Let’s say you’re planning a cross country road trip.  Which navigational tool would you prefer:  an outdated, unwieldy paper map, or an up-to-the-minute, slim GPS?

The GPS, right?

Let’s now say you’re embarking on a sales support initiative.  Which tool would be more useful:  a comprehensive, mind-numbing, after-the-fact report, or a real-time, constantly monitoring dashboard?

A well-designed dashboard or scorecard is your program’s GPS.

It lets you “know now.”

The information you need to make informed decisions is, like a GPS, at your fingertips.  Not only can you monitor – in real-time – your program’s progress, navigating any bumps in the road, but you can immediately answer the two inevitable questions of any journey:  “How much longer?” and “Are we there yet?”

Here’s an example.  We recently conducted an eight-week pilot program for a leading business services client.  A day and half into the program – just 12 business hours in – we could see that results were flat.  Absolutely unexpected and unacceptable, but also correctible.  By quickly assessing the situation and making a few adjustments, we were back on course by the end of the third day of the campaign.  We actually achieved the program performance goal after only four weeks.  Were we surprised?  No.  Remember, we were monitoring leading indicators in real-time.  We knew the answer to “how much longer,” and our client knew we had a winner.

For any sales support program, the destination is obvious – ROI.  Are you there yet?  Do you need a real-time GPS partner?  Let’s chart a course together.