?? How Metrics Help Global Teams Come Together

There are few things more exciting in business than setting targets and leading a team to meet or beat them. It's amazing how motivating it is to deliberately plan and measure your progress. What I love about a strong culture of measurement is how quickly you see teams and people begin to align around numbers. Data-driven decision-making is an important part of how successful teams operate. That said, metrics are meaningless if they aren't anchored in clear goals, a strong sense of the market, and a plan to get from one state to another.

Companies that operate in highly competitive markets often develop the measurement muscle early on in the life of their business. They must, in order to survive. Other companies are buoyed by underlying market growth, and don't need to be as crisp on measurement in order to accomplish their business goals. I believe it's important to have a strong measurement muscle at any business, but it's even more important once you start to reach a certain point of scaling. Especially when you're scaling in multiple markets at once.

Real-Time Analytics Determine How and Where to Grow

In Take Your Company Global , I devoted a full chapter to Real-Time Analytics (RA), which is part of the MARACA model that I first shared in Harvard Business Review , and expanded on further in the book.

For those who haven't seen it, a quick refresher:

MA - market availability. How much market is available to your business to capture in a given country? This is slightly different from TAM, in that it's a company-defined metric to approximate market size relative to other countries, using criteria specific to your business.

RA - real-time analytics. This is a composite score, informed by a set of growth metrics you use to determine how your business is performing in a given country. Depending on your business model, these metrics will differ too.

CA - customer addressability. This is more than just "product-market fit," but really more similar to "country-business fit." To develop this composite score, you look at several different metrics that tell you which aspects of your business require adaptation in order to truly address the needs of your customers in a given market.

The reason I share all three elements of the model here is that, in any conversation about metrics, it's important to first understand the core conditions that influence the metrics. In the case of country-specific growth metrics (RA), you simply can't make much sense of them without first understanding MA and CA.

Think of it like this: RA will tell you how you're doing against your goal. MA will tell you how much potential there is in the market. CA will tell you what you need to change to achieve your goal. These three things are closely intertwined.

Get Comfortable with Scores Looking Different By Country

Talk to anyone who has ever looked at a highly global data set from any business and they will tell you that there are significant variations from one country to the next. What's important to know, in international expansion planning, is that not all countries should be measured using the same rubric. The more mature your presence is in a given market, the better your financial metrics typically look. After all, it takes time to build up operations in any new country, even in ones with a digital go-to-market.

I've seen people get overly excited about a metric going up or down, but there are often very specific reasons why that's happening in just one market. Some examples:

• "Look at how much traffic we're getting from India! Let's target all that demand!" Just because there is interest in the topics on your website or blog from a country with an enormous population that is reflected in your data does not mean people in a new country are willing to pay you for what you sell, let alone at the same price.
• "Our discounting rate is so much higher in Latin America. Those sales reps are bending too much on price." If you offer universal pricing across the globe, you'll naturally see a higher discount rate in economies with a lower cost of living. Also, people in some cultures naturally negotiate more and start with a higher selling price by default.
• "Productivity per rep metrics in Germany are so much lower than in the US. That sales manager isn't driving them hard enough." Often, businesses simply forget to take into account the number of national holidays and ways of working when calculating sales activity benchmarks and targets. You can't always set the same standard in other countries, because working conditions are simply different.
• "Our checkout abandonment rate is so much higher in Brazil. We pay so much to get them to that point and they suddenly change their mind." In many markets, you need to think through local payment issues, local tax strategy, and other details before you grow a significant presence there. Otherwise, as you scale, you might find problems that require changes to your business that are too significant to make in order to capture share in an enormous market you've already invested in.

These are just a few examples of why you can't set the same targets in every single market you go into. Countries have different employment laws, different pricing expectations, different needs and may even define value in different ways. That means that how you target them might also need to vary! Naturally, the goals you create and the exact measurement of success in each market will vary somewhat too.

The Earlier You Orient Around Metrics, the Easier It Is to Go Global

Going into multiple markets introduces complexity into your business. When your operating model becomes more complex and nuanced by country, it makes it harder to stay on top of all the variants of metrics you need to track. This is one major reason I created the MARACA model, to help cut through the noise of metrics that you inevitably reach once you hit a certain stage of international growth.

