I asked my friend Bill Bentley, president of Value-Train (www.value-train.com), a six sigma training company, to answer it. Here is what he said:

“The simplest answer is when you have a process that has a natural cycle, you normalize the cycle out of the data first before control charting it. That’s simple to do and to explain to management.”

If you need further technical insight around this issue as it relates to IMR or other control charts, I would refer you to Dr. Donald Wheeler, whose website is http://www.spcpress.com. Mr Wheeler is a well known expert in these matters and has written about them extensively.

Hope that helps!

Michael

The purpose of process measurements is the same whether you apply them to sales and marketing, or to any other process. What you measure, depends on your purpose, on what you are trying to improve.

Generally speaking, getting ANY data about the flow of your leads, opportunities, and deals (rather than just your revenue or order flow) is a major improvement for any business. So, these are ideal candidates for process behavior charts. Beyond that, when you start measuring the quality of your sales opportunities and other variables, the sky is the limit.

For a more detailed explanation of process behavior charts, I recommend anything written by Dr. Donald J. Wheeler. This is a link to his paper “How to Make Process Behavior Charts Work for You:

http://www.mqip.com/en/pic/spc/Wh%20Make%20PBC%20Work.pdf

Enjoy!

Michael

Your blog is very interesting. Thank You. Have You a list from the most benifical measure for the marketing and sales, where I can use behavior charts?

Yours

Eero E.