When I speak to most business owners for the first time and ask them what they think their sales conversion rate is, they almost always say 60-70%. Sometimes this is true, though most times it is not. But with our testing and measuring system, we help business owners find out what it really is. And surprisingly enough the true answer on an average is around 30%.
So that means only 3 out of 10 new leads will purchase from you on an average. Now when you consider the cost of buying a new lead, the cost of the marketing you need to do to get the phone to ring, people to come in, or to get hits on your website – 3 out of 10 is too low.
There is some good news though. At ActionCOACH we have 83 strategies to help you improve your conversion rate. And let’s face it, you can’t double 60%, but you can certainly double or even triple 30%! While I will not be able to tell you these 83 strategies in this article, here are two that you can start with:
The first step is to flow chart your sales process: Now you may be thinking, “What sales process?” Whether you realize it or not, you do have a sales process! For some of you it may be woeful, and for others it may be acceptable, though for most of you it probably is not consistent every time.
By flow charting your sales process, you will be able to clearly see what each step in the process is and where it may need to be improved. Having a step-by-step process, right from the sending out of the marketing piece, to the after sales services, will help bring about a critical aspect of consistency in sales.
The second part of the equation is the sales scripts that need to support each step of the sales process. It’s one thing to have a step-by-step sales process; it’s quite another to know what to say at each step every time an inquiry is made.
The simplest way to do this is to write down what you say when you have a good sales experience and then work on improving this over time. Or if you have several sales people on your team, work out what your best sales person does and says and document that. This includes the initial phone call, the face to face inquiry and any other contact you may have in the sales process. And even the thank you letter or card after the sale is made.
By flow charting your sales process and writing sales scripts for every step of the process you will certainly bring about consistency, which will help develop confidence and ultimately help you increase you sales conversion rate. Just make sure you keep it simple!
About ActionCOACH
Brad Sugars founded the brand Action International in 1993 when he realized there was a disconnect between business advice and implementation. The answer was Action! Brad Sugars created a business coaching company so that business owners throughout the world can realize their goals in business. Today the company is known as ActionCOACH. To learn more about business, visit Brad Sugars Review blog!
