Ep 48 - 5 KPIs We Use to Drive Our Business
- Chad Lingafelt
- 7 days ago
- 2 min read
Managing a growing business often feels like navigating a ship through a storm without a compass. As the hosts of the "Unlocked" podcast can attest, relying on gut feelings is a recipe for stagnation. In a recent episode, Lars from Calgary Lock & Safe, Tony from Assured Security, and Chad from Loc-Doc Security shared five powerful Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) they use to create a clear, data-driven "dashboard" for their companies.
1. Service Call Conversion Rate: For a service-heavy business, knowing your conversion rate is key. Lars tracks how many incoming phone calls and emails translate into official service tickets. This simple metric acts as an early indicator for demand and future revenue. By drilling down to individual performance, he can identify front-line staff who are converting fewer calls, and investigate what might be going wrong on those calls, revealing opportunities for targeted training.
2. Gross Margin on Hardware: Chad's focus is on profitability, and a crucial metric for his business is tracking the gross margin on hardware sales. He emphasized the importance of a clear, dollar-to-dollar gross margin, stating that they aim to sell items for at least double what they paid for them. This metric helps maintain profitability and impacts cash flow, preventing the common problem of selling items for more than they were purchased for, but less than their current replacement cost.
3. Professional Development Hours:
Responding to a common employee complaint about a lack of training, Lars's company tracks how many hours are spent on in-field professional development. To keep it simple, they use a whiteboard in the office where technicians manually log their training hours. This low-tech scoreboard provides a clear picture of their commitment to employee growth and gives them data to address feedback directly.
4. In-field Delays: Lars also tracks "in-field delays," a powerful and rudimentary metric for improving efficiency and profitability. These are any non-billable interruptions that prevent a job from being finished, such as missing parts, forgotten tools, or inaccurate information. A simple paper log taped to the wall is all that's needed to track this. By identifying these issues, they can implement process changes that keep technicians on the road and working, rather than running back to the office.
5. Outgoing Collection Calls: To improve cash flow, Chad and Lars both highlighted the value of tracking collections efforts, specifically focusing on phone calls. It's easy to ignore emails, but a phone call is much harder to brush aside. By setting a target for the number of outgoing calls made per day, they were able to dramatically improve their collection rate, especially on smaller, harder-to-collect invoices.
The overall takeaway from the episode is that these metrics don't have to be complicated. They must, however, be intentional and aligned with your company's core vision. As the hosts have discussed in previous episodes, tracking these numbers empowers a team to make better decisions and helps the owner step out of the day-to-day grind to focus on strategic growth.
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