IIn my world of working with companies to achieve their strategic plans through execution, were always developing goals and objectives to work on achieving during a calendar year. So in the prospecting side of my business I met many executives and business owners who tell me how well they have things covered, but still wonder why business is not doing as well as it should.
Recently I was invited to spend sometime with a company and determine how what I do may be of use in improving the businesses. Now this is a substantial business with a few divisions. The first meeting I attended was a typical example.
My first thought was that these individuals were arrogant, pompous and full of hot air. I really wondered how they made any money for the company! They had excuses for everything and reasons galore as to why nothing was really happening. They down graded sales numbers and operating info. Prices were too high, the competition were cutting prices, vendors were screwing them, the government wasnt helping, the war in Iraq, and the price of gas really didnt help. I wondered if they could have found any more?
There was little to promote the conversation. No agenda, nothing positive, the customers werent mentioned once. No solutions or ideas. Nothing!
After about 45 minutes of this they then turned to me and said Hey, youre the consultant what do you think? I know they didnt want to hear anything. So I said, OK, let me understand what it is each of you do What do you do on a daily basis? Your job roles?
We listed the roles that each person was responsible for. I asked which role was determined to be the most critical to the process of developing their business?
Then I asked them each to list two or there of the most important priorities that each role need to be achieving. We came up with about 25 items and then prioritized that down to a mere 10 for simplicity. They all agreed these were it. If these things were not being achieved business was in the toilet. Each of them had some involvement in one or more of the items.
I then asked the Ops manager (COO), whose role was deemed to be the most important, how many hours he worked last week. 60hours. I asked how many of the hours last week were devoted to the number one priority item on the list. He looked at me, lowered his eyes and said None, last week.
We then went onto the second item and received the same response. The fourth and sixth and eighth had some time spent on them which amounted to about 4.2 hours. That is 4.2 hours out of 60 hour week spent at work. Thats a whopping 7 percent of senior management time spent on the top ten most important objectives of this organization, in one week. It was, he agreed, a fairly normal week.
So 93 three percent of the COOs time was spent on less important items. Some of the things he worked on were actually not even part of his job description. It makes a senior executive feel really important when put in that perspective. A seven percenter! A few more questions revealed similar patterns with the rest of the team.
The high cost of Seven percenters
So if you figure that around that boardroom there was about a $2 million annual salary expense. Which with a simple bit of arithmetic meant they were costing this company $1,145 per hour. This was an expensive meeting in which nothing was resolved!
Calculation
$2,000,000 / 12 managers = $166,666 per manager
2,080 annual working hours x 7% efficiency = 145.6 efficient working hours
$166,666 / 145.6 effective hours = $1,145 cost to the company per hour
Here was a first indicator of the problems facing this company. People had become over paid and were prepared to look busy to avoid performing. Managers worked on things they liked and could be seen to be doing something rather than working on the strategic priorities.
Just by highlighting this caused enough of a stir to realize that the process probably occurred all the way through the organization. Yes it all flows down hill. I had a new client.
Hows your organization doing? How many Seven percenters are you supporting? Are you one of them?
The trick to resolving this conundrum is fairly simple. Make sure the overall company knows the strategic goals and the actions required to achieve them. Cascade this across and down the company. Monitor this monthly, if it makes sense to do it weekly, do it. Take action to resolve variations.
Many companies have Balanced Scorecards which help reduce this approach but often these become too large and complex to be of any value. A Balanced Scorecard is a great approach but it must be easy to use and understand. Then it will lead a busines to success.
Its really just short interval control on an expanded strategic basis. Simple management 101 stuff. Just not common practice in the corporate world.
Maybe only 7 percent of the organizations are doing this?
Killing Is My Business Megadeth
Google adsense has to be the best thing to hit online business since the invention of the internet. The service has allowed average people and huge corporations alike to make a very decent income online with very little trouble at all. Put in a little effort to create a decent site that gets a little traffic and you can be in the money. Make better sites with more traffic and you can really rake in the cash.
However the key to any business success is to be able to track where your business is coming from and how it is interacting with your websites. Unfortunately the stats that google provides for you in your adsense account are VERY weak. In fact they provide just enough information to make it seem like you are actually getting all the information you need to succeed. Sadly that just isn't true.
