Advisory Opportunities: Are You Making Use of Non-Financial Data?

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Advisory Opportunities:

Are You Making Use of Non-Financial Data?

There’s a lot of talk about data these days.

And how it will change our lives. Let’s be clear: data is not a new thing. When a caveman (should I say caveperson?) killed a deer, dragged it back to his cave and fed his family, data was created. There was data on where the deer was killed, how it was killed, how big it was and how it was moved. A sensible caveman would remember this important data, and maybe tell his friends, because it would influence the next hunt. But it wasn’t written down or accessible in a library or through the internet. So data could easily get ‘lost’.

Not ALL data is important. What was that deer eating at the time? What color were its antlers? That’s also data… but it’s not useful unless that’s your particular area of interest.

So what HAS changed? We’ve got way better at accessing, organizing and analyzing data. That means it should be a lot easier to TAKE ACTION based on data.

A business generates a lot of data such as:

Financial Data. This exists in abundance because laws require businesses to capture and present their financial data. And management uses financial data to make businesses decisions.

Examples: The data shows that revenue is down this quarter after 2 years of growth. Management will ask what happened and what they can do to improve performance. You’d expect this data to be readily available and easily actionable. But some kinds of data are less accessible.

Behavioral data refers to actions people have taken or what they have done.

Examples: Customers are no longer visiting our stores but prefer to buy online. Or customers who buy product A always buy product B within two months. Or employees tend to be more productive in the colder months. Or managers are arriving later for meetings more than in the past. This data may be critical for good decision-making but may not be easily accessible.

Experiential data refers to how an individual or a group feels about a certain situation or event.

Examples: How did people like my presentation? How was the service at the restaurant? Is the morale in your office good? Do you enjoy working with your colleagues? Usually, we have to work hard to obtain this data since it’s not readily available. And it may not be obvious how to ACT ON this data.

A good advisor will examine all data to provide the best advice to clients. Tools such as TeamBuilder enable the capture and analysis of data on a variety of employment subjects such as morale, compensation, hiring, performance management, collaboration, and so on. Measuring how people feel on these subjects over time can be critical to improve the work environment leading to more productivity and retention.

Similarly, ClientBuilder analyses data on the customer, how they are responding to your services and what they need. Both TeamBuilder and ClientBuilder suggest actionable solutions so that the business improves in a measurable way. Benchmarks are established to ensure there is improvement over time.

Get in touch to see how TeamBuilder can improve productivity in your workplace and how ClientBuilder can improve client retention. These tools are designed to be used with your clients which gives you the chance to build productive and lucrative advisory relationships with them.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity to use tools to capture Behavioral and Experiential data. These tools are a critical addition to the advisor’s repertoire.

ABOUT

Mark Ferris
CHAIRMAN & CEO, PANALITIX

Mark Ferris is an entrepreneur who has founded, built and 'exited' numerous businesses realizing success for shareholders, employees, customers and acquirers. He has a particular interest in software, solutions and service businesses and frequently writes on related topics.

ClientBuilder

Better understand your clients’ ambitions, concerns, experiences and opinions to improve retention and create opportunities to up-sell, offer new services and secure client referrals.


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