The management of a company always requires the entrepreneur to know how to deal with adverse situations quickly. These moments require accurate and efficient decision making, which can be very difficult when there is no data to support them.
And how is it possible to facilitate the decision process within a company? The answer would be: to gather all the relevant information on the topic of the decision and analyze it. With a stronger foundation to support your actions, the risk of losing resources on a bad investment is considerably lower. That's why so many companies are looking for tools and procedures to record data and generate reports.
To show you how to use data in your decision making, here are seven basic guidelines that you can start adopting in your daily life. Follow:
1. CHOOSE YOUR DATA SOURCES CAREFULLY
The veracity of any information is always associated with its origin and its form of transmission. News, for example, is much easier to accept when it is transmitted by someone you trust or when concrete evidence is presented. Therefore, ensure that the source of your data, as well as the method by which it was obtained, is reliable and understandable.
In addition, it is good to remember that no type of information should be immediately discarded. Not without a relevance analysis. A lot of data may seem useless for your decision making within the company, but even it can be useful at some point.
2. DOCUMENT THE INFORMATION
Once you've ensured that your data is reliable, it's time to create a permanent record of it. After all, you will have to consult them in the future if you want them to be of any use. Therefore, there must always be some form of recording to ensure that information is not forgotten when it comes time for decision-making. This can be done with a virtual database, files in folders, among other methods.
It is important that there is a clear standard for this documentation. Otherwise, the data cannot be easily found later. File naming, dates and organization are elements indispensable to ensure the efficiency of your decisions in the future. train your team to always follow this pattern when generating any record or leave a professional dedicated to organizing the data.
3. PRIORITIZE SOME INDICATORS
Nowadays, with the help of certain tools, it is possible to measure practically everything. Or at least get a statistical approximation of reality. However, not everything that can be measured is useful for your decision making. Knowing how long a user leaves the mouse in the upper left corner of the screen when accessing your website, for example, is not very useful for company management.
That's why KPIs, or "Key Performance Indicators" are used. As the name implies, these are variables and statistics that are highly relevant to your business. KPIs often include profitability, profitability, number of leads, and other similar information. But this information must be complemented with other metrics, such as the total number of calls, conversion rate, etc.
4. CHECK THE COMPANY MANAGEMENT REGULARLY
You have priority reports, data and metrics. It's best to put them to use regularly. By this, we refer to frequent meetings and inspections, usually monthly, regarding the performance indicators company general. If there is a specific moment for your decision making, this may be ideal.
These meetings can be simple and straightforward, involving gathering some specific data and comparing some records. This is a good time to find inconsistencies in the documents and make corrections to your methodology, if necessary. It is also the ideal time to make predictions about the direction of the company, finding new investment opportunities and increasing profits.
5. USE TECHNOLOGY TO ACCELERATE THE PROCESS
Of course, you don't have to make your decision-making only during monthly meetings. Some attitudes need to be adopted quickly, without much time for reflection. In some cases, analysis is what reveals the need for an attitude. To speed up this process and make it easier as a whole, you can use technological tools, especially management software.
The usefulness of these tools is very large in a company. In addition to serving as a scalable database for all information, it can also automate the process of classifying records and part of the analysis.
Many systems allow an “alarm” to be created, issuing a message whenever one or more events occur. For example, when noticing that an order was not completed by a certain date, the software can notify the person responsible. If you forgot to register, it will just normalize the situation. If the order is really late, he can take action.
6. INTEGRATE INFORMATION FROM DIFFERENT AREAS
Although many people see the different sectors of the company as separate and little dependent on each other, management professionals must always know everything that happens. In HR, for example, this can have a direct or indirect effect on the IT team and vice versa. It is much more difficult to make your decisions when this connection is not understood.
Therefore, a good data system promotes the connection between the different sectors, maximizing the exchange of information. Thus, it will be easier for all managers to make their own decisions, as they will understand how they affect the company.
7. APPLY THE DATA IN THE CUSTOMER CLASSIFICATION
Classifying your customers is a very important step within any company. This affects a lot of decision making, especially about which leads to prioritize throughout the process.
When collecting data about your customer base, keep in mind the profile you want to reach and who is most likely to make a purchase. This will save your sales team time, increase your profitability, and give you more precise guidance on how you can perform in the future.
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