EP128 Try Numbers

Entrepreneurs are not fond of tracking their numbers because they focus on their vision. But numbers make you aware of what’s going on in your business. In today’s episode, Ken Courtright shares some essential facts on increasing your reach and getting your message across to more people. Success is when you see people improve because of applying your message to their business or life. By encouraging you to track your numbers, you will know the kind of message you need to have a higher reach and more influential growth.

—

Listen to the podcast here:

Try Numbers

This is the show where I sit down and drop some nuggets that can hopefully help you grow your business. The title of this episode is Try Numbers. We did the Digital Footprint and I don’t know how many times I heard people say, “We’re going to try radio.” We tried newspaper, we tried pay-per-click and we’re right in the middle of trying Facebook ads. Here’s the deal. In our 23 to 24 years in business, we’re a three-time Inc. 5000 company. It means out of the 14 million US businesses, we’re in the top 1,000 fastest growing based on four years tax returns in a row for the third time.

In all of our decades in business, I’m not sure we have ever tried any type of marketing platform. What we tried to do is increase our reach from a certain number of people hearing our message every day to a higher number. Business fact number one, that that is measured, gets managed. Fact number two, you can’t expect what you don’t inspect. You cannot expect growth if you don’t inspect growth. When you inspect, you have to inspect numbers. Remember, we don’t manage people. We manage numbers. If you ever find yourself saying, “We should try pay-per-click. We should try Facebook ads. I heard they’re amazing.” No, you should not try Facebook ads. Number one, you’ve got to find out how many people per month hear your message. That’s called your number.

Your number is simply the number of people that hear your message per month. In the last many days, how many people have heard your message? How many people have heard your commercial? How many people have heard your snap? If you’re not sure what the snap is, start at episode number one and start this whole thing over. As a matter of fact, if you’ve come in lately and you’ve read episode 100 or episode 70, some of my life’s greatest work is in the first 50 episodes. If you’re new and you’ve been referred to this show, I promise you. Especially number one, that is by far the greatest episode I’ve ever done and ever will do in my lifetime. It is the single most important thing I can teach. Once you have that, you understand the relevance, the timeliness and the urgency of every other episode that follows.

In the last many days, how many people have heard your message? If you are unsure, make this the last month that you don’t have a recorded number of your number. Your number is the number of people that have heard your message this past month. It’s what sustains your business. The growth of your number is what grows your company. I’m going to say this differently and this might get some people upset. It’s not the employees that work for you that grow your company. It’s not your great leadership skills and not your decision-making skills. It’s not how fantastic your product or service is. It’s not your customer service. What grows your company, and there’s only one thing, is a month over a month you purposefully or through word of mouth or great this, great that, whatever it is. Whether it’s purposeful or not, it’s the growth of how many people next month hear your message over this month.

There is no other way and there can’t be another way to grow a company. Your number, which is how many people last month heard your message, and the growth of how many people heard your message is what grows your company. Knowing your number and consciously growing your number is what grows your company, your wallet and allows you choices in life. If you are frustrated and grumpy, and if your checkbooks are talking to you and the only word it says when you open it is, “No, you’re not taking that trip. You’re not buying that car. We are not going on that vacation.” If you are not in a good mood, if you are slightly depressed, if you’re in a depression, if you’re not loving life, I’m going to take a stab and say, “You don’t know your number.”

I’m going to go deeper and say, “Not only do you not know your number, but you also haven’t purposefully grown your number each of the last few months. How many people show of hands would love to be happy? How many people show of hands would love to relax? How many people would love to take some time off and read a book?” The fastest way to do it unequivocally no question is to find your number and then find different ways for free or nearly free to grow that number at least 100% each of the next few months. If 150 people heard your number last month, make it 300. If 300 heard it, make it 600 and then make it 1,200.

Don’t take no for an answer, “It’s difficult. I don’t have the budget for Facebook or pay-per-click.” I don’t care. Do something that doesn’t cost anything. Put up flyers, email people and call people. Who cares what the method is? You grow your number. Here’s the final nugget. Get out an Excel spreadsheet. I’m not asking, I’m telling and start tracking your number. How many people are hearing your message? Find out. If you’re not sure, find out. Everything can be found out. Each day and each week grow your stinking number. This is episode 128, Try Numbers. Take care.

Important Links:

• episode 100 – past episode
• episode 70 – past episode
• number one – past episode

• Here’s How »

• kencourtright.com
• Today’s Growth Twitter
• Ken Courtright LinkedIn