Quick Guide and Model for Developing Effective Key Performance Indicators

If you are not sure what KPIs and metrics you should use to better manage and monitor your business performance you are not alone, Our recent survey of 138 business users showed that 72% of business professionals are having a hard time to finalize their list of top KPIs and related metrics they should track and monitor continuously in order to improve their business insight. It takes a lot of energy to simplify everything you do into a reporting system which will represent your actual business results, identify the progress and performance gaps and help you be a better and more effective manager. The good news is that you already took the first and the most critical step – you made a decision to convert your business strategy and key business initiatives into a meaningful and effective performance dashboard reporting system where your strategy is converted into critical success factors, KPIs, metrics and targets aligned with your business goals and objectives. Here are a few quick and simple tips you should consider and take into account while you are working on creating your top list of relevant business metrics and key performance indicators for your company. 1. Your KPIs must show actionable information for your business There is no point in measuring anything unless you are able to manage what drives the metric and unless you are able to change the outcome and results out of the specific KPI. How to achieve this? Start with your business strategy, goals and top initiatives - use the PDF template. List your major and most critical initiatives and brainstorm ideas how you could measure the ongoing progress of each initiative. Your KPIs have to show the progress from point A to B and help you identify the gaps in your performance. 2. Diversify your metrics Keep in mind that you should diversify (balance) your KPIs in a way that you take into consideration performance from various functions. For instance, the balanced scorecard approach gives a good example for incorporating business metrics from different categories like financial and non-financial sources. This is true not only for top level dashboard KPIs but also for functional and local dashboard reporting. For example, HR performance and team performance metrics should be part of any functional report; in addition financial metrics and growth and development KPIs should be incorporated as well. Example of this approach would be a sales dashboard incorporating ongoing monitoring of team, development and financial metrics. The bottomline is that by creating KPI diversification you are making sure that you are getting the big picture overview of your business. 3. Your KPIs should be driven by and aligned with your strategic goals Start with your strategic organizational goals and functional goals. Your business goals are typically achieved through various initiatives - so your job now is to create a list of metrics to be able to measure and monitor the performance and outcomes of your initiatives. For example, if one of your your top business initiatives is improving quality you should make sure you create the relevant KPIs you’ll use continuously to measure the progress of your quality improvement. Another example is an initiative for improving your sales pipeline performance which requires breaking down your sales pipeline stages and steps and assigning relevant metrics for each step which will allow you to track performance time after time. The process is simple: Objective > Initiative > KPI > Target
4. Simple metrics Simple to use metrics means everyone on your team and every report user is aware what your KPIs and metrics mean. The last thing you want to do is create a disconnect between reality and your KPI dashboard report. For instance, if your people are not able to clearly understand the reason for measuring certain outcomes and results you might want to step back and adjust your approach. Simply what you talk about on your meetings (your real issues and critical for success factors) must be incorporated in your dashboard as well. 5. Types of scorecard reports you could use The very first approach every business manager takes is creating the dashboard KPIs for the overall business and that's a great starting point. However there are many additional scorecard reports you could use to improve your business insight and make better decisions. Here are a few examples of KPI dashboard or scorecard report types you should consider - of course use the ones which are relevant to your business model (any of your excel dashboard templates can be used to quickly create any of these scorecards for your business): a. Vendor Scorecard This is a very useful approach and type of scorecard when your performance depends on your vendor performance. When a great deal of your business needs are supplied by a single or a very few vendors and their performance is critical for your business performance like time, deliveries, customer satisfaction, cost performances, quality issues, etc. you can and you should use this reporting approach for a single supplier or multiple suppliers and track and compare their results. Set clear expectations and this process will show you the KPIs you will need to report. b. Client Scorecard Many B2B businesses – small and large companies depend on a few major clients. In such a case it is critical to be proactive and monitor the overall as well as specific client related metrics. This approach can be used to improve your business, find new opportunities and report the results to the client. The one highly effective approach we have found is to create client or customer saving scorecard where you can report the cost savings and high performance you have delivered each month or quarter. This in addition is a great marketing and customer retention tool for your company. c. Distributor Scorecard This is a critical scorecard when distributors in your value chain deliver your products to the end customers. In many cases the end customers are not even aware of the distributor role but they are expecting your brand value and have certain expectations from your organization. Since a distributor is the actual connection between your business and your customer you should consider using distributor scorecard with very clear expectations. d. Product Scorecard This approach can be used by top management, marketing, sales, production, quality… and just about any management position when large part of your business is driven by a single or a few products. This can be a single product or product line/type. Product performance metrics may include any metrics from revenue, sales growth, quality issues, number of units, number of new customers, etc. e. Customer Satisfaction Scorecard This scorecard type can be used by any business organization. The metrics can be developed based on regular customer surveys, customer input as well as other company data like number of complaints, number of returns, number of returning customers, etc. In addition you can create an overall customer satisfaction index which is a single KPI you can continuously monitor based on weighted values of various other metrics. f. Lead Generation Scorecard Every business needs new customers and improving your lead generation process and sales pipeline is always a top priority for the business. By breaking down your existing lead generation process you can identify actionable and relevant metrics at each stage and organize them into your excel dashboard. Now you can monitor your lead generation performance on an ongoing basis and understand how you can improve your results and achieve your objectives and targets.

