Simplify Your Numbers

Are you putting the persuasive power of numbers to work in the right way?

Engaging Tweets

Don’t let complicated numbers hold your business back…

What happens to your business if you make your numbers too complicated for anyone to understand?

Simplify the numbers of your business so your team or customers understand them

When it comes to explaining the numbers of your business, keep it simple

Don’t allow complicated numbers to undermine the success of your business…

Engage your audience with the simple and easy-to-understand numbers of your business

Your business will thrive when your target audience understands your numbers

Are you ensuring your business numbers are simple?

Are you using the power of numbers to determine the future of your business?

How can using simple numbers give you a business advantage?

What happens when you use the right numbers at the right time in your business?

Stop thinking you have the numbers of your business all worked out…

The numbers of your business only work if everyone understands them…

Make the numbers easy to translate and understand in your business…

Your business wins when your audience understands the numbers that matter…

How do you cut through the complicated numbers and give your business the edge over the competition?

Should you be taking the importance and power of numbers more seriously?

Because the success of your business relies on the numbers, translate them well…

What happens to the success of your business when you translate your numbers well?

Clarity and understanding in your business come from successful translation

Make the numbers of your business memorable by being a translator…

When it comes to the numbers of your business, be a translator…

Translate the numbers in your business well and you are a million times more likely to succeed!

Millions and Billions matter when it comes to translating the numbers of your business…

Use the right stories to the right effect when it comes to translating the numbers of your business

What happens when you use stories to explain your millions or billions of numbers?

Make the time to get the millions and billions right in your business…

Time to make your numbers relevant with the right stories…

Use the right stories to make your numbers relevant…

Communication is the key when it comes to explaining the numbers of your business

Don’t get struck by the ‘curse of knowledge’ in your business

How often in your business have you fallen victim to the ‘curse of knowledge’?

Share your numbers well, avoid the ‘curse of knowledge’

Don’t let the ‘curse of knowledge’ be the supervillain in your business…

Take the time to explain the numbers of your business well by putting them into context

Help your team or customers visualise the numbers that matter in your business

What happens when you help your team SEE the numbers that matter?

If you allow your team or customers to visualise your numbers, they will understand them

Start using the right measuring sticks when it comes to explaining numbers that matter

Stop thinking your team understands the numbers of your business

If the numbers in your business matter, use a measuring stick

Connect with your audience by better translating the numbers of your business

You build a better business when you learn to translate the numbers to the people that matter

Should you be better at keeping the numbers simple in your business?

4 helping hands to help you better translate and simplify the numbers in your business

LinkedIn Updates

1. Numbers are all around you, both in your personal and professional life. In your personal life, you would not tolerate someone trying to explain something to you with overly complicated numbers. So why should it be any different in business, but it is… click here to discover the importance of simple numbers to your business success…

2. In business, there is a natural tendency to overcomplicate numbers, using technical terms, graphs or complex numbers. I would be surprised or you had not presented overly complicated numbers in the past or had them presented to you… If your numbers are not clear how can you make decisions about the future of your business? Click here to discover how to keep your numbers simple.

3. How much importance do you place on the numbers of your business, when it comes to a customer choosing your product or service or a team member hitting their KPIs? It can be frustrating when neither of these things happen, even more frustrating if this is because of the way you are presenting the numbers that matter. Click here to discover why simplifying the numbers in your business can give you and your team an edge over your competition.

4. Your business wins when your audience understands the numbers that matter, but how do you cut through the complicated numbers and give your business the edge over the competition? Click here to discover the importance taking the importance and power of simplifying the numbers in your business.

5. Numbers can reveal truths about the world that the human mind does not intuitively grasp, but only if you become a translator of numbers. Click here to learn that when you start translating the numbers of your business you take your audience from confusion to clarity

6. When you learn to translate complex numbers into simple numbers or into stories, you will create an emotional connection with your audience, this will help them understand the numbers you are sharing and see the value and importance of them. Click here to learn more.

7. You deal with numbers every day, they are effectively your second language, but in truth, most people are bad at numbers unless you are an accountant. But how much effort do you put into really understanding the numbers that matter? Click here to discover how to use stories to make your numbers memorable and impactful.

8. Translate the numbers of your business, become skillful at doing so and you are able to better explain your numbers to your team and customers, you get their buy-in, followed by a positive decision and a commitment to action. Click here to learn more.

