There are three main places to look for data when studying the health of your business:
- Analytics from your webpage and social media platforms.
- Sales numbers.
- Lead generation: where did they come from and did they convert to a sale?
These three locations of data seem disparate, but they work together in your entire sales ecosystem.
Where this data is stored
Analytics are available on all Webhosting and social media platforms, sales numbers are found internally within your company’s AR/AP files, and lead generation is generally stored on a CRM.
Analytics
Analytics show you which content is getting noticed. This allows you to see what items, blogs, and products are being clicked on, giving insight into coming or current trends in foodservice.
Sales reports
Sales numbers show hard data about what people are paying for, and there are numerous ways to create these reports. You may have invested large sums of money into marketing one particular product and it boosted your numbers across the board. But how does that fit into your overall picture? Is a staple of yours dropping off due to a lack of attention and it isn’t noted in the overall numbers due to the new product increase?
Lead generation
Lead generation is difficult to track without a CRM. It would rely on someone within your organization tracking it in some way: Excel, Project Management Boards, or loose emails. Lead tracking is important to see what the return on investment is in terms of time spent following these leads and where the leads came from. If you have leads from an event, did the cost of the event convert into a profit with the sales from the leads? Or did the expense outweigh the sales?
These three sets of data: web analytics, sales numbers, and lead generation, and conversion need to be looked at together to see the overall health of your business. Take the time to manage all the information at your disposal and focus your objectives to grow your business.