It should be easy for managers to measure success, especially in the digital age. So if you’re using antiquated business tools (or none at all) to measure your key performance indicators (KPIs) or progress on your goals, this guide is exactly what you need to get you realigned and on-track for success this year.
Let’s say that a manager of a growing business development team just held a brainstorming session for the upcoming year. Based on the leadership team’s plans for 2024, this team needs to bring in 500 leads in order to support the department’s conversion rate goals. We’ll use this example as a case study on how simple it is for managers to implement this guide and easily measure success.
Define what success means for your team.
It’s hard to measure the success of something when you don’t know what you should be measuring, right? Success isn’t always measured in the form of a number—it may look like simply reaching a goal. But success may mean that your metrics are reaching certain numbers each week. Be sure to discuss with your teams what success looks like. One may support the other—and you should know if it does or not.
Setting and achieving goals
When setting departmental goals, it’s important that your team members take individual goals that support those goals. Furthermore, managers should use milestones (check points) throughout the year to keep the team accountable and on track. If anyone becomes off-track and misses a milestone, your team can use that as an opportunity to discuss the issue, provide support, and keep moving towards that larger goal.
Determine KPIs
Measurable goals make it easier to track the progress you’re making. In our example, it’s clear that the team needs to bring in 500 leads in the coming year. That’s considered a SMART goal—specific (leads), measurable (500), attainable (we’ll assume that it is), relevant (it will help the business grow), and time-bound (within the next year.) With clear ways to measure success, your team can be crystal clear on where you’re at.
That being said—some of our clients have shared that success doesn’t always look like a number, but instead it looks like a pass or fail. Did we reach our goal—yes or no? If yes, then they count that goal as successful. If no—it’s back to the whiteboard.
Implement business tools that help monitor and measure success.
There are plenty of solutions on the market that promise to be the “one-stop-shop” that everyone has been searching for. When considering the right tool for the job, be sure that you are able to easily update, monitor, and measure goals and metrics. The most effective tool should be able to:
- Record key metrics and goals
- Track goal progress with goal-tracking tools
- Share key metrics with your team
- Assign to-dos if metrics/KPIs are poor or goals are off track
- Provide transparency with your entire team
A tool that provides these features will ensure a near-effortless way to measure success and keep everyone moving in the right direction. Bloom Growth provides all of these features in the convenience of one easy to use app.
A practical example of how Bloom Growth can help you reach your goals
Remember the goal that we referenced before—we need 500 leads. In order to reach that department goal, we can utilize tools within Bloom Growth to methodically get us to that goal. No guesswork—just working smarter not harder. Here’s an example of how you can use Bloom Growth to reach SMART goals:
- Add “500 leads” to your department’s business plan, so that everyone on the team can know what you’re working towards
- Discuss and establish quarterly goals to each team member. Note: An individual goal may look like “attend 3 networking events in Q1”. Make this goal crystal clear and assign milestones (or due dates) to attend the events by.
- Create metrics to discuss during your weekly meeting, such as digital leads, event leads, etc. Your metrics should support your department’s goals. These should be updated weekly to monitor progress. Pro-tip: leverage our Zapier integration to automate these weekly updates!
- Schedule a weekly meeting with an effective agenda to keep your team aligned and on track.
- Create and discuss issues that may impede your team’s ability to reach goals. If action items need to take place to solve an issue, assign a to-do to a team member.
With all of these tools at your fingertips, setting and reaching SMART goals becomes like clockwork. Check out our content library to see what some of our customers are saying.
Simplify reporting your metrics with Bloom Growth’s integration with Zapier
Even with the right tools, many managers find reporting data week after week to be tedious work—but it doesn’t have to be. Our app offers an integration with Zapier which allows managers to automate some of the more monotonous or tedious tasks—like entering data. Learn more about what you can do to automate your workflows with our Zapier integration.