9. When people become experts in a certain subject, they sometimes forget that the people around them aren’t. This is called the ‘Curse of Knowledge’. When it comes to the numbers of your business, how often have you assumed that because you are familiar with the numbers you are explaining, everyone else is too… Click here to learn how to share your simple numbers well and avoid the ‘curse of knowledge’.

10. Click here to discover how to avoid the ‘curse of knowledge’ when it comes to explaining the numbers of your business and also discover a fun exercise to try with your team.

11. Numbers in isolation can be unclear and confusing. Some of your team or customers might understand them, but some might not. But if you want to get team buy-in or win new business, the numbers must make sense to everyone. Click here to take the time to explain the numbers of your business well by putting them into context.

12. To explain the numbers that matter in a simple and easy-to-understand format try using a measuring stick. Measuring sticks will help your audience visualise the numbers you are explaining by putting them in a format the human brain can understand. Click here to discover more.

13. Click here to discover that when your numbers are easier to understand, easier to retain and easier to repeat, it becomes easier to get people on your side, achieving what you want to achieve in your business.

14. When you explain your numbers to your team or customers in a personal and emotional way you turn the numbers into a relevant story, giving them greater meaning and impact. Click here to discover how to do this, whilst also avoiding the curse of knowledge.

Facebook Posts

10. Click here to discover how to avoid the ‘curse of knowledge’ when it comes to explaining the numbers of your business and also discover a fun exercise to try with your team.

Blog Posts

Blog 1 – Should you make time to simplify the numbers in your business?

Numbers are everywhere.

In a personal situation where someone is throwing numbers at you, the more complicated they are, the less you understand them and, if they miss things out, you simply don’t follow the point they are trying to make.

When this happens, what do you do? You will most likely get frustrated and ask for the numbers to be simplified and explained so that you have a grasp of the situation.

Why should it be any different in business? But it is…

In business, there is a natural tendency to overcomplicate numbers, using technical terms, graphs, percentages, fractions and large, complex numbers, sometimes all at the same time.

It’s likely that you or a team member have been guilty of presenting numbers in this way, and I would be amazed if you have not, at some point, had numbers presented to you that were so complicated you simply could not comprehend them.

Numbers matter, though, and our ability to understand the relationship between numbers and knowledge is crucial.

Your understanding of the numbers provides the basis for knowledge, and knowledge will allow you to act and to effect change. Without this knowledge in your business, you can change or influence very little.

Are you making the numbers in your business crystal clear?

Think about the last time you shared significant numbers with your team or with a customer. Was the way in which your numbers were presented simple enough so that your audience was engaged and was able to understand them?

This question matters – too many numbers and your audience will switch off; too few, and they won’t understand what you’re trying to explain. And presenting overly complex numbers can put people off.

Click here to discover how to make your numbers understood by ensuring they are simple and engaging.

Blog 2 – Simplify the numbers that matter in your business…

It can be frustrating when the customer chooses the competition’s product or service over yours, even though you know that your product is the right choice.

And how often have you been frustrated when a team member has missed a deadline or has not hit a KPI, sales target or quality standard?

You might put this down to the customer not understanding the numbers you used to explain the sale or the team member not listening to the deadlines or performance measurements.

But what if this is not the case? What if they did listen to the numbers you presented but did not understand them?

Could it be the way in which you communicate these numbers that prevents you from winning the customer’s business or the team from achieving its targets?

Are you doing everything you can to make your numbers clear?

You use numbers every day in your business to communicate with your team, customers and suppliers, and with so many numbers floating around all the time, it’s easy to think that everyone is on top of the numbers that matter. However, this is not always the case.

Think of the numbers in your business – which of these would you like to improve?

It might be sales targets, results, production volumes, ROI, sales leads, number of customers, stock turns, cash-at-bank or website page visits…

Prioritise them and then start with the most important, working out how to communicate your numbers in a way that helps your team better understand what they mean.

When your team has a clear understanding of the numbers, they will be more invested in trying to achieve them, increasing your chances of improving your results.

If you make your numbers complex and confusing, your team will have no idea how to achieve what you are asking for.

Because the numbers of your business drive its success, it’s worth taking the time to get them right.

It’s worth taking the time to make the numbers of your business as simple as possible.

Click here to ensure business success by making your numbers easier to understand, easier to retain and easier to repeat.

