“Keeping track of your eating is your key to success. Track what you eat and make better food and exercise choices”- Weight Watchers weight loss tools

I’m sure you’ll agree that keeping track of how much weight people lose is indispensable for Weight Watchers s’ success. Being able to claim that Tina Fey dropped 30 pounds using Weight Watchers or that Jenny McCarthy lost 60 pounds after the birth of her son because of the Weight Watchers program or that Charles Barkley dropped 70 pounds using the Weight Watchers program proving that men can be successful using their system… well, you get the point.

In the same way that trakcing your eating habits and your exercise routines is key to reaching your weight loss goal, keeping track of your company’s key performance indicators (KPIs)  is equally important to successfully reaching your organization’s objectives.

In this blog article, we’ll introduce you to a company scorecard - a progress-tracking tool you can use to ensure your efforts stay aligned with your company’s objectives. 

First Things First

Before tracking anything, you must have a clear and defined objective. As obvious as it might seem, more often than not we run into organizations with unclear, ambiguous objectives. Here are some examples of clear, well- defined objectives:

• Achieve 90% of sales through the internet by the end of 2016

• Increase web traffic by 15% in 12 months

• Convert 5% of web leads to customers within 30 days of initial contact

• Grow average customer spending by 5% by September, 2015

Selecting Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Once you have defined your objective, it is time to select your KPIs. KPIs are the metrics that will help you evaluate the progress of your objectives. To illustrate this, let’s see how the Weight Watchers program tracks weight loss. As you’ll notice in the image to the left, there are three things the program tracks: food, photos, and weight.  Each has its own metrics. For food, you track calories; for photos, you track your physical progress by date; and for weight, you track pounds. 

The same applies to your organization’s objectives. Let’s suppose your objective is to increase web traffic by 15% in 12 months. Your KPIs, or metrics, should include the number of web visits by traffic source (direct, paid, social media, etc.), returning visits, new visits, and so on. For further help with selecting your marketing KPIs, read our blog article titled Marketing KPIs 101: How to Keep Your Company on Track.

Your Company Scorecard 

Now that you have a clear objective and you have determined the KPIs that will help you track it, it is time to create your company scorecard. Your company scorecard should include your “as is” condition and your goal. To help you track your progress, here is a sample chart you can use and personalize to track your own KPIs.

Objective: To increase web traffic by 65% in 12 months.

Here are some questions to consider:

• What strategies worked in previous months?

• What strategies did not work in previous months?

• What strategies will I execute in the upcoming month?

• Are these KPIs still relevant to reaching my objective?

Share and Analyze

After being enlightened by your company scorecard, it is crucial to share your findings and progress with your team, the key decision-makers, and partners who are helping you reach your objectives. If you fail to do this on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis, no one will know what needs to be changed, what needs to be improved, what has worked, and what has not worked. Most important they will not know if their efforts are contributing to reaching the company’s objectives.

According to helpguide.org, when you are on the journey of losing weight, you should use tools that help you track your progress because progress will keep you motivated. In addition, sharing your progress will empower others to continue to provide you with the support you need to achieve your organization’s objectives. A company scorecard will keep you and your team accountable for your success!

Was this blog article helpful? What are your challenges when working toward achieving your organization’s objectives?

Need help creating your company scorecard? As part of our online marketing programs, we work with our clients to define company scorecards to help them make progress toward their desired objectives. Scheduled your complimentary consultation today!