Write Down What Worked in October

Ask most owners what brought in customers last month and they will have an answer. Ask them what brought in customers last November and the answer gets much vaguer. Memory is good for a few weeks, then it fades, and by the time next year's planning comes round the detail is gone.

October has just ended. It is the last fairly normal month before the holiday rush, and it is fresh enough to remember properly. Taking half an hour this week to write down what worked, and what did not, is one of the cheapest bits of planning you can do.

Keep it to one page

This is not a report for anyone else. It is a short note for you and your team, written in plain words. A single page with a few headings is enough:

• Where new customers came from, as best you can tell.
• What you tried that was new, and how it went.
• What took more time or money than it was worth.
• Any surprises, good or bad, and what you think caused them.
• One thing you would do again, and one thing you would stop.

Use real numbers where you have them, such as calls, bookings, sales or inquiries. Where you do not, write down your best estimate and say it is an estimate. A rough figure written down now is more useful than an exact one you cannot find in a year.

Ask the people on the front line

Whoever answers the phone, works the counter or does the jobs often knows things the numbers do not show. Which questions came up again and again. Which customers mentioned how they found you. Which offer people asked about and which one nobody noticed. Ask them for five minutes and add what they say to the page.

If you are not yet asking every new customer how they heard about you, start now. Logging where every lead came from turns this monthly guesswork into something you can count.

The month you can remember clearly is worth more to your planning than the year you can only half remember.

Use it for the next two months

The point of the note is to make the next few decisions quicker. When you are deciding where to put extra effort in November, the page tells you which channels pulled their weight in October. When something is not working in December, you can check whether it was already slipping.

Pair it with a short list of numbers to keep an eye on through the season. Pick three numbers to watch through the holidays suggests how to choose them.

Make it a monthly habit

One page a month adds up. By next autumn you will have twelve short notes that show what each part of the year looked like, and next year's plan can be built on what actually happened rather than what you remember. Put a reminder in the calendar for the first working day of each month.

Reviewing what worked and planning what comes next is part of what a Vizible marketing expert does with clients every month. If you would like help planning your own season, start with a free growth proposal.