Shake Up Metrics (SUM): Numbers matter

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has (all the) data.

Numbers matter.

Some numbers matter more than others.

In business, we call them metrics.

Every business has metrics, but are the numbers doing a good job of throwing light on the right problems, the order of priority in which to tackle them, and what the outcome will be before you dive into experiments and such?

To grow resiliently and sustainably, businesses need a strategy that defines and encompasses critical metrics (beyond growth, CACs and LTVs) , and consistently improves each of them.

A popular example is the Trial-to-Purchase ratio. And how this ratio can be improved over time.

Or Subscription-to-Consumption ratio. And how to help subscribers read, discover, engage and find hidden value.

Stakeholders need to identify what the metrics that most impact the business are (you are perhaps doing this already).

This is most relevant to business owners, investors, potential investors, competition and the wider industry.

Stakeholders also need to identify what the metrics that most surprise your prospects are. (Attracting and convincing prospects being the purpose of most marketing efforts.)

Let’s call these the Showcase Metrics.

Or better, the Shake Up Metrics (SUM).

Any business worth its salt needs to have and know their SUM.

They must shake the very roots of what the audience knows about how your industry should work.

They must give the audience a clear picture with proof in impressive quantitative data, to complement what you are talking about in words and qualitative highlights.

They must make the audience sit up and take notice. “If what they say is true, I, and everyone I know, must test this out. And either call the bluff or get the benefit of it.”

If you’re able to do business at all, without losing customers every day, you have those numbers.

But perhaps you need to look hard to find what they are, define them well, make it transparent across the organization, question them and use them as a disturber of the comforted, inspirer of the lost, invigorator of the rut-stuck.

Because numbers are as much for the people building, selling, troubleshooting your product, keeping the machine running, as much as it is for decision-makers and impressing potential customers.

I would argue it matters more, or first and foremost, to your team than your customers.

You need to figure out how to look at your numbers, put them together and connect them with each other to convert them into sharp data points that make meaning.

You need this data.

To use in communication.

To showcase on landing pages and back it up with details and stories.

To use in discovery meetings and throw numbers around in style in sales pitches.

Not to show how big you are, but how significant the impact you are making is.

To build stories that lead with proof, to start conversations with prospects on any challenge they face.

To make the pitch, the story, the case study stronger. And already worth it to have heard or read them.

You need the metrics at every stage of the funnel to be inching towards disruption via numbers.

Others have numbers too – sometimes unbelievable and unbeatable numbers like 94% success, 4.98 stars, 80% leaks plugged. They are not you. As long as you define your numbers, whatever they are, however unimpressive they look at the moment, your numbers will tell your story with compelling clarity to those who will benefit from it.

You need to publish this fact sheet of your SUM internally. It should be frequently updated and available at fingertips for anyone at your company to make ideas, pitches, stories, or their own performance stronger.

It would be a bonus if you know the industry averages and bests as much as possible to make sure your metrics indeed shake people up.

You must define and design these metrics; find the strategy, ideas and fuel for intuition hiding in your numbers.

Numbers not known, examined, tracked and utilized are opportunities and stories lost, points made blunt, curves faltering instead of flattering.

Your numbers should ask you questions that are hard to answer immediately, but will keep you awake until you can.

They should make you wonder. And also make you want to solve deeper problems. How come this percentage hasn’t gone up despite our doing dedicated events to convince fence-sitters? Why hasn’t the failure rate come down even after lowering the bar? What can we learn from this? Do we care about this, and why? What can we do about this?

Clarity of numbers and their interconnectedness add confidence and power to your interactions.

Knowing this is knowing how much of a difference you are making, or not. It brings conviction and vigour for the journey ahead.

It could be the start of a strategic shift for your company.

If thus far, you have been experimenting, observing, learning, believing...

In the next step, you could be refining everything you did and learned from, closing the gaps, being world-class in every aspect, sharing your knowledge and resources, and impacting the world at scale.

Find your SUM, and you'd be strengthening the ops, product, support, service quality, events, sales and marketing with them.

This can be a bottom-up exercise with stakeholders from every team throwing in ideas, aspirations and possibilities – for example ask the Sales team what would make their pitches more convincing.

Today, perhaps you have these metrics. Somebody owns a few numbers, someone else owns a few other numbers, some are owners with responsibility to maintain those numbers or make them better, maybe some numbers don’t have owners; you look for them when its need becomes apparent, and run into roadblocks.

It’s similar stories, on repeat, with every company that's doing some things awe-inspiringly right. “Customers love us, we have low churn despite price-increase, but we don’t see traction / we don’t see results at scale / we don’t see the conversion rate moving up / marketing efforts are not moving the needle that much.“

Finding the SUM of your business is a good place to start shaking things up.

Pinpointing the knots that need untying.

Bringing clarity, direction and conviction to your 'Why, What and How'.

Rooting the basics firmly in place.

Freeing your brand to grow to its fullest potential.

Curious to know more about the SUM for your business?

Write to me at [email protected] or message me here to get cracking.

PS: Our out-of-the-world website has been under construction, hit some snags, and we decided to Move Slow and Not Break Things or People. So please excuse the absence of a website. Instead, I will share our credentials as a PDF via email.