads convert into sales; while manufacturing would aim toward increased production. Each goal should be specific and relevant so progress can be accurately recorded!

KNOW YOUR METRICS

Before you can build the perfect scoreboard, it’s important to understand what numbers need monitoring; where do you currently stand compared with where you want to go? Determining this data accurately ensures that whatever action or strategy is taken will lead closer to achieving the desired result.

ENTER YOUR PROJECTIONS

Measure from week to week, against the Quarterly Goal. Keeping track of predictions and estimates, or goal forecasting can help you see how far your progress has come week to week. The disparity between your target and your week-to-week progress is where optimizations live.

ASSIGN GOALS

An effective Scorecard is essential for any productive business, and setting the right goals provides an invaluable foundation. Rather than just numeric targets, consider also 'yes/no' objectives as well as percentage-based measurements or even deadlines - all of which can be aligned to your company's specific departments and categories. Ultimately devised with success in mind, a good Scorecard will make sure that targets are reached efficiently; something no modern organization should live without!

Takeaway

What activities get measured is what gets done. Everyone in your organization needs to have a number. The scorecard metrics set expectations and help everyone in the organization, including you, know what success looks like.