I had a manager many years ago that was fond of constantly quoting Peter Drucker in saying “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” What she meant was that we had to define and track our success. We were trainers at the time, training sales reps on new products, services and systems the company would roll out. How were we supposed to measure our training?
Defining what success is can sometimes be the tricky part. While studying for my Google Analytics certification I quickly realized that in order to set up a clear measurement strategy for any business, you first need clearly defined business objectives. These will help you determine how to measure outcomes and guide you in what data needs to be collected.
There are mounds of data out there; you need to be careful that the metrics you are looking at are significant and relevant to the objectives you are trying to achieve. For example, if 100 attendees show up at an event, but more than half of them leave before the event is over and do not engage in any action, is the headcount really a significant success metric for the event?
Without metrics for your business, you can’t manage, improve or grow it. And you could even be focusing your time on the wrong areas of the business.
Once you have your objectives and measurement strategy in place you can use your metrics to guide your decisions. Your metrics can tell you which strategies are working and which aren’t. If you make a change, use the metrics to tell you whether the change improved things or not.
We learned to measure our training classes through employee successes and surveys, which helped us learn and improve our training strategies, contributing to the overall success of new product and program launches.
Making changes and forming strategies based on solid, relevant metrics can lead your business toward success. Which is emphasized by one of my personal favorite Peter Drucker quotes, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”
This post courtesy of Firm Administrator Michelle Knight