What is Whale Curve and How to Use this Excel Chart?

Whale curve can be easily created in Excel. Most of the Excel users trying to create Excel chart with whale curve are looking at visually analyzing and reporting their customer profitability. While this chart can be used by anyone in business - most of the users come from companies with large customer base like logistics and manufacturing companies. In addition business professionals who are ABC (activity-based costing) users use the whale chart. Anyway, what is the whale curve and what are the benefits of using it? You can use this chart template to visually represent your customer profitability. This means you need to have the profitability for each of your customers. Once you have the data creating the curve is the easy part. In order to create the curve you need to rank your customers from most profitable to least profitable (with negative profit or loss). The resulting curve shows the cumulative profit (your overall profit) as each customer is added to the curve. In most cases, the most profitable customers create the largest part of the profit – this is where the curve generally rise after which the curve growth is declining and at some point the curve declines as customers with negative profit (loss) are represented on the whale curve. Looking at the right part of the curve can be alarming because you can visually see the impact of the bottom customers on your overall business profit. However, at the same time, this is the tricky part for every manager. What do you do to improve the big picture? The first logical step for an outsider would be to fire all the bottom (negative) customers however in most examples this can be a mistake because without those customers the remaining part of the curve will change as well. Changes of this kind of scale are not made in vacuum without impact on the big picture. Reasons are changes in purchasing power, negotiating power, pricing, volume, economies of scale….

NEW: Convert your KPIs and metrics into effective dashboards and scorecards in minutes. Find out more about the ultimate collection of excel dashboards, chart makers, balanced scorecards.... Learn More

How to Create Whale Curve in Excel? Download the template and follow the quick instructions: 1. Gather and organize your customer profit data – the profitability for each of your customers. 2. Enter (copy and paste) your customer list in column A in the excel template and the profitability for each customer in the next column (Column B in the template). 3. Sort your data by profit descending (click on cell B2 and click the Z-A sort button). 4. Column C has the formulas to calculate the cumulative profit for your data. What you need to do is to simply drag or copy the cells in column C to adjust for your customer list and the data will update. 5. Adjust the scales in your chart - double click the X axes and adjust the range (min and max values based on your data). Do the same adjustment for the Y axes range for minimum and maximum values. This will give you the right focus and curve for your data. Note: Gross margins and gross profit can be misleading so if your profitability data includes profit per customer at gross level your whale curve does not represent the true net profitability. For best and most reliable customer profit analysis use ABC to calculate the net profit for each customer  https://bit.ly/2ZRo9yB

3 Forms of Marketing Performance Metrics for Your Business

Understanding the Value of Your Advertising and Promotions with Marketing Performance Metrics  Marketing performance metrics provides your company with the ability to better understand the successes (or lack thereof) of the advertising and promotional efforts that your business has been making.  By properly utilizing marketing performance metrics, you will be able to measure the value and contribution of various techniques in order to create budgets, allocate resources, and make decisions regarding future marketing campaigns. That said, from the perspective of the marketing company, marketing performance metrics provide the opportunity to justify their own value and their role in the outcomes that are seen from a given marketing campaign or effort. These measurements are exceptionally important as they help a business to continually improve upon the performance and outcomes of their marketing efforts while creating a better return on investment for each marketing dollar that is spent.  Instead of simply continuing forward with what your business has always done, marketing performance metrics allow you to identify specifically what is working and what is not.  Make sure that your business understands marketing performance metrics and how they can be applied to your campaign in order to know its value.

