What are momentum indicators? I define them as indicators that predict future success. When they trend down, you are losing momentum. When they trend up, you are gaining momentum and business performance will follow.
I’m an accountant by education. My dad is an accountant. I love accountants, but they can sometimes live in the past and give us information that is always backward-looking. You can’t blame them for this, since usually this is the information that is most readily available (and it’s the information we ask for).
I want to challenge you to think about key indicators a little differently. What are your 3 key momentum indicators? What 3 key things define your future success?
Here are our TheisTech momentum indicators:
New Contacts
On a weekly basis, I track new contacts that have been added to my CRM database. Only people will buy my services, so when I grow my contacts and connections, I will eventually grow my sales. It goes back to the saying, “It’s not what you know but who you know.” If you want to build momentum then you need to offer a good/service of value to people in the marketplace.
New Opportunity Dollars
I also keep a close eye on my new potential project dollars each week. This is a critically important key indicator of how my marketing and sales activities are performing. I don’t sell every potential project that comes my way, but I do know that the more potential projects I have, the more sold projects I will eventually have.
Think of this as “putting the numbers in your favor.” The more opportunities you have to pick up potential projects the more actual projects will come through. There’s an ancient proverb that says, “fortune favors the bold.” The more you have in the works, the more will eventually happen for you.
Project Hours
This key indicator is both backward-looking and forward-looking. If I keep my team full of work each week, I know that my cash flow is going to take care of itself in the future. I also know that if my team is full of work, they are happy and will stick around. A busy team is a happy team is a performing team.
On a practical note, we have a “Momentum” dashboard on our Dynamics 365 site map. This dashboard displays as the “welcome” dashboard every time we open the system to give us a clear picture of whether we are gaining momentum or losing it. I track each of those key indicators weekly for a rolling six month timeframe.
What are your momentum indicators? I challenge you to answer that question and I hope you have a great month!
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About the author: Brian Busscher is Founder and CEO of Thesis Technologies, an Implementation Partner for and . If you would like to discuss how Dynamics 365 might be a fit for your organization, please contact the Thesis team at 888-705-7253.
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This blog post has been updated.