Episodes 679 - Key Performance Indicators

In this episode of Monday Morning Mojo, Phil kicks off the new year with a powerful message about measuring success through key performance indicators (KPIs) rather than just revenue. He shares the cautionary tale of Blockbuster's downfall and Netflix's rise to emphasize the importance of focusing on the right metrics. Phil also provides practical advice for identifying and tracking KPIs that can drive growth and success in 2025. Tune in to learn how to stay ahead of the curve and make this year your best yet by honing in on what truly matters for your business.

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Transcript

Top performers in every field surround themselves with those who inspire them, who seek to build them up, and who push them to reach beyond their current limits. I'm Phil Buchanan, Executive Chairman of Cannon Financial Institute. I designed Monday Morning Mojo to provide you with a weekly spark, a push, and motivational insight to live your best life.

Thanks for joining. Good Monday Morning. It is Phil here with Episode 679. of Monday Morning Mojo. Happy New Year, everyone. 2025 brings with it great promise. The start of all years and all journeys and all business efforts bring that same promise. Now, whether or not success will ultimately be derived isn't so much based on what happens around you or what happens to you.

Rather, it's how you proact and react. So I've got a question for you. What are the key performance indicators that will help you measure your progress towards success in 2025? Now, please I beseech you do not start with revenue. Yes, revenue is critical for the success of business long term. However, far too many business owners, far too many execs rely on the revenue number only, and they do so to their ultimate detriment.

For example, Blockbuster was a video rental business with physical store locations across the United States. Now, if you were not actively involved in watching rented movies in the 1990s, this will make no sense to many of you. But back in the day, the way the blockbuster system worked is you would physically get in your car, you would drive to a store location, not totally unlike a Walmart or a public store, etc.

And you would go in and you would browse the shelves for the movies that you wanted to watch. They came in a plastic case. And you could rent those movies for a day, two days, three days, and you paid accordingly. Now, in the year 2000, Blockbuster's revenue eclipsed 5 billion. In that same year, it had the opportunity to acquire a startup competitor for 50 million.

But, they chose not to do so because that startup company had very little revenue. Again, a lot of focus on revenue here in 2004 blockbuster again, focused on revenue, eclipsed 6. 2 billion of revenue while that little startup that they failed to acquire in 2000 now was generating a few hundred million.

Roll forward only eight years later. In 2012, Blockbuster declared bankruptcy because that pesky startup, a company we know as Netflix, had totally redefined and reimagined what success looked like. By focusing on a differentiated service model and its own unique key performance indicators, Netflix changed the game.

Oh, by the way, Netflix revenue in 2024 should eclipse 39 billion. Team, if you want different results, you have to find those levers that propel growth for you. In a recent conversation with a wealth management team that is seeking higher than average growth rates over the next three years, we honed in on three key performance indicators for their business.

to be measured and evaluated on a monthly basis going forward. Qualified prospects added to their pipeline is going to be one of those indicators. The average age of deals in the pipeline will be a second indicator. And monthly exits of deals, both wins and losses, from the pipeline on a monthly basis will be the third.

Now, these evaluations are simple. One, if you aren't adding new deals into the pipe, your prospecting efforts need adjusting. Two, if the average age of deals in the pipe are getting longer, i. e. older, there may be issues, one, with the quality of prospects being added in, i. e. the wrong types of prospects, or two, with the solutions being recommended or how they are being recommended.

And for the third KPI, if you don't have deals coming out of the pipeline each month, either you aren't closing new clients, we call those wins, or you aren't getting dead wood. We refer to those as losses off the screen. So again, by honing in on your unique key performance indicators, those things that are going to drive your success in 2025, you get more clarity of purpose than just waiting to see how.

The revenue or profit results pan out team. Again, we either have to run our businesses or those businesses will run us. Get tight on your KPIs and you will stay ahead of the curve in 2025. Monday Morning Mojo is a production of Cannon Financial Institute. Executive producer of Monday Morning Mojo is Sarah Jones.

Editing and mixing is done by Danny Brunner, production manager is McCall Chamberlain. Until next time I'm Phil Buchanan reminding you to be a force for good. And thanks for being part of the Mojo community.