Number of sales aren’t great metrics

You could sell a lot but your business is broken from inside.

Traditional business metrics miss “true impacts”

The numbers you judge by today, are sitting on the top layer of the business.

These numbers will never show you where are the true areas of impact.

I know performance is a numbers game.

But you’re not selling tomatoes in a farmer market for these to be your only metrics:

• Revenue growth

• Market share

• Cost reduction

Most measure the traditional way because thats what you and them see as end results.

Yes, these are the indicators used to measure a company’s health. And results speak louder than any metrics.

But still, they’re the last results you observe. What if you don’t deliver, you will start digging deep.

What if you deliver but what happens in the background takes time, effort, resources and cost more than what anticipated. It doesn't happen only once or twice but often.

The problem here is about internal capabilities of the company. They’re weak, work so hard to support your sale but at high cost. The facade looks perfect but the inside looks miserable.

Key metrics to measure

I advised a VP in retail sector on what important metrics to measure for success:

1. At strategic level impacts:

• Quality of decisions: do you take the right decision? if no, whats wrong with approach?

• Future readiness: do you get future right? if no, what are you missing?

• Innovation pipeline: do you innovate? if no, why not?

2. At operational level impacts:

• Problem prevention: Do you face a lot of issues whenever delivering something new?

• Resource optimization: Do you allocate resources more than anticipated?

• Capability enhancement: Do you know which business capabilities need improvement?

These metrics ensure alignment between strategic goals and operational efficiency. They contribute to the final numbers and help you make informed decisions on where to improve.

You start to question: is it skillset that we lack as a company? Do we misunderstand needs? is it our project delivery? strategy? etc.

When you don’t meet the growth as business:

You don’t want to be '’shouting’' about why sales are down or why you’re losing customers. So, you turn to your marketing and sales engine as the solution.

Look for the hidden metrics. There are contributing blocks that you need to figure out.

Have you tried to look for new metrics to measure?

Thanks for reading, we will talk in the next letter.

Ahmed

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