My background
before I moved into
New Business Development
was Finance.
One of my skills
was getting ‘hidden’ numbers,
numbers that were deliberately
not reported on.
For example,
a certain world leader
wants his country
to stop reporting
COVID deaths.
But those numbers
are easy to derive
by other means.
Simply take current deaths
(something that is always reported on)
and subtract historical deaths.
It is fairly easy
to derive an estimate
of what your competitors are doing also
by using the information
you know about your business
and about their business.
In the beverage business,
for example,
I would count facings
at the grocery stores.
I knew our sales
per facing.
I could estimate
the competitor’s sales
based on the same ratio.
There are ways
to derive a solid estimate
of any number out there.
Use what you know
as a base.