Blog 3 – Gain a competitive advantage by translating the numbers of your business…

Numbers don’t come naturally to most people (unless you are an accountant!). Most of us are actually not great when it comes to understanding numbers.

If you were presenting something to your team and you replaced one of the English sentences with something written in German, they would not understand what was being presented and would require translation.

It is the same with numbers. At best, everyone’s brain processes numbers like a second language, so when presenting your numbers to your team or customers, you should remember that they may not speak the language fluently, even if you do.

Numbers can reveal truths about the world that the human mind does not intuitively grasp, but only if you become a translator of numbers.

Take your audience from confusion to clarity.

Translate complex numbers into simple numbers or, even better, into stories with an emotional connection, and your customers and team will start to understand the numbers you are sharing and see the value and importance of them.

Numbers are only useful if they make sense to everyone, so translate them.

Chip Heath and Karla Starr have written a brilliant book called Making Numbers Count – The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers. Here is a great exercise from the book on the importance of translation:

Before you present your numbers to your team or customers, go through your presentation – your letter, document, PowerPoint, or whichever form of presentation you are using, and circle all the parts where you are presenting numbers.

Then look at the paragraph either below or above the numbers to see where you have translated them. This paragraph should start with phrases such as:

To put that into context…
To put that into perspective…
What this means is…
Think of it this way…
That means…
By comparison…

If you have used these phrases, then you are using the numbers to make your point. If not, then you need to think hard about how to translate them effectively, changing the ‘German’ to ‘English’.

Click here to discover how successful translation of your numbers will help your audience understand their value and their relevance…

Blog 4 – Should you be using stories to explain the numbers in your business?

As a business owner or manager, you encounter numbers every day. Numbers are a tool that can be used to explain most things – profit and loss, results, a sales forecast, pay rises, targets, stock, customer visits, calls, complaints – the list goes on and on.

You are dealing with numbers all day, every day.

But how much effort do you put in to understanding these numbers?

And if you do understand them, how much effort do you go to make sure other people do?

If you want to make any changes in your business, the justification for this will always involve numbers, but how good are you at translating them so that your team or customers understand the changes you want to make?

And if they don’t understand them, how can you expect them to agree with what you are proposing?

When you build your skills of translation and get your message through to your team and customers, you get their buy-in, followed by a positive decision and a commitment to action.

Use your numbers in a clever and inventive way. Below is a great experiment that is too good not to share. It shows how the way you translate your numbers can have a profound effect on your audience’s understanding of them.

You and a friend each enter a lottery with several large prizes.

But there’s a catch: if you win, you must spend £50,000 of your prize money each day until it runs out.

You win a million pounds.

Your friend wins a billion.

How long does it take each of you to spend your lottery windfall?

Your prize of £1 million runs out after just 20 days - 20 days x £50,000 = £1 million.

Your friend would have a full-time job spending £50,000 a day as it would take 20,000 days, or 55 years!

In their landmark book, Making Numbers Count, Chip Heath and Karla Starr use this exercise to show that:

“1 billion—1,000,000,000—is a number. We might think we understand it because it’s right there, in black and white, but it has so many zeros that our brains fog up. It’s just “lots”.

How much bigger is a billion than a million? A million seconds is 12 days. A billion seconds is 32 years!

Click here to discover how to use impactful stories to make the numbers of your business relevant and memorable.

Blog 5 – How to avoid the ‘curse of knowledge’ when it comes to effectively communicating the numbers that matter

As we become experts in our field, there is a natural tendency in all of us to fall victim to the ‘curse of knowledge’.

The curse of knowledge is the supervillain in any form of communication – even more so when that communication involves numbers.

So, what is the curse of knowledge and how can it affect your business?

‘Once you’ve learned something, you can’t unlearn it. More importantly, however, you automatically forget what it’s like to NOT know it. You lose the ability to relate to the person who doesn’t get it. “Come on!!” you say to yourself. “It’s so EASY!!” You can’t empathise.’

Chip Heath, Making Numbers Count

When you are an expert in your specialism, you sometimes forget that others are not.

When experts are asked to communicate numbers that they themselves know forward and backward, they can often exaggerate the clarity with which they are sharing their knowledge so that you rapidly lose interest or, on the flip side, they can under-communicate, assuming that because they are familiar with the numbers you are as well.

