Certain things are perfectly fine without measurable numbers. In fact, most of the good things in life don’t need data. You don’t need to calculate the temperature of your morning coffee to savor that first sip, you don’t need to know the ROI for the tickets to a ballgame with your family, and you don’t need to figure out the lifetime value of a beautiful day.
But if you want your business to succeed, you’re going to need data. Numbers are the heartbeat of the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)®. After all, if the key to EOS® is to unite vision and traction, how else are you going to measure your traction?
Without data, you’re flying blind. Maybe that last ad campaign worked. Maybe that new process for Sales worked. But if you can’t go back to a specific number and say, “this new process increased sales by 5% over last quarter,” or “we gained 36 new customers from that digital ad,” then you’ll never know for sure what did and didn’t provide traction.
Why Scorecards Matter
At M&R, we continually evaluate and assess client performance. We cannot, in good conscience, expect the companies we work for to just take our word for it that their money is being used effectively. Over our years in business, we’ve built a solid reporting system that enables us to give a client a reasonably detailed picture of how our work has improved their business.
But we also have to evaluate our own performance: Are we bringing in leads? Are we getting traffic to our website? Are our social platforms driving engagement? The list goes on, and it’s vital that our team understands those metrics and can see their progress along the way.
The reality is that nobody here has time to read several pages of an in-depth report each week. They need to glance at performance, understand the significance of the numbers, and move on.
Enter the scorecard. By providing our team with an easy-to-digest, regularly updated snapshot of key metrics, we enable every member of the team to:
- Spot trends in our performance that need attention, whether that means implementing a corrective action or doubling down on what’s working.
- Use a quantifiable means of tracking internal performance and staying accountable for their own efficiency and effectiveness.
- Take ownership of their specific contribution to our overall success.
Choosing the Right Metrics
Most people can only keep a certain amount of data in their heads before it starts to cross-pollute. “Was 3.19 the ROI on our last campaign, or was that the average leads per week for February?” A scorecard that tracks every single metric of every single aspect of operations is no more useful than the lengthy report it’s meant to replace.
EOS® recommends starting with 5–7 key metrics that communicate your progress toward the goals on your Vision/Traction Organizer (V/TO)®. Those metrics may vary widely between different units.
A Tale of Two Scorecards
Sales Team
For example, our Sales team tracks these primary metrics on their scorecard:
- Total revenue
- Signed revenue
- Total signed deals
- Total presented deals
- Average of active deals
- Average of active deal revenue
By keeping an eye on these numbers, the Head of Sales and sales team have ongoing visibility on their direct impact on the company’s revenue, and by evaluating those metrics against our goals, can determine when it’s time to start exploring new strategies or pressing hard on closing open deals.
Copy Department
Our Copy Department, on the other hand, needs to keep an eye on completely different metrics:
- Total percentage of projects completed on-time
- Total cost overage of projects not completed on-time
- Average cost overage for off-time projects
- Total production hours
Because they’re not the ones selling jobs, our Copy Department’s primary influence on our revenue and growth is how effectively they can complete work within the projected timeframe. As a result, their scorecard focuses less on direct revenue numbers and more on measuring how effectively they’re getting work done on time and under budget.
The Power of Red/Green
Every week, we track each metric and mark it red (missed) or green (hit). It’s a simple visual system, but it’s surprisingly powerful.
Color forces clarity. A glance at a red number immediately pushes the metric onto the IDS® list for discussion: Why did this drop? Is it a one-week blip or a trend? What’s the root cause?
Likewise, a string of greens is as instructive as it is reassuring. If a metric consistently performs well, we look for ways to replicate that success elsewhere. The red/green system keeps us from hiding behind averages or excuses. It’s binary accountability, and it works.
Using the Scorecard in L10s
At M&R, our marketing scorecard is reviewed during our weekly leadership Level 10 Meeting® (L10).
If a number shows red two weeks in a row, it automatically becomes an IDS® (Identify, Discuss, Solve) issue. That ensures problems aren’t left to linger or rationalize away. The scorecard triggers action.
The conversation often goes something like this:
- “Leads have been down for two weeks. What’s changed?”
- “Did a campaign end? Did we shift ad spend? Did our pipeline slow?
From there, we decide what needs to happen before the next L10 to get it back to green.
That rhythm of “measure, discuss, adjust” is the essence of EOS® in practice.
Bringing It All Together
A good EOS® scorecard doesn’t just record performance; it drives it. It keeps everyone focused on the numbers that actually move the business forward and prevents “data drift,” the tendency to measure for measurement’s sake, whether that measurement is useful or not.
At M&R, our marketing scorecard has become more than a management tool. It’s a living reflection of how well we’re staying true to our vision and how quickly we’re closing the gap between where we are and where we want to be.
When everyone can see the same numbers, speak the same language, and take action based on the same facts, traction isn’t an aspiration. It’s inevitable.
We Know EOS® From the Inside Out
M&R runs on the Entrepreneurial Operating System®, just like many of the companies we serve. That shared foundation gives us a clear understanding of how marketing fits within your structure, supports your goals, and fuels measurable traction.
We’ve helped dozens of EOS® organizations strengthen visibility, increase lead flow, and build accountability into their marketing processes. Every plan we create connects directly to your Vision/Traction Organizer® and supports the priorities your leadership team tracks each week.
Call 478-621-4491 to talk with one of our business development managers. We’ll give you practical ideas you can bring to your next L10.