We live in a world of the rear view mirror
The sales report tells us what we have sold. The accounting system tells us how we have performed. The power bill tells us what we have used. Facebook and CNN tells us what has happened. Our resume tells others what we have done. And as for the bathroom scales…..!
History is ubiquitous, measurable and precise. In short, it is easy and comfortable and hence the norm.
Unfortunately, in today’s insanely fast moving world businesses must look ahead not behind.
That the sun will rise tomorrow is pretty likely, but what about those who get up before dawn to take the spoils, or are already awake in a different time zone? Hope is not a strategy.
Leading or Lagging indicators – which are you using?
Any seasoned sales executive knows that today’s sales calls turn into tomorrow’s appointments into next week’s orders, next month’s revenue, and next quarter’s bonus cheque. In business, sales calls is a leading indicator of performance, whereas revenue is a lagging indicator.
Leading indicators are great because they give you some sort of indication of future performance, in time for you to react if things do not look good. Lagging indicators feel great because they are usually very precise. Unfortunately they are often useless because by the time you have them it is too late.
Differentiate yourself by looking ahead not behind
Virtually every business has a ‘lagging indicator IT system’ – more often known as the ‘Accounting System’.
Far fewer businesses have a system to produce powerful leading indicators. Fortunately it’s extremely easy to build one using WordPress, Gravity Forms and GFChart.
Use Gravity Forms to build a customer feedback form, enquiry form, workflow management form, sales rep activity report, etc, etc, etc into your WordPress website. Then use GFChart to monitor results – completely automatically.
Over the coming months, future releases of GFChart will further transform your ability to extract actionable insights from your data. Why not start experimenting now?