Some Decisions Don’t Need Data
Every important business decision can be hashed out on a legal pad.
Technology is ubiquitous, in our lives and in our companies. And technology gives us access to data: lots of it. Data, and the insights it can generate, are extremely valuable—but data is not a substitute for human leadership.
Your observation, gut instinct, and strategic thinking are still the most valuable resources inside the business.
Don’t let data prevent you from moving forward.
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Here’s what I mean, and there’s a good chance you can relate.
Every year, many of our clients set an Annual OKR (priority for the year) to clean up their CRM. They want to make sure the CRM is adopted, used correctly, and pulling in accurate data. This cleanup would help them calculate important metrics like conversion rate and customer acquisition cost (CAC) and improve their financial planning.
It’s difficult to argue that this isn’t a smart initiative, because it actually is.
However, if you’re not careful, it can just as easily become an obstacle.
Oftentimes in these companies, sales leadership becomes increasingly difficult to pin down. When asked about performance, they use the data initiative as a smokescreen: We’re still in cleanup mode; We don’t have accurate information yet.
In these situations, I make things dead simple. I turn to the CEO and ask: “Is the sales team going to hit its target this quarter?”
The answer is generally an immediate “No.”
“Why not?”
The CEO can usually list the problems and reasons (excuses) off the top of their head.
You know what we didn’t need for that conversation? A year’s worth of effort cleaning up the CRM.
1. You can clean your data, which will improve your financial planning.
2. You can fix the problems that are right in front of you in the meantime.
8 times out of 10, the data ends up validating the known issues. If it seems like you aren’t converting enough leads, you probably aren’t. If it seems like your customers are churning quickly, they probably are. If it seems like your sales team is ineffective….
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you can be reasonably certain it’s a duck.
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I’m not suggesting that these leadership teams are intentionally obscuring the challenges. But we are all human, and the problems we have in our companies—look, they’re tough problems to solve. Even when we know exactly what to do. Basic, but difficult.
But a clean CRM will offer only incremental improvements in your sales process. The real gains come from changing how you operate: new team, better training, redesigned process. That’s the hard stuff, and it’s the stuff you already know you need to work on.
The data inside your head may not be structured into spreadsheet form, but that doesn’t make it any less valuable. Once you identify what needs to be done, even directionally, your next step is taking action. You’ll get much farther fixing problems 80% of the way now instead of waiting 6 or 12 months to fix them perfectly.
Think about the biggest challenge your business is currently facing. Now think about why that problem is happening. And what you could do to fix it.
Then go do it.
