Is Your Business Winning? Track the Right Metrics to Stay Ahead By Ed Young, Fabricator’s Business Coach
It’s football season and as you watch your favorite teams battle it out on the gridiron, ask yourself, “Would the game be as exciting if we didn’t keep score? Would it matter as much if there were no winner?” Chances are, without a clear goal and metrics to measure progress, you wouldn’t even bother watching. In sports, the objective is to score more points than the opposing team. While the final score is what matters most, teams also track various interim metrics to gauge their performance during the game. In football, for example, teams pay attention to: • The current down. • Yards needed for a first down. • Time left on the play clock. • The quarter and remaining time in the game. These stats don’t just make the game interesting for spectators — they provide the team with crucial information to manage their performance and strategize to win. Without knowing how far they are from a first down or how much time is left on the clock, how could a team adjust its game plan effectively? And if they didn’t know the score or how much time remained, would there be any sense of urgency when it mattered most? Tracking progress helps teams make informed decisions and adapt to changing conditions. The same is true for your business. Applying Game-Day Strategy to Your Business The ultimate measure of success in business is profit. Hopefully, you’ve already set a profit goal for the year. But how well are you communicating your progress toward that goal with your team? 14 • Vol. 17 / Issue 4 • International Surface Fabricators Association
Breaking your annual profit target down into monthly, weekly, or even daily objectives is a great start. However, to truly drive performance, you need to go deeper. Just like a football team tracks its downs, play clock and field position, your business should track metrics beyond the final profit score. These intermediate goals help you understand how well you’re playing the game and provide insights into your overall strategy. Here are some key factors that can impact your progress toward profit: • Is showroom traffic increasing or decreasing? • Are website and social media metrics improving? • Are you hitting your outside sales call targets? • How is quote volume trending? • Are you on track to achieve your monthly Throughput Dollar goal? • How many days of capacity are already booked? • Are remakes and callbacks getting better or worse? As a business owner, you might already track these stats in your head, on a spreadsheet, or through company software. But none of those methods is as impactful as displaying this data for the entire team to see. The Power of Real-Time Feedback Displaying your company’s performance metrics in realtime for everyone to see creates accountability and motivation. When your team can see how they’re performing relative to key targets, it spurs action. Strong metrics can be celebrated, while weak metrics can be identified early, allowing teams to coursecorrect immediately. Additionally, seeing performance data for various teams can foster healthy competition, further driving improvement.
