Your Numbers Suck

By Tibor Shanto
You hear it said a lot in different fields of endeavour, “their numbers” or “his numbers” suck. Told in the abstract about a ballplayer you can understand what they mean. Given that the subject of the observation usually is not present, it remains more a descriptor with no direct impact on the subject. However, when a manager tells their rep, “your numbers suck,” it has an immediate and lasting detrimental impact. The impact is not only on the reps but your customers.
Numbers Don’t Care
I can understand why someone getting feedback like this, would line up with the “Sales is not a numbers game” camp. Metrics are wonderful, but not as blunt object with which to try and whip up performance. What people get wrong, is there is no such thing as a good number or a bad number. There is just your number; and the only relevant question and action