Data

I am an executive coach and motivational speaker. As a result, I rely on my ability to inspire, communicate and emotionally connect with my clients and audiences.

However, in a past life I was a numbers guy and as a result I am obsessed with data. In fact, I will argue that your success in life can almost always get boiled down to a mathematical equation.

Interested in losing weight? Calculate how many calories you burn each day and consume less than this number.

Want to increase your sales? Calculate your conversion rate and that will provide you with the number of prospects you need to engage.
How about improving your relationships? While not exactly precise, I would argue that you could associate the health of a relationship with the amount of time you spent with an individual. So, more time equals a better relationship.

It has always been and will always be about math.

Unfortunately, in today’s world we get caught up in perception and ignore math.

For example, take the idiotic “Cash for Clunkers” campaign that the federal government rolled out this summer. If you watched the evening news and witnessed the shots of crushed up clunkers at the car lots, you probably felt that this was a huge success.

However, check out the math. All this campaign did was encourage buyers (with $4,500) to move up their car purchase a few months. Now that the campaign is over, car sales are way down (Check out the recently released September numbers if you have any doubts).

Our emotions told us that this campaign was a huge success. But the data told a different story.

Before you get excited or upset about anything make certain that you verify the data.

What numbers are important in your business? Do you track them? Are they improving?