Which Three Numbers Should I Watch?
Which business numbers to watch usually gets answered with a sector list: “these for e-commerce, those for services”. But the right number is chosen by the decision you’re making, not the sector. 🔢
Short answer: usually three types — an input number, a conversion number, a cost number. Which decision you’re making determines which one gets picked from each type.
Below: the three types, the selection method, common wrong choices and the scorecard. 📋
What are the three types?
Which business numbers to watch is answered with these three.
How is it chosen by decision?
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- For a budget decision
- For a service growth decision
- For a customer-dropping decision
The same three types turn into different numbers for different decisions.
For a budget decision
The cost number leads: what does one customer cost, what do they leave? If cost is below job value, the budget rises; if above, conversion gets fixed first. For this decision the visit count is entirely unnecessary. 📈
For a service growth decision
Conversion and job value by service: which service sells easily and leaves the most? For this decision you need service numbers, not channel numbers — so the data must be split by service. 🧩
For a customer-dropping decision
Profitability and time by customer: which customer takes lots of time and leaves little? For this decision you need sales and time data together — in most businesses the least-measured thing there is. ⚖️
Which numbers mislead?
Bright on the dashboard, empty in the decision.
Three misleading indicators
1) Visits and impressions — show interest, not intent. 2) Click-through rate — shows the ad’s appeal, not the business’s profitability. 3) Followers and likes — weakly linked to buying behaviour. All three fill reports, not decisions. Details in the data-but-no-decisions article. 📉
Why not more than three?
The limit isn’t arbitrary.
The attention limit
Three numbers get read and their direction seen in ten minutes a week; fourteen don’t get read, don’t get looked at, and the dashboard gets abandoned. Three numbers serve a decision; fourteen serve a presentation. The limit is human capacity, not the tool’s. 🧠
How is the scorecard written?
One page, one table.
Three rows, four columns
Each row one number; columns: number, this month, last month, direction. The direction column is a single arrow: up, down, flat. This card is filled on the first day of the month and sits on the table at the decision meeting. Setup in the dashboard article, all questions on the consulting page. 📋
📝 Field Notes
A client said “everyone in my sector watches visit counts”. We looked at the decision inventory: the decision that month was a budget decision. The visit count said nothing about that decision; customer acquisition cost said everything. Visits came off the dashboard, cost went on. The decision was made that week. The number your sector watches may not be the number of your decision. 🔢
📖 Quick Glossary
Qualified enquiry: a request with a real chance of turning into a sale. Conversion rate: the share passing from visit to enquiry, and from enquiry to sale. Customer acquisition cost: the total spent to win one customer. Scorecard: the one page holding three numbers and their direction arrows.
⚡ Quick Summary
Three types: input, conversion, cost. 🔢 The number is chosen by decision: a budget decision watches cost, a service decision watches service-level conversion. Visits, click-through rate and likes mislead. No more than three. The card: three rows, four columns.
🎯 Next Step
Let’s pick this month’s decision together and write its three numbers on your card: the digital audit is free. Scope on the consulting page. 📋
Frequently Asked Questions
Sık Sorulan Sorular
Not visits; qualified enquiries: forms, calls, messages — with a real chance of buying. Visit counts mislead because they show interest, not intent. The input number says how much raw material the business is receiving. 🚪
What share of enquiries became work? This rate is measured in two places — visit to enquiry, enquiry to sale — and whichever is weak points to different work: the first is a page problem, the second a sales problem. ✅
Total spend ÷ customers won. Total spend includes the management fee and team time. This number is the only real indicator of profitability and it’s compared with average job value. 💰
To the second page. Looked at for the why when one of the three changes direction; not every week. The main page is for deciding, the second for diagnosing. 📄
When the decision changes, the numbers change; when the budget decision ends and a service decision starts, the card gets updated. But in most businesses customer acquisition cost is permanent. Changing a few times a year is normal; changing every month is indecision.
They can, but the third stays missing; cost can’t be calculated without sales. The simplest fix is adding a “closed?” column to the enquiry list. No technical connection needed; regular entry is.
Agree on the decision and the number follows; the disagreement is usually not about the number but about which decision comes first. If two different numbers are being watched for the same decision, put both on the card and track for a month. If the direction is the same, the argument ends.
Source: McKinsey — analytics