Being profitable requires you to operate on more than just a gut feeling and what your bank statement tells you each week. Unfortunately many contractors of all sizes operate exactly that way and, while they think they are being extremely profitable and successful, many are barely surviving.
Measuring the effectiveness of sales, marketing and operations will give you the insight needed to run a business with a healthy profit and the ability to invest in the future. If done right, you will have consistent, actionable information at your fingertips that will give you an accurate picture of the health of your business at all times.
Actionable information comes in the form of lag and lead indicators. Lagging indicators tell you where you are now. It is the “You are here” icon on your business map or your reality check. This is typically how well you are performing against your goals. Leading indicators reflect activities you are doing (or not doing) that contribute to the lag indicator. They tell you how good you are at executing a plan.
Examples of lag and lead indicators are closed sales and the number of follow-up phone calls for every presentation, respectively. These metrics will help you grow your business, cut costs and operate more efficiently.
Below is a list of sample metrics you can start measuring today:
Sales Performance
- Closed Sales - Lag
- Forecasted Sales – Lead to closed sales / Lag to sales activities
- Presentations Made - Lead
- Percent of Presentations Offered Financing – Lead
- Appointments Set - Lead
- Reminder Text/Email/Phone Call Delivered - Lead
- Appointment Cancellations/No Shows - Lead
Marketing
- Leads - Lag
- Financing Advertised - Lead
- Pay-Per-Click Monthly Spend - Lead
- Referrals Requests Letters Sent - Lead
- Web Traffic Conversions - Lag
- Blogs Posted - Lead
Operations
- Operation Cash Flow Margin and Ratio - Lag
- Payments Received from Financing Organizations - Lag
- Chargebacks Processed by Credit Card Companies and Non-Bank/Secured Lending providers - Lag
- On-time Percentage of Sent Invoices - Lead
- Percentage of Equipment in Use - Lead
- Number of Jobs Completed On-Time - Lead
Credit
EnerBank USA provides insightful performance metrics on its PartnerPortal. PartnerPortal is an industry leading tool that makes it easy to track all your business with EnerBank. With PartnerPortal you have access to sales performance and electronic loan processing tools you need to make your experience exceed your expectations.
PartnerPortal is a free resource available to all EnerBank USA business clients.
To find out more about EnerBank financing programs, click here.
