Some years ago we created a new product and we wanted to meet with industrial buyers to test the market. We forecast what we felt might be realistic numbers and we planned actions. We created a small telemarketing operation to make contact with industrial buyers. We wrote scripts for the telemarketers. We gave them lengthy lists of potential client names and contact information. We set a Goal of 70 calls per day per telemarketer. The telephone action commenced. A few weeks passed. The results we desired did not arrive. We understood each telemarketer was making 70 calls per day. Yet, the number of meetings set up by our telemarketers was far below the target volume we had planned. The manager could not explain why results were falling so short of the target number and he assured us each telemarketer was making the planned 70 calls per day. This carried on until the next telephone bill arrived. A quick review of the bill confirmed our outgoing calls were far short of 70 calls per day per telemarketer...far less than 50%. So, we installed a telephone call monitoring device and told the manager about it. The very next day our outgoing calls increased to 70 calls per telemarketer. 

I learned a valuable School-of-Hard-Knocks lesson that day.

It took a situation that graphic to help me fully understand why, for many years, business experts have expressed thoughts like "What gets measured gets done." and "What cannot be measured cannot be managed."

Now I know: meaningful things must be measured.

Now I encourage the use of SMARTACRE Goals.