Why the NFL Is Smarter than You

I was watching a Broncos game the other night — the one in which they clobbered the Giants on Thanksgiving Day — and it occurred to me that the NFL is a heck of a lot smarter than me and you.

Here’s why.

After every play of the game, the sportscasters share the most arcane stats you’ve ever heard of. They know how long it’s been since specific scenarios have played out. They know when something has never happened in NFL history before.

Plus, they know rankings of players by position… passing, rushing, and scoring stats by quarter, game, and season… kickers’ accuracies and field goal percentages… and tons more.

The NFL is a well-oiled data machine that can spit out stats just nanoseconds after a new piece of information is added to its massive database.

Now, you know I don’t write about sports, so what does this have to do with anything?

Simply this: By knowing their stats, they’re a smarter organization (this goes for the NFL as well as each individual team franchise).

They know things.

This is one of the critical keys to success as a direct response marketer. You have to know your numbers.

Otherwise, how do you know when to go for it when you’re 4th down and inches? And how do you know when to run and when to pass?

You’ve just got to know this stuff.

In business lingo, you need to know:

• How many visitors you need to get a new customer.
• How much it costs to acquire a new customer.
• Which advertising mediums pay and which ones don’t.
• The average initial purchase a new customer makes.
• The life-time value of that customer.

And this is just scratching the surface.

I gotta confess, I’m nowhere near perfect when it comes to tracking my stats. But I’m trying to get better each and every day.

Because the better you know your numbers, the easier it will be to edge out your competition and thrive for the long-term.

-Ryan M. Healy