1. Set clear business goals

The best way to get off to a good start and start using data is to start with your business objectives. Preferably quantified and well-defined, they become guiding principles for setting your marketing and operational objectives. By defining them well, we add the right data to them that will indicate the key performance indicators (KPIs). To use this data well, it is essential to put it together and cross-reference it. (See the fictitious example of a wooden furniture manufacturer in the table below).

But what are my available data sources, you might ask? The broad categories of data to be cross-referenced together to derive learnings are generally found in the following groups:

• Sales data and/or transactional data;

• Customer data;

• Data on products, inventories, etc.;

• Web data (sites or applications);

• Advertising data (online and offline);

• Third party data (sociodemographic, industry reports, etc.)

2. Take stock of your internal resources and talents

Even if you don't necessarily have a data person in your company, there are probably several individuals who wear a "data" hat at some point in their work. You'll be surprised to see how many data sources are out there, although likely used in silos.

By meeting and mobilizing the different roles that use data in your company (accounting, webmaster, marketing, sales) you will be able to accomplish two things at the same time:

1- Make a list of the tools in place, understand the data already available and know how they are used.

2- Generate conversations and interest in the use of data within the company and, possibly, identify people who could be responsible for a structuring project on data (such as an initial inventory of available data, the creation of an initial dashboard, the implementation of internal training on data interpretation).

If you need some inspiration on what data or performance indicators to choose and how to use them, here is a site with indicators by sector of activity (in English and with free registration required): kpilibrary.com

3. Identify and address potential obstacles

Even with the will, tools and resources in place, there are sometimes pitfalls when it comes to better using your data. Here are the two most common obstacles I see and some tips for disengaging them:

Private hunting grounds or lack of transparency

Whether between colleagues, departments, or with external partners (agencies, etc.), some people may prefer not to give access to the data, for fear of being judged unfairly or for security reasons. It is then important to clearly explain that it will be used to identify favorable opportunities for growth and optimization, and will not be used to judge the competence or performance of individuals.

Technology

For some companies, the most valuable data (POS systems, customer data, inventories, etc.) is in closed, hermetic systems (sometimes relying on old technology). When data analyzed in silos is no longer sufficient, this is often the time when experts need to be called in to centralize data in a more user-friendly way and make different technology systems talk to each other.

TOOL

Provide easy access to data

Sharing results internally is essential to the company's overall competitiveness. To do this, dashboards are often the tool of choice. With specific objectives and indicators, setting up dashboards to measure performance becomes simple.

There are a variety of dashboard tools available depending on the analytical maturity of companies (including Excel). To find a real-time, simple, free tool with some depth, Google offers Data Studio which easily connects to your Google Analytics and several other data sources: datastudio.google.com .