All They Want for Christmas
Christmas is just around the corner. As it nears, let’s take time to reflect on the true meaning of the season. It's too easy to get caught up in the gift giving and “What do you want for Christmas?”
But take a step back from Christmas and you'll realize the question “What do you want?” is asked every day, in every home, in every business. How often do we really hear and acknowledge it?
At work, leaders try to figure out what their customers and teams want to keep them happy. Associates want to understand leadership objectives and priorities. The answers from both perspectives shape decisions and affect everything from the strategic plan to the company Christmas party.
When it comes to giving a gift at work, most people appreciate things that make them feel they’re contributing to something bigger than themselves, or show respect for their input, or recognize the value they deliver. Ideas include a handwritten note, a certificate to a restaurant they love, or tickets to a show they’d like to see.
As leaders, we can give our teams something else they want, and at the same time create value for the company. The idea? A completed project.
Every organization has a backlog of projects ranging from the analysis that gets talked about at every business review to process improvements that eliminate rework. You know the list.
At Data2Profit, we have thoughts to share. Think of your data as a pile of Legos, Lincoln Logs, and Tinker Toys. It’s messy, unstructured and without instructions. But watch children play with it. Some immediately dive in with an idea. Others experiment with how the pieces can possibly fit together, a design evolving as they explore. It’s magic. Now watch a good analyst play with your data.
Here some ideas of the things we’ve helped create from untapped data:
Time. OK, we didn’t literally create time. But when you partner with a business analytics professional, you have the capacity to get more done, provide new insights and eliminate hours of debate about whose numbers are right.
Sales Opportunity Map. Your sales team will love the interactive maps created from sales history and CRM data.
Customer Clusters. Group your customers by their behaviors, attitudes and financials to better understand what your best ones look like and how to grow them.
Profit and Cash Management Insights. A large home-builder learned why profits weren’t growing at the same rate as sales, and why their cash forecast was consistently missed. They also got operational recommendations on what to do next!
Aligned Strategy and Incentive KPI’s. Who doesn’t love it when incentive programs for sales and trade partners are aligned to a small number of strategic plan KPI’s?
Gross Margin Insights. Whose behavior has been naughty or nice when it comes to impacting your gross margins? Customers, sales reps, marketing, purchasing or operations?
Productivity Enhancement. Get the right information, to the right people, in the right form to increase efficiency. Just picture sales people selling, not analyzing data. Leaders leading, not pulling data and creating their own reports.
Better Decisions. Leaders “know”. Or at least think they do. You can have fun watching them react to facts, knowing that even as you do this, you’re making them better.
Improved Return on Data Investment. You’re spending thousands of dollars collecting, storing and protecting your data. But if you’re like most companies, you’re only analyzing 30-40%.... on a good day!
Free Profit! Get the first nine and we’ll virtually guarantee additional profit will follow.
Christmas is a time of joyous expectation for our families, friends and others we care about.
As business leaders, we care deeply about our companies and our colleagues, and want the most success possible for them. Equip and empower them to do their best by giving them the tools that connect them to results. Give them a pile of Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs and Blocks. Then get out of the way.
From those of us at Data2Profit, we wish you a very Blessed Christmas and a Prosperous 2020.