Activity Based Marketing Metrics                     Among the most popularly used marketing performance metrics are those that are activity based.  They involve the counting, calculation, and reporting of numbers based on actions taken by customers or prospective customers, as a result of a marketing effort.  Among the easiest forms of marketing to which activity based marketing performance metrics can be applied are those on the internet.  This is because each of the behaviors of the customers can be tracked.  For example, counting the number of clicks received by a given link, or the number of downloads that have occurred on a webpage.  These are each types of activity based marketing performance metrics.  That said, marketing performance metrics that are activity based are more a matter of measuring customer behavior than actual business outcomes.  A more effective correlation can be achieved by measuring business outcomes such as customer value, market share, and product adoption.

Measuring Marketing Effectiveness

A more significant amount of marketing manager concentration should be placed on a marketing organization’s efficiency and efficacy as a whole.  Among the specific marketing performance metrics categories are those which involve the contribution the marketing has on the customer acquisition rate, the performance share, the rate of adoption of new products and services, the average value of each order, the improvement in the frequency of customer purchasing, the net advocacy and loyalty, the volume and share of business, the customer engagement, the margin, the market, and the rate of growth in comparison with the competition.

Measuring Marketing Operations: Marketing as a Business Process

Operations marketing performance metrics refers to the management of marketing operations as a business in and unto themselves. Collection and analysis of data from marketing functions is performed in terms of its business value.  It is typically accomplished by examining marketing investment vs. margin, total cost of marketing vs. lead profitability, as well as the conversion rates themselves. These analyses are helpful for the development of an understanding of the return on investment generated by the marketing.                                                                                                         By concentrating on these marketing performance metrics, marketers and businesses can have a clearer picture in terms of the efficiency of marketing with regards to the resources required to accomplish it.   The marketing operations goal is to improve that efficiency as well as to form a strong foundation for success by supporting the marketing with technology, processes, marketing performance metrics, and best practices.  This provides a company with the ability to operate its marketing as a type of separate business that is fully accountable.  This means that marketing operations will involve proper strategic planning, financial management, performance, and resource allocation, as well as skills management and assessment.  By using marketing performance metrics, you enable your organization to describe and measure the effectiveness and efficiency of your marketing.  This way, you will not only know the value and contribution made by those efforts, but you will be capable of ensuring that your marketing campaign is accurately aligned with your business strategies, activities, and goals.  With them, the correct decisions can be made regarding the use of the resources of the business, such as funds, people, and facilities and performance can be measured in comparison with competitors.

The 4 Elements of Successful Marketing Plan

What should be included in my marketing plan? What marketing plan templates, software, tools.... do I need?
One of the most common questions related to marketing plan development is "What exactly do I need to create a good marketing plan?" This quick guide focuses on the 4 most critical components of a successful marketing plan and gives you a free marketing plan template for developing the 4 elements for your plan. Unlike financial plans, financial analysis, operational plans…. creating a marketing plan is a totally different experience even for experienced marketers. The reason is simple: Because other types of planning and strategy development are well established within a given constraints and boundaries. Users, consultants, managers…. use well-defined tools, models and applications to analyze and improve their current situation. On the other side, developing marketing plan is a unique experience for every business. Boundaries and limitations are mainly set by the marketers and managers and every company defines marketing in its own unique way so the process of preparing the plan is always different. There are still other important factors which make the planning process even more confused for inexperienced managers – all the daily buzz, trends and fads create distraction in managers' minds and make them focus on one or two latest ideas and tools. As a result businesses jump in into the execution part without even having a real marketing strategy and plan for success. This gives a very limited perspective of the marketing capabilities of the business. Fact is that media and tools change over time however the marketing principles are always the same. For example, social media channels are just new channels or new media but the principles of customer relations, selling and building a good will with your target market are no different than the principles in other media such as direct selling or local networking. The real marketing challenge is focusing on the key principles, so for instance the question one should ask is "how I can improve my lead generation and selling process to accomplish my goals" (assumption made that there are defined marketing goals in place). So the logic of creating your plan should go from well-defined goals to marketing processes to the media channels - this requires the following 3-step planning process: 1. Setting business and marketing goals and objectives 2. Developing marketing system and processes 3. Media selection for profitable execution of your plan In addition to the 3-step process there are 4 key components in developing successful marketing plan and by focusing on them you’ll be able to create a plan which will be actionable and effective.
The 4 elements of marketing plan development: 1. Who is the ideal customer? This is the starting point of every plan because all your marketing processes, systems, activities, promotions…. will focus on your target customer or your ideal customer. When defining your ideal customers think of the following: A. They should be willing and able to purchase your products and services B. Their needs and wants should be satisfied with your products and services in a unique way which is hard for competitors to copy C. They should be excited with your solutions and become loyal customers The good news is that selling and servicing your ideal customers is simple, affordable and easy. When you talk about issues directly related to their needs they listen and follow you. Now compare this to companies that try to market and sell to everybody – they quickly run out of business because nobody can afford such an expensive and unorganized marketing approach. 2. Unique Value Proposition (UVP) You should develop your unique value proposition based on your ideal customer. Think about what they really need and want and what would be the perfect way to satisfy those needs. Keep in mind that your value proposition must be unique – not just another angle or alternative to sell to your target market but something which creates a unique experience. It must be hard for everyone to step in and do the same and use your concept. Your UVP should give a specific reason why your prospects should do business with you instead of anyone else.  3. Effective and Profitable Lead Generation System It’s a system - which means it should incorporate more than one process, media and tactic to leverage your business and overall profitability. Every media and process is different in terms of cost, ROI and reach but when you have a winning UVP you should be able to generate leads effectively through more than one channel. Testing is a must – there is no shortcut for this – the most precious marketing research for any business is testing various channels and measuring the results and ROI. Measuring your marketing performance allows you to focus on the right channels (what works for one business or product may not work for another….). In addition measuring and monitoring your marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics allows you to continuously improve your existing processes and generate higher ROI year after year. 4. Effective Price-Value Strategy and Positioning Every person and every business is different in terms of needs, desires, preferences and wants. Some people – customers / consumers / business clients – need more of what you offer and some need less. In addition some of them are willing and able to pay more while others just need a quick / affordable solution. Still others (and this is a substantial part of your target market) are simply not aware how your products and services can help them. Because of this your marketing plan should focus on marketing to all of these segments within your target market. http://www.mrdashboard.com/

