Data is everywhere.
While it may seem overwhelming, it is an incredibly valuable tool that you can use to drive growth at your business.
According to Gallup, businesses that leverage client behavior data outperform other businesses in sales by more than 85%. Similarly, research shows that insight-driven businesses are growing at an average of 30% each year.
In order to grow your business and gain a competitive edge, you must know how to effectively analyze your data points and uncover the insights that will help you make smarter business decisions.
But, with so much data available to you, how do you know where to start? We’ve put together a list of 40 questions that your sports business data can answer. Even if you start with manually tracking just a few of these, you’ll be able to gain a wider perspective of your business and best position yourself for growth. Let’s dive in!
Related: Data, Analytics, and Insights: Why Lacking All 3 is Costing You
Revenue data is the foundation to everything else. You have to know where your customers spend money. Once you know that this data is accurate, you can start looking at all kinds of valuable KPIs and use data to look at metrics such as lifetime value, customer lifecycle, your product mix, and so much more.
While a seemingly simple question, revenue is ultimately one of the most important metrics for your business to track. Having a strong business management software will help you to stay on top of your finances by providing an accurate, up-to-date picture of your business health, consequently, empowering you to make smarter business decisions.
You can also drill down even further into your revenue numbers to see where your money is specifically coming from. Are your clients primarily purchasing lessons or clinics via credit card, or do they tend to write checks? Knowing this information will help you gain a better understanding of your clients, and your prospective clients, so you can meet them where they are.
Similarly, you can analyze your revenue by your event type. This will help you gain clarity on which offerings are your most successful. Once you gain these insights, you will be able to make informed decisions about adding additional offerings or time slots that will best serve the needs of your clients.
Some questions you can ask include
Ultimately, your revenue is more than a number. Looking ahead to your business goals, are your revenue numbers where they should be? Analyzing revenue data will help you ensure you are on track to meet your goals, rather than relying on a general “sense” of where you are and where you should be at any given point.
Yes, your sports business data help you access information about your business health. But, it can also help you gain a better understanding of your clients. Using data analytics to draw information about your athletes will help you both keep your clients and find new clients, refine your offerings, and cater your marketing toward specific demographics.
When an athlete begins training at your business, how long do they typically work out with you? Chances are, you’ll find that many of your clients tend to stick around for a while. You may consider targeting athletes at a certain age to engage them for a long period of time. Or, you may also consider rewarding your loyal clients with added perks or benefits.
Related: Guide to Running Successful Promotions (+ Free Benefit Analysis Template)
You can also analyze client demographics to determine where your clients are located. Knowing this will help you to target your offerings in specific areas, or make decisions about future expansion. For example, Louis Whitlow, owner of The Compound 256, uses Upper Hand’s demographic heat map when making decisions about where to pilot new offerings, so that he is able to offer these programs in his athletes’ back yards.
Related: User Experience & Reporting: Why The Compound 256 chose Upper Hand over EZFacility, others
You may have heard the phrase “success is the sum of a lot of small things done correctly.” Consistency is key, especially from an athlete development standpoint. So, it’s important that you keep your clients engaged and consistently training at their business so that they can continue to experience improvement and success.
By identifying the characteristics of your recently churned clients, you will be able to analyze potential indicators that ultimately lead to that decision. As a result, you can target those at-risk clients to re-engage them before they churn.
While a current snapshot of your business is very important when making decisions, it’s also important to track your business success and growth over time. So, you can use data and analytics to compare data YoY. One example of this could be to examine the growth of your memberships. This will help you validate marketing strategies, determine which perks are most important to your clients, and how much recurring revenue you have generated within a particular time frame.
In addition to better understanding your clients’ habits, it’s also important to incorporate your sports business data when making decisions about your offerings. Collecting feedback is a great way to gain clarity on what your clients say they want. But, digging into the data will help you determine which offerings are actually the most successful. Plus, this will help you most effectively market your upcoming events and hit your registration goals.
When comparing event success YoY, you may want to see if your event registrations are on track. This will help you validate your marketing strategies, and ensure that your offerings reach maximum capacity, thus maximizing revenue.
As with the revenue-related questions, knowing which events are the most sought after will help you gain clarity on how you structure your programming and better understand your clientele. One way you can utilize this information is to target these groups of clients for new programs or classes. Alternatively, you may consider adding additional events to accommodate the demand.
When used correctly, your sports business data can also influence your daily operations. Whether you’ve been in business for years or are just opening your doors, you can track key data points that help you do business better. From retaining your staff members to preparing for a busy season, data can help relieve the stress associated with running your business.
It’s normal to experience some ebb and flow in business from month to month, for example depending on the sports season. If you offer sport-specific training, you may see your traffic pick up in the off-season, and settle a bit while in-season. Similarly, fitness businesses may see an uptick in training at the start of the new year, due to the ever-popular new year’s resolution to get in shape. Knowing this information will help you better understand your business health, and be able to anticipate down periods.
In addition, you can also drill down into the data even further to look at your business operations at a weekly or daily level. You may notice that Mondays through Wednesdays are typically busier, with your clients traveling for competitions on the weekends. Or, you might find that your early morning or late evening strength classes are busiest, as they accommodate the traditional workday schedule. By coupling this data with your client demographics, you’ll be able to make decisions that allow you to capture the most clients and best position your training for success.
Not only can your sports business data offer insights about your clients, but it can also uncover trends related to your staff or employees. By understanding the typical lifespan of your employees at your business, you can better anticipate when your staff may be looking to move on. Additionally, it can help you make decisions about how you hire or recruit new employees to work at your business.
Related: 6 Staff Management Tips for your Sports + Fitness Business
There’s more to your business than just what you see in your day-to-day. Analyzing the data your sports business puts out will empower you to dig into your business and fuel your business growth. If you have a plan for how you will utilize your sports business data, you can add an incredible amount of value to your operations. More importantly, you’ll better understand your clients and your staff to best support their goals alongside your own.
Data is the future of the industry. And it’s already here. If you’re interested in how you can incorporate data solutions into your business operations, schedule a demo of Upper Hand today.
Within the Upper Hand app, we’ve added the ability to apply a positive Account Credit to a client’s profile. This Account Credit essentially allows a client to carry a positive account balance on their profile. Much like a store credit or gift card, this balance can be applied to future purchases. Here’s how Account Credits work in Upper Hand.
Sales forecasting plays a pivotal role in financial planning for a sports facility, providing a clear estimate of future revenue and anticipated expenses. Forecasting helps you efficiently allocate your resources, staff, and equipment to meet client demand without overspending. And, it helps you make strategic decisions. To help combat seasonality, you can use this information to identify peak seasons and low demand periods, and identify opportunities for marketing, pricing, and promotion adjustments. So, what exactly is sales forecasting, and how can you get started for your business? In this article, we’ll dive into these answers.