Think about the last time you shared numbers with your team or a customer – was the curse of knowledge your supervillain?

Did you leave a trail of breadcrumbs so complicated that your audience got confused and lost interest, or did you forget to drop enough breadcrumbs so that your audience simply lost their way?

Try tapping out your favourite song to a member of your team, without humming it, and even though the song is obvious to you, they will not have a clue what it is – this is the curse of knowledge.

Click here to discover the importance of avoiding the curse of knowledge when it comes to successfully translating the numbers in your business.

Blog 6 – Put the numbers of your business in context with the right measuring stick

Numbers on their own can be confusing, unclear and complicated.

Some of your team might understand them, but some might not, and this will be the same with your customers.

But if you want to get buy-in, to win new business, to grow and be successful, the numbers must make sense to everyone.

How do you do this? How do you build this connection so that everyone understands the numbers you are explaining?

It’s a simple fact that human brains have evolved to deal with very small numbers. When you see 3 fish in a bowl, you know there are 3 without having to count them.

This is a process called ‘subitising’. This means you instantly recognise 1,2 or 3 objects at a glance and, if there was 4 or 5 fish in the bowl, you would still be able recognise that quantity.

But if more fish are added, you would stop being able to recognise the number and, instead of being specific, you would start using words such as several, loads, many, numerous and lots.

To ensure that your team or customers or stakeholders understand the numbers, you have to transform them into something they can visualise.

You need to use a measuring stick.

A measuring stick takes complicated numbers and puts them into a format that the human brain can relate to and understand.

There are examples of measuring sticks in the Business Breakthrough report, and even more in Chip Heath and Karla Starr’s brilliant book, Making Numbers Count, but here are a few great ones:

Example 1

Great Smokey Mountains National Park receives 12.5 million visitors in a typical year.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited park in the US, with twice as many visitors as the Grand Canyon.

Example 2

A single M&M has 4 calories.

To burn off the calories of a single M&M you would have to walk up 2 flights of stairs.

Example 3

A single Pringle has 10 calories.

To burn off the calories of a single Pringle you would have to walk 160 metres – almost 2 football fields.

Example 4

Here is a visual measuring stick:

Last year, a ship named ‘Ever Given’ disrupted the global economy. It got stuck in the Suez Canal. Nothing else could get through. But how could one ship block the whole thing?

If I said it’s a quarter mile long, that wouldn’t mean much to you. A quarter mile is hard to picture.

But what if I said it’s longer than the Empire State Building is tall? All of a sudden, you’d start to comprehend this one ship’s massive size.

Click here to discover the value of measuring sticks when it comes to helping your target audience understand the numbers of your business.

Blog 7 – 4 helping hands to enable you to simplify the numbers in your business…

When you effectively translate your business numbers for the people that matter, your results will improve.

However complex your numbers might be, they CAN be simplified and explained in a way in which every member of your team and any one of your customers or stakeholders will understand.

With a little thinking and planning you can avoid the ‘curse of knowledge’ and ensure that your numbers and message are understood by your audience.

Remember – when your numbers are easier to understand, easier to retain and easier to repeat, it becomes easier to get people on your side, achieving what you want to achieve.

Whether you’re speaking to your team, your customers, or your friends and family, you can use these 4 helping hands to explain your numbers:

1. Accept – Most people find numbers complex and confusing, especially large numbers or those that are more complex, such as fractions, percentages or ratios.

2. Become an effective translator of numbers – Invest a little more time and thought in uncomplicating your numbers by making them smaller, simpler and more relevant and familiar to your audience. For example, if you were trying to explain the route and distance of a hike to your family, you would not use the length of your business products or the distance from your office to the shop floor – it has to be relatable.

3. Use concrete examples, relevant measuring sticks and scales – reference something that is familiar to your audience, such as the length of a football pitch or the time it takes to boil an egg or drink a cup of tea.

4. Build a story – make it emotional, and you might not even need to use the numbers at all!

To successfully explain your numbers to your audience, state things in a personal and emotional way.

It’s about turning the numbers into a relevant story for your audience – this will have a greater impact.

And never forget the ‘curse of knowledge’ – you might be an expert, but your audience is not.

Click here to discover much more about the importance simplifying the numbers can have on the future success of your business.

Engaging E-mails

Business Breakthrough Subscriber Resources