Infographic: The psychology of sales marketing and the human mind

NEIL DAVEY Editor

What role do emotions play in purchasing decisions? This infographic from Salesforce.com explores.

Fund Raising – Is Crowd Funding an option for me?

Almost $1.5 billion was raised by Crowd Funding Platforms (CFP) world-wide in 2011. Funds raised grew at 63% CAGR over the last 3 years. As of April 2012, 452 CFPs were operating globally and the projected figure for 2012 was $2.8 Billion![1]

Based on these numbers, crowd funding must be an option for you. It is yet another tool at your disposal. I have raised millions of dollars for my startup ventures and they were from; Friends and Family, Government Agencies, Angel Investors and Venture Capital firms. However, in the last few years we have seen a new and disruptive tool emerging in this space and that is Crowd Funding. I wish I had access to this!

There is no denying that crowd funding is a fundamental change in the way entrepreneurs may choose to fund their businesses. Just as the PCs brought computers to the masses, so too does crowd funding put innovation in the hands of the masses (the crowd).

“My innovation is not a world-changer, and yet fifty thousand people gave me millions of ‘yeses’ when I couldn’t get a venture capital firm to give me a single ‘no’. Innovation serves and benefits the masses, and deserves to be judged by them. Crowd funding may not be totally there yet, but I for one am excited to see what its future holds” – Eric Migicovsky, Founder & CEO of Pebble – Pebble  has raised over $8.5 million dollars on one of the most successful crowd funding projects to date.

Crowd funding is a term used for fund raising when an individual or business reaches out to the crowd to obtain money. There are many types of crowd funding such as:

• Donation funding  – straight donation with no rewards. e.g. www.justgiving.com
• Pledge or project funding – funding for reward, where the backer gets something in return for their commitment of funds, ranging from a thank you listing to free or discounted product. e.g. www.kickstarter.com, www.indiegogo.com
• Equity funding – where the backer gets a share of a company in some way. e.g.www.crowdcube.com
• Debt funding – better known as peer to peer and peer to business lending, where a loan is provided by multiple small lenders. e.g. www.linkedfinance.com,www.fundingcircle.com, www.thincats.com
• Specialist debt funding – asset based lending e.g. www.marketinvoice.com
• Social enterprise funding – funding for a social cause e.g. www.kiva.org

SmallBusiness.co.uk looks at five examples of businesses turning to alternative methods of finance for investment in their venture .[2]

