Analytics has been a “buzz” word in our industry for some time. Most everyone has jumped on board, and many successful companies have been built to extract a plethora of information from your agency management system. I am a HUGE fan of data and utilizing data to improve the results of your agency. However, be aware that you can also spend a lot of time perfecting the numbers that don’t mean anything.

A leading provider of analytic information has advertised that they provide over 250 data points for you to benchmark. I suggest that if you try to track this many benchmark data points, you will never complete the project and never have time to connect with your staff or clients. In 1956, V.F. Ridgeway stated: “Not everything that matters can be measured. Not everything that we can measure matters.”

A well-developed strategic plan will help you identify the most important data points for your team to track, publish, and discuss. If a data point does not give insight into your team’s specific goal, is it worth the calories consumed? And, when reviewing these data points with your team, how long do you have before everyone else in the conversation starts to wander toward their happy place mentally?