But if you're at an earlier phase of global expansion, here are a few tips:

• Don't measure everything. Pick only a few things that truly indicate performance success and progress toward goals in a new market.
• Focus on tracking progress. Rather than trying to benchmark one market or pin a country against another, keep your eye on the big picture and progress toward goals for that market.
• Link local metrics to global goals. Keep a close eye on the metrics that matter most for your overall business. Then think about how local markets can help you achieve those. It's easier to get support and funding for local markets if you do this!

As passionate as some of us can get about the potential within a given market that we care about, focusing on just one market is a losing battle. You must use local metrics in a way that shows that you're helping to drive the overall growth of the company. That's ultimately what it's all about - making sure you can prove how your business in any local market contributes to the overall global goals and performance metrics of the entire company.

So get started, and develop a habit of measurement as early as you can!

Grace Notes

Fall has started to arrive in New England, and I'm watching with joy as my customers at Zappi launch all kinds of seasonal innovations lately, wondering how those products will help them to win in their product categories and gain market share. As I pointed out the pumpkin spice or caramel apple themed offerings on display to my soon-to-be 11-year-old daughter, she asked who gets to come up with those ideas.

I don't often bore my kids with work talk, but since I could tell it was a genuine interest of hers, I had the pleasure of explaining to her about CPG brand managers, product innovation leaders, consumer insights professionals, and the talented creative people who work on these things every day.

I even told her about my inspiring customer Nic Fry ?? , who delivered an incredible presentation this week on the topic with Zappi's own Meghan Reinhardt on how AI is being leveraged in her work at MARS.

Her words?

"That's my dream job."

Contrast this to an About Me sheet that came home from school five years earlier. In the section where it said, "What I want to be when I grow up" she had written one word:

"Myself."

She has continued declining to state a "future profession" every year since entering school. And I think that's great.

(But it's also fun to see what kids naturally become interested in.)

There are very few moments for me when parenting and work collide, but this one made me smile.

Speaking of future generations and what will be possible for them to achieve with product innovation, that's the topic of Zappi's first-ever customer conference next week in NYC.

Did I mention we're launching a book on Monday with Zappi's Founder and CEO Steve Phillips , our President Ryan Barry , and our incredible customers Stephan Gans and Kate Schardt from PepsiCo too?

I'm so excited, and feel so proud of our entire company for these accomplishments! The celebrations will be so well deserved.

I'll share a recap next week.

Other Ways to Connect with Me

Thank you for reading this newsletter! I hope you found it helpful.

Here are 3 other ways we can connect:

1. Get my latest book.

Don't forget to get your own copy of my latest book, Take Your Company Global .

It was kindly endorsed by my longtime CEO at HubSpot , Brian Halligan.

“Take Your Company Global is the definitive guide to building a global business in the digital age.” —Brian Halligan, Co-Founder and Executive Chairperson, HubSpot and Co-Author,?Inbound Marketing

Already have it? Liked it?

Please do me a favor and leave a review on Amazon .

This helps other people find it!

2. Download my guide.

Earlier this year, I wrote a 27-page career planning guide in the form of an eBook called Find Meaningful Work.

I originally wrote the guide in response to Big Tech layoffs, which were painful to so many, and from which many are still not yet feeling "recovered."

But the truth is, this guide is also very useful for anyone who is thinking about a career change, at any point in their career.

In the guide, I walk you through an exercise in which I ask you to figure out your values (longer term statements that help you steer your career in the right direction) and then determine your priorities for your next job (shorter-term areas of focus that matter to you in the here and now.)

I noticed some new downloads of it this week.

If you'd like to get it, you can find it here .

I hope it helps you!

3. Book me for a talk.

I often do author talks, conference keynotes, and podcast guest appearances.

Want to find out if I can help you? Comment below, message me on LinkedIn, or email me: nataly (at) borntobeglobal.com .

Looking for my books , blog , and other writing ?

Those are all linked on my website, Born to Be Global , where you can contact me too.

Have a great week ahead, friends, and thanks again for reading!

Nataly