Why measurement matters

From: http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/1997/01/06/smallb5.html

Friday, January 3, 1997

Why measurement matters
Sacramento Business Journal - by Bill "Guerrilla" Gallagher, Ph.D.

Personally, I hate to floss. I'm not sure exactly why. It's just that it's a lot of bother. Measuring your marketing effectiveness is a lot like that. It's a lot of bother.

"If someone calls, sell 'em," you say. You want to fill their wants and needs with your products. You don't want to waste time with questions that aren't leading to a sale.

But remember, you must ask. You must be able to measure your marketing activities. In fact, not measuring your marketing is the biggest sin in all the business universe.

You've got to know if this or that ad or mailer was successful. Is your word-of-mouth campaign working? Did any new customer see that public relations piece you did with the chamber of commerce?

What we're trying to do here is tweak your 52-week guerrilla marketing calendar to find out what was/is successful in generating business and what wasn't so hot. Obviously, we're going to eliminate or change the bad ideas and only slightly modify the good stuff.

In a few years -- because you're in this for the long haul -- you're going to have one heck of a document in that calendar. It will be your most important and valuable piece of paper. You'll keep this one under lock and key. Why? Because, when developed, it'll tell you what you need to do each week to keep your critical marketing machine running all year long.

But if you don't measure each call, you'll be like a duck out of water, not knowing what's working and what isn't.

It may seem a bit awkward, but just take a 3-by-5 card and divide it into six sections, label each section with the five current marketing techniques you're using. For example, "Cable TV Spot," "KST Talk Radio," "Business Journal Ad," "Yellow-Page Ad," or "Word-of-Mouth." The sixth might be labeled "Other."

When anyone calls, after you greet them and ask "How can we help you today?" as a guerrilla, you need to ask, "How did you hear about us?" When they tell you, just make a mark in the appropriate areas of your 3-by-5 card.

Date the cards. You may need one for each day. Save them. We'll go over them some week when things slow down a bit. It will be very apparent what's working and what isn't.

Keeping score is the key to guerrilla marketing. Measuring is like flossing!

Bill Gallagher is head of Guerrilla Sales & Marketing in Diamond Springs and co-author of "Guerrilla Selling." For more information on the topics and ideas in this column, call (800) 800-8086 or send e-mail to bguerrilla@aol.com.