In fact, relying on google's adsense stats could very well be killing your business. Hey, don't get me wrong. I'm absolutely NOT accusing google of doing anything wrong, far from it. However the information they provide just isn't anywhere nearly enough to let you make informed decisions about how to develop your web business in the ways that are most profitable for you. Below are explained some of the main reasons why relying on google's adsense stats could be a critical business mistake. At the end of the article we offer an explanation of what you can do to 'rescue' yourself from adsense stat doom.
Here then are some of the critical elements missing from google's adsense stats.
1) They provide only vague information.
The stats only show page impressions or #'s of ads loaded on a site. To get any kind of precise information you need to set up channels for EVERY ad unit you display on EVERY page of EVERY site. Not likely.
2) They are updated very slowly
While it is getting faster, stats are still on a delay. If you run a high traffic site and want to test a change which turns out bad, you could stand to lose hundreds of dollars in the hours that it takes google stats to update.
3) You have NO IDEA what pages are generating revenue and which aren't
- As I said before, yes you can have channels for specific pages, but if you have a site with more than a few dozen pages it becomes a HUGE hassle, and if you have several sites with several hundred pages each...well it just doesn't work. So there you are spending hours and cash getting traffic to certain sections of your site, but you have no real idea if that section is actually generating revenue without resorting to the clunky channel system.
4) You have NO WAY TO KNOW what ads are being clicked.
Lets face it you want to have people clicking on ads that pay you the most, not the ones that are paying out .05/click. But you can't get this info from your adsense stats. Without this info how can you possibly 'block' low paying ads from showing on your site with your adsense 'competitors' block list. And if you don't block these..well google's got to serve the ads to someone, and they're very happy to send you the .05c/click ads.
5) It is IMPOSSIBLE TO TELL where your traffic is coming from and what it is doing on your site.
- Oh sure you can look at your web stats, but there is absolutely no way to match that to your adsense stats. Perhaps your stats show that you are getting lots of referral traffic from http://www.antivirus-report.com, but how can you tell if they are actually clicking on your ads. If they aren't that traffic isn't really worth anything.
6) Visitor behaviour is unknown.
You have no way of telling if your adsense revenue is coming from a few active visitors who click several ads on several pages or if it is coming from single clicks from every visitor. Why does this matter? Well if only 1% of your visitors actually click an ad (but they click lots), you have 99% of your visitors that you have to 'convince' to click at least something.
7) Content relevance of your pages.
Do your pages show all the ads possible, or is your content not relevant 'enough' to qualify for full ad quota displays? You MUST know this information. The less relevant your content means google will send you fewer ads, or PSA ads just to fill the space. You ain't gonna make much on PSA's (actually you make NOTHING).
There are other reasons why google adsense stats just aren't enough, but I think the 7 above should be enough to make the point. Rely on google's stats at your own expense.
This isn't the right place to go into a detailed explanation of how to fix this cash killing problem. However it isn't all that difficult to solve all these problems and more that come from depending on google adsense stats. Simply said, all that is required is to add a little code to your web pages that grabs the extra essential information you need to be able to properly and accurately track your adsense earnings. Getting your hands on this vital information will let you see exactly what you need to do to make a dramatic change in your adsense earnings.
For a more detailed explaination of what you need to do here: http://www.newbie-guides.com/adsense-stats-lifeline/
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I wish you all the very best of success.
Both Graeme & Eric Koshinsky are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Graeme has sinced written about articles on various topics from Mortgage, Management and tax. Graeme Nichol Arcturus Advisors (http://www.arcturusadvisors.com)works with business leaders and their teams to close the gap between great strategies and mediocre results. (Newsletter arcturusadvisor@aweber.com). Graeme's top article generates over 9900 views. to your Favourites.
Eric Koshinsky has sinced written about articles on various topics from Marketing, Language Learning and Computers and The Internet. Newbie-guides.com provide useful tips and guidance for online marketers and website managers. For late-breaking critical information on adsense please pick up your free. Eric Koshinsky's top article generates over 14800 views. to your Favourites.
Coffee Shops In Washington Most coffee shops, irreverent of location, are practical for business meetings. Some coffee houses have a wireless internet access that allows customers to bring their laptop
