How a global consultancy unlocked $1M in additional revenue by reframing its metrics
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The Challenge
A European Director at the head office of a global consulting firm was under pressure. Customer visits were down, travel budgets were tightening, and the team wasn’t on track to hit its financial targets. The data said “inefficient scheduling.” The Director thought the Account Executives simply weren’t planning their trips well enough, or weren’t motivated to improve.
The assumption: a people problem.
The reality: a system problem.
The Discovery
The company’s key performance metric , “one-visit days”, was painting a misleading picture.
It failed to account for:
- Local meetings near the company’s base
- First or last days of multi-country trips
- Context around trip purpose and proximity
Once we removed these outliers, the picture changed. The “inefficiency” wasn’t nearly as bad as the data suggested, but there was still room to improve.
Then we looked deeper.
Account Executives walked me through their scheduling process. They wanted to increase visits per trip. They knew the incentives and targets. But they lacked visibility. To plan efficiently, they had to copy and paste each lead address into Google Maps - one by one - hoping to find potential nearby visits. The issue wasn’t willpower or understanding. It was access to the right data, in the right format, at the right time.
The Root Cause
Two things had gone wrong:
- Metrics without context - the data was incomplete and misrepresentative, creating confusion and misplaced blame.
- Data without usability - valuable information was locked away in a format that made it hard for staff to act on.
The Director wasn’t dealing with a motivation issue at all, she was dealing with a design issue.
The Solution
I restructured the data and rebuilt how it was used day to day.
- Combined client and sales lead data into one live, interactive Google Map
- Linked each point directly back to contact details
- Updated performance metrics to reflect true efficiency, not false negatives
Now, both leadership and Account Executives were looking at the same story, and could finally act on it.
The Outcome
$600,000–$1.2M in additional revenue (up to 17% of annual target)
When the system rolled out fully, travel efficiency improved and the financial goals were back on track.
But the wider benefits were just as powerful:
- Improved morale - frustration was replaced with clarity and control. Account Executives felt supported, not blamed.
- Rebuilt trust - managers recognised that poor design, not poor effort, had caused underperformance. Collaboration replaced tension.
- Refocused leadership - with visibility restored, the Director could return her focus to growth and client relationships.
- Enhanced customer experience - with more efficient scheduling, white space in diaries became time for courtesy visits and proactive engagement.
What We Learned
This project touched every element of the 5Ps of Business Operations:
- Profit: Revenue potential from the same cost base was huge
- Person: Motivation wasn’t the issue - understanding and trust were.
- People (communication & collaboration): Misaligned metrics had distorted relationships between teams.
- Process: Data collection and workflows needed redesign, not new incentives.
- Performance: Metrics only told the truth once they reflected real-world context.
The takeaway:
Data only drives performance when it’s designed around human behaviour and operational reality.
In Reflection
Investing in data is easy. Designing data to work for people is where real performance lives. When metrics create meaning, they motivate. When systems give clarity, they calm. And when operations align people, process, and performance - profit follows.
Call to Action
If your metrics or systems are creating more questions than answers, it’s rarely a people problem - it’s a design problem. I help service-based businesses align their operations so growth feels calm, focused, and profitable.