How many times have you looked at your production numbers this month? The better question is: Which numbers are grabbing your attention? 9 out of 10 times, most of us are only looking at how many dollars we’ve raked in. It makes sense—we’re all hard-wired to focus on these numbers to gauge how much financial gas is fueling the business engine. Ultimately, however, this is not where you should be focusing your attention—especially if you want to make more money in the future!
While current revenue collected (and even billed) can indicate financial progress, it’s only a measurement of the efforts you’ve already put forth, i.e. in the past. If you want to generate more revenue in the future, focus on what you’re doing right NOW, and make a habit of recording and measuring activities that are leading you towards having more money down the road.
So, how do you determine which activities yield the biggest impact on your future income?
Let’s say you earned $10,000 this month. What were the major income-producing activities (IPAs) leading up to this earning? It’s not as clear-cut as it seems. Below is an exercise to clarify this point.
Which of the following activities can you directly control/influence AND has a predictable impact on driving revenue (i.e. the more you do these things, the more likely they will result in your making money).
A) Cold / warm calling
B) Meeting with a strategic referral partner
C) Conducting a speaking engagement in front of your target audience
D) Driving to a prospect meeting
E) A new prospective client walking into your office
F) A prospect contacting you via web search
G) Invoicing a current client
Using the predictable impact and direct influence criteria, it may shock you that only A-C are considered major IPAs. Here’s why:
A) Cold / warm calling
This activity is like fingernails on a chalkboard for a lot of people because it often results in a “not interested” response, but it is an IPA. It has a predictable impact because the more calls you knock out, the more likely you are to find a person who will ultimately want to buy something from you. And you can directly control/influence how many calls you make and when you make them.
B) Meeting with a strategic referral partner
This is one of the more powerful IPAs (when meeting with the right person, of course. See my related article.) This activity can yield a continuous flow of future referrals and even personal introductions to prospective clients. Do the introductions and referrals have a predicable impact on your bottom line? Yes. Can you directly control or influence this activity by laying the groundwork for expectations including how often you meet with a strategic partner and how many referrals you will give and receive a month? Yes.
C) Conducting a speaking engagement in front of your target audience
This is a no brainer, especially if you have an ethical way to collect some of the attendees’ contact information after your presentation. You can direct attendees to a feedback sheet, and invite them to leave their contact information with you if they’d like to receive more information. Does collecting interested attendees’ contact information have a predictable impact? Yes. Can you control/influence when you do it and how you promote it? Yes.
Why D-G are not IPAs:
D) Driving to a prospective meeting
Meeting with a prospective client is absolutely an IPA because it immediately increases your chances of more revenue and you can control/influence setting up that meeting. But the activity of driving itself does not have a predictable impact on your revenue production.
E) A new prospective client walking into your office
Sure, walk-ins are great because they’re already interested, and your interaction might result in easy money. However, unless you had a “Big Sale Today” sign hanging on the side of your building, you did not directly control or influence whether the prospect came into your office that day. As far as you were concerned, it was a random windfall.
F) Someone contacting you via web search
This is very similar to a walk-in; usually it means they found you on their own. However, some web-based activities can be IPAs. For example, spending time ramping up your SEO is a proactive way to get people on your site. However, I would leave this activity to folks who do it for a living if you want predictable results.
Another viable way to convert a web-related activity into an IPA is to do a social media blast promoting a product or upcoming event. You can control when it happens, and in some cases, you can control who sees it. Tracking sign-ups as a result of your efforts (also known as a conversion rate) over multiple promotional campaigns will eventually yield predictable revenue results.
G) Invoicing a current client
This activity is either a reflection of work you’ve already completed or of a purchase already made. True IPAs impact your future income, not your present income. (Remember, current revenue posted is a reflection of your past activity.)
Converting your IPAs into something that has a measurable impact
Instead of focusing and reacting exclusively to your posted revenue numbers, proactively focus on your IPA numbers. Make it a priority to set weekly IPA goals (and even daily IPA goals) and track your progress towards them.
By adopting this new way of looking at your production numbers, you will eventually see your revenue skyrocket!
Here is how it works:
Make a list of the three critical IPAs you feel confident will have the greatest impact on your bottom line this month. (Remember, they must have a predictable impact on your future revenue, and you’ve got to be able to control or influence the activity itself.)
Next, set a measurable activity goal for each of your IPAs for the week (not the month). Below are a few weekly IPA goal examples:
- Make 200 outbound prospect calls
- Set up 3 strategic partner meetings
- Shoot out 1 promotional social medial blast
- Set up 3 new prospect meetings
If you want an even higher success rate, drill down and create daily IPA goals when possible.
Finally, create a way to track your daily progress towards your new IPA goals by capturing the data on a white board or creating a spreadsheet. If you want to really give your new focus some teeth, consider some accountability by reporting your IPA goals and your weekly activity to your boss, a colleague, or some other person you trust.
Here is a short case study of how this method, combined with some secret sauce coaching, helped Mark Bernecker (Regional Managing Director of Randstad USA) achieve staggering growth in a short amount of time.
If you need some assistance customizing an IPA tracking system that will yield greater revenue production—let me know; I’d be happy to help.
