The measure

It's been a month since I began my role with a new company. I've been settling in, getting used to their systems and processes and getting stuck into the nuts and bolts of the role which, ultimately, gets me paid.

I'm in a management role with my key responsibilities revolving around driving revenue; business development is what it's called officially. It means I work with potential customers with the view to on-board them on contracts and accounts. It's a salaried role, incentivised by a healthy commission structure measured annually. The numbers I have to write are pretty sizeable although the industry is lucrative, an essential service, and one that keeps my country moving. So, the opportunities are there, for the right person and with the commission structure being so strong there's good reason to apply myself, which I would do in any case as it's how I am.

It's been going well so far and I have solid opportunities with five or six large companies that, should they all come to fruition, would double my annual budget white easily. Of course, they may not all happen...or will they? I've worked hard though and have a good feeling about them.

One thing that's not going so well is the CRM the company uses. The client relationship manager software is, to be generous, slow, clunky and totally fucken useless. Even the State Manager says that.

To be honest it's not all that bad, but it's far from good. It slows me down through being convoluted to input data, runs slowly, isn't at all intuitive and the reports...well, let's just say I've never seen a worse reporting system in a CRM in all my live-long days.

I've always measured my own progress on Excel spreadsheets of my own design and create them with exactly the metrics I need to track and measure represented ensuring each is relevant. When I started with this new company I decided to roll with their CRM and the reports within it that tracked my KPI's but now I'm not so sure; it's letting me down. I decided today that I'll create my own spreadsheet with the metrics I need represented including formulas that will auto-calculate and create charts and graphs based on the various metrics; it's those I will present to upper-management when required as a summation of my activity. I'll create this spreadsheet over the weekend so I'm not burning company time and will backdate data to the day I started. It should only take several hours on Saturday and once done will be there forever.

At the end of the annual reporting period what will matter will be whether I have reached my budget or not; my plan is to exceed it. I believe in my ability and work rate and know I'll do the work required to put me in good stead to make budget. I think the company believes in me also and don't need to see my phone calls, emails and meetings tracked, along with the other daily activities of my role; they won't have a problem with anything I do if I make my budget. If I was to fall short that's where my activity may need to be demonstrated and justified but...I'm not spending a third of my week trying to navigate a shitty CRM when it could be better spent in front of clients doing business; I've always preferred dollar productive activities over busy work.

How about you folks, do you have budgets and KPI's to meet and do you have to justify your activities? How do you measure your results? Maybe you're the manager and have a team to run...How do you ensure the work is done and, more importantly, how do you empower the team (or yourself) to achieve the desired result?