• Funkey Junk
  – is a London-based supplier of professional recording equipment. In 2012 the company looked to break into China and Russia, which a loan of £80,000 from Funding Circle has made possible. Managing director Mark Thompson says, ‘It was quite nice to say to the bank, ‘No thank you, we don’t need you.”
• Kamm & Sons
  Alex Kammerling founded spirit manufacturer Kamm & Sons in 2011 and raised £180,000 through Crowdcube. He says, We didn’t realise quite how good a ‘shop window’ Crowdcube was and it has brought us a lot of press and external investor interest as well as funds.
• Red Advertising
  Job advertising network Red Advertising secured a loan of £150,000 over five years through peer-to-peer lender ThinCats.com. Managing director Richard Clarke says, ‘With Thincats, you can look for larger amounts of money. Funding Circle will only go to £100,000 and draws on an Experian business credit score.
• Artesano
  Knitting wool wholesaler Artesano raised £65,000 on Funding Circle. Managing director Tom Coomber says, ‘We’re with a high street bank and we do have a loan and overdraft in place with them. When they took us on they told us that we’re a good business to be lending to, but every year our business is growing and we need more cash for stock, so we had to look elsewhere.’
• Magnus Walker & Partners
  Johnny Walker, co-founder of specialist recruiter Magnus Walker & Partners, raised money on invoice auction platform MarketInvoice to remedy the problem of late-paying customers. He says, ‘The cost of credit is quite low. Also, some invoice financiers demand the entire debtor book to be financed but MarketInvoice is more flexible.’

To learn more about crowd funding, sign up to the seminar on “Crowd Funding – How can I avail of it?” in Dublin on Tue Feb 25th. The first 25 subscribers to this blog for regular updates can collect a free copy of the book signed by the author; Crowd Funding  – How to raise money and make money in the crowd by the keynote speaker, Modwenna Rees-Mogg at the event.

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[1] Crowdfunding Industry Report by Crowdsourcing.org; http://crowdfunding.nl/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/92834651-Massolution-abridged-Crowd-Funding-Industry-Report1.pdf

[2] http://www.smallbusiness.co.uk/slideshow/2188808/five-businesses-that-raised-money-using-crowdfunding.thtml

The Needs First Approach

Small businesses (fewer than 50 employees) account for 97% of the total number of enterprises in Europe and generate 50% of Europe’s employment.[1] These businesses want to grow but for a complex mix of reasons often fail to achieve their potential. Many are applying ‘Lean’ operational processes, and most are extremely cautious as a direct result of the global recession and its continuous ripples and market uncertainties. Yet they all desire some level of growth with profitability. These companies are stuck and unable to ‘cross the chasm’. (Crossing the Chasm is a term coined by Geoffrey Moore in his best selling book of the same name).

LeanDisruptor is a journey to help companies cross the chasm; Ensuring they find ways to disrupt, engage and convert main stream markets. LeanDisruptor looks at integrating design tools with a set of lean tools to help our clients build better products and reduce their risk of failure.

LeanDisruptor is a structured process with a disciplined approach to identify, verify and validate better business models, processes, services and products based on ‘outcomes’ that the customers desire. This method will change a company’s mind-set and delivers a lean approach on how to reduce the uncertainties and risks around creating better services and products that will leapfrog the current competitive options.

As part of the process we use a set of tools to identify met, undermet, overmet or unmet needs with the current solutions, and communicate these visually and instantly. Our aim is to identify if there is a problem worth solving and whether there is a repeatable scalable business opportunity that will enable the business to cross the chasm.

It is a very practical approach that includes exploring your business model and developing appropriate product strategies on how to GET, KEEP and GROW those customers.

The LeanDisruptor was developed off well proven ‘Design Thinking’ methodologies, alongside well established practical tools that have delivered repeatable ‘aha’ moments for us from experts including: Steve Blank, Alex Osterwelder, Tim Ogilvie, Clayton Christenson and Tim Brown. The process was additionally aligned with the CEN/TS 389’s ‘Innovation Management System’.

The diagram below outlines the six steps in this process and the purpose of each:

1. Investigation
2. Generating Solutions
3. Rapid Learning
4. Validation
5. Syntheses of Outputs
6. Outcomes

This creates a new framework and structure that motivates fresh thinking, focused on outcomes desired by customers in the major markets. It helps to deliver significantly better solutions and leap frog the competitive options.

This process will help to lead a mind-set change where the value of lean and design thinking becomes entrenched in the organisation.

http://leandisruptor.com/