When it comes to marketing you must track your results. The metrics you track should be aligned with the goals of the organization. In many cases, organizations track the wrong things.
If your organization’s goals are measured in gross sales this year, your marketing team should track their gross sales. If your goal is to generate 200 new clients this year, track the number of new clients the team generates. When employees’ goals are aligned with the organizational goals, all efforts are focused toward success.
In many cases the goals of the employees conflict with those of the organization and are not aligned at all. This usually results in tension, disappointment and failure.
Imagine an organization that wants its marketing rep to generate $800,000 in new revenue this year. It just hired a brilliant young professional with a proven track record of building large strategic partnerships. The new rep is confident about generating more than $800,000 in revenue and is excited to get started. On the first day, the manager explains the company expects the rep to make at least 10 contacts per day.
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The marketing rep focuses on meeting the goal of 10 contacts per day. Most of the time is spent scheduling and driving, which leaves about 10 minutes to spend with each contact.
This is not enough time to build deep, strategic partnerships the rep is accustomed to. At the end of the year, the marketing rep met the goal of 10 contacts per day, but the revenue generated was only $400,000. The rep is sad to learn there will be no bonus this year, and the company is disappointed, too.
In this case, the company’s goal was to generate income. The number of contacts made has nothing to do with income. The quality of contacts and the revenue generated is what mattered. That is what they should have been measuring.
Is your company tracking the right stuff?
Bill Nordbrock is vice president of community relations for SCORE Southern ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, a nonprofit group that offers free small-business counseling and mentoring by appointment at several locations. For information, go to , send an email to mentoring@scoresouthernaz.org or call 505-3636.