I remember first reading about this concept in the book, “The E-Myth” by Michael Gerber. And the concept rings true in so many areas of our life, and what first probably popped up for me was I was doing a sales training course many, many years ago. It was a 12-week course, and I went up to the instructor and I said, “Okay, I’m committed for the 12 weeks “But if you had to give me one piece of advice, that could help me now, what would you tell me to do?”

And he said, “Okay, it’s really simple. I want you to track every single inquiry that comes in. Just put it on a spreadsheet and track what happens from this. What did they inquire about and what was the next action?”

I asked him if there was anything else I needed to do and he said no, just do that. He told me if I did this I would get a 7 to 10% increase in my conversion. I thought this was rubbish, but I had committed to the program so I did it. And low and behold, in the space of a 4 week period I saw an 8.5% improvement in conversion rate!

I thought to myself, wow, this is really, really interesting.

In so many areas of our business and in our life, when we start to measure and understand we get clarity, and we know what to do next. But most of us are so busy being busy, that we don’t take the time to measure. And so what do we do? We rely on gut feel, rely on what’s going on in our head, or what we’re being told by others. Not making data-driven decisions, and being able to actually truly see what’s going on.

But you know what? the game of business is all about the numbers. No matter which way you look at it, no matter which industry you’re in, business is a numbers game. I don’t know anyone that got into business to not make some money. So it’s critical you have this business report card. And if you don’t understand the report card and you don’t measure it frequently, how can you win the game?

I want to take nothing away from what you do and I want you to be passionate about what you do, but at the end of the day, you’re in business and the game of business is all about understanding the numbers. It’s all about measuring the right things in the right way to make the right decisions at the right time.