Chapter 15: Manager Dashboard, Thresholds, Quarterly Actions and Order Rejection Standard Hardcore Edition

15.1 Manager’s monthly dashboard, retaining only the 12 most critical indicators

If there are too many indicators, managers will lose focus; if there are too few indicators, managers will be blind. For a business structure like yours, it is recommended that the monthly dashboard only keep the 12 most critical indicators, covering the five categories of growth, delivery, cash flow, quality and after-sales.

The 12 most recommended indicators are: number of effective leads, survey rate, contract signing rate, quotation gross profit margin, completion gross profit margin, weighted days for payment collection, final payment overdue rate, complete rate of one-time grid connection submission, average number of days from completion to grid connection, rework rate, first after-sales response time, and proportion of referrals. As long as these 12 numbers are continually looked at, managers can quickly identify problem trends.

15.2 Indicators not only look at numbers, but also set red, yellow, and green thresholds

The problem with many management reports is not that there are no numbers, but that there are no thresholds. Without a threshold, all numbers can only be interpreted by feel. It is recommended to set red, yellow, and green intervals for core indicators from the beginning. For example, if the completion rate of grid-connected data submission is lower than a certain value, a management review will be triggered; if the balance overdue rate exceeds a certain value, certain types of customers will be suspended; if the rework rate deteriorates for two consecutive months, the technical team must be retrained.

The threshold may not necessarily be accurate from the beginning, but it will force the organization to move from "seeing the problem" to "taking action on the problem."

15.3 Order rejection criteria: What orders will hurt the company if signed?

A truly mature manager does not sign every order, but knows which orders will hurt the company if signed. The rejection criteria should at least include: the customer only accepts extremely low prices and refuses transparent comparisons, the roof or electrical boundary is high-risk but unwilling to rectify it, the payment terms are seriously unbalanced, the customer requires absolute commitment, the property rights/subjects/information are obviously unclear, and the historical credit or communication quality is obviously abnormal.

Refusing orders is not about being conservative, but about protecting organizational capacity. Especially in the household + small commercial stage, companies are most afraid of investing a lot of resources on low-quality orders. In the end, not only will they not make money, but they will also mess up the brand, team and cash flow.

15.4 How to break down quarterly goals so that they don’t become empty slogans

The worst thing about quarterly goals is that they are ambitious but cannot be implemented. The most practical approach is to retain at most 3 first-level goals each quarter, and divide each first-level goal into 3-5 key actions, with a responsible person and inspection node for each action. As long as this can be done, the execution of the quarterly plan will be significantly improved.

For example, if the quarterly goal is to improve the quality of user transactions, the corresponding actions can be: optimizing lead scorecards, unifying proposal templates, compressing high-risk words, increasing the reuse rate of case content, and establishing a 30-day return visit mechanism. If the goal is to promote EaaS pilots, the corresponding actions are completely different.

15.5 What should the boss read and what not read in the weekly newspaper?

What the boss should read most when reading the weekly report is not "the team is working hard" but trends, anomalies and actions. It is recommended to read three types of content: why the three best projects this week are good, why the three worst projects are bad, and what is the one thing that must be changed next week.

The last thing a weekly newspaper should write about is general descriptions and emotions. The last thing a boss should ask is ‘why it’s not done yet’. More effective questions are: what is the root cause of the problem, who needs support, and how to fix it next week.

15.6 Starting today, 4 actions management must do every month

In order to make this manual truly practical, this chapter ends with a minimum set of actions for management. First, look at the dashboard; second, review the 3 best and 3 worst projects; third, randomly check a batch of key data and work orders; fourth, decide on a systemic problem that must be corrected next month. As long as these 4 actions can be adhered to, the entire manual will not remain on paper.