Do You Know Your Leads to Sales Ratio?
Your Sales to Leads ratio is the number of leads you convert to paying business. Like, how many of the leads that you've had this year actually resulted in more money in your pocket?
To do the figures, you'll need to know both how many leads you've developed and how many of these leads panned out so you were able to work with a new or returning client.
(You did keep track of the leads as they came in, right? If you haven't been tracking leads and sales, make a resolution now to do it from now on.)
You can determine the ratio by comparing the number of leads you have with the number of sales you made from those leads.
For example if you have 5 leads and you close 3 of them, your ratio is 3:5 or 60%. Sometimes this is called a closing ratio. (This is only an example to demonstrate the math. You will probably have many more than this from the marketing programs you have implemented.)
Your Sales to Leads Ratio is an indicator of your success as a sales person, as well as checking up on your Marketing efforts.
Higher ratios tell you Marketing is attracting the right kind of leads and Sales is doing a good job of closing. Both of your systems, Marketing and Sales, are being successful.
If your income is lower than you would like and your sales ratio is high, (you're selling lots of the leads you've been getting) increase your marketing to deliver more good leads.
With a high sales to leads ratio, more potential customers hearing about you will mean more sales. In other words: do more marketing. Develop more marketing venues and send out the same marketing message more often.
If your Sales to Leads Ratio is low, look both at the kinds of leads coming from Marketing and your selling skills.
Have a colleague review your marketing materials and give you feedback. Ask current customers and clients what else they are looking for. Beef up your marketing materials and efforts.
Recommit to being more aggressive with sales and selling.
Consider taking a sales skills class. Selling doesn't always come naturally to many independent professionals. All too many of us still consider selling to be unprofessional or beneath us.
If this is you it's time to get over yourself so you can not only start supporting yourself in a comfortable life style, but provide the people who need what you offer the opportunity to buy what they want from you.
Sometimes it just takes more effort than you have been giving. Remember, it takes at least 4-7 contacts with many customers to make a sale. Don't wimp out and give up too soon.
About the Author
Pat Wiklund is known as the One-Person Business Turnaround Specialist. She works with professional services business owners so they can make more money and get more personal satisfaction from their work. Begin continuing developing your selling expertise by claiming your complimentary copy of Pat's latest ecourse. Just go to: http://1personbusiness.com/mini-ecourse
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Attitudes to Return on Investment from Customer Service Must Change
The publication, return on investment in customer service the bottom line, is the result of 12 months quantitative and qualitative research by the Institute and Ashridge Business School.
While the research finds a weight of evidence proving the link between customer service and profit, it warns that organisations across all sectors of the economy are still using the easier to measure indicators, such as customer satisfaction.
“To position return on investment in the boardroom and establish customer service as a key strategic issue for all organisations, we must shift customer service away from just measuring simple customer satisfaction into much more complex areas, such as how customers perceive the value of their relationship with that organisation,” says Jo Causon, the chief executive of the Institute.
The research consisted of an online survey, case studies among some of the UK’s best known brands, including 02, Eurostar, Kleinwort Benson and T-Mobile, and a review of empirical research into ROI.
It found that 81% of respondents believed that gaining an understanding of service ‘from the customers’ viewpoint’ is very likely to lead to a positive return on investment, with 74% believing that gathering and acting on customer feedback will produce real business ROI.
The work also indicated that organisations needed to place more value the contribution of frontline customer facing staff who would become more important in the future.
“This should inform recruitment as well as remuneration of frontline staff,” said Jo Causon, “Currently they are under-rewarded compared to the impact they can have on financial performance and overall business efficiency.”
Cheryl Black, customer service director at 02, one of the report’s sponsors, added: “It is all too easy to say what’s good for the customer is good for the business and leave it at that. This report challenges us to start thinking about how we measure changing customer behaviours, and the role our staff have to play in it.”
The research was sponsored by 02, BT wholesale, and South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive.
The report, return on customer service the bottom line is available to purchase online from http://www.instituteofcustomerservice.com
Resource
While the research finds a weight of evidence proving the link between customer service and profit, it warns that organisations across all sectors of the economy are still using the easier to measure indicators, such as customer satisfaction.
“To position return on investment in the boardroom and establish customer service as a key strategic issue for all organisations, we must shift customer service away from just measuring simple customer satisfaction into much more complex areas, such as how customers perceive the value of their relationship with that organisation,” says Jo Causon, the chief executive of the Institute.
The research consisted of an online survey, case studies among some of the UK’s best known brands, including 02, Eurostar, Kleinwort Benson and T-Mobile, and a review of empirical research into ROI.
It found that 81% of respondents believed that gaining an understanding of service ‘from the customers’ viewpoint’ is very likely to lead to a positive return on investment, with 74% believing that gathering and acting on customer feedback will produce real business ROI.
The work also indicated that organisations needed to place more value the contribution of frontline customer facing staff who would become more important in the future.
“This should inform recruitment as well as remuneration of frontline staff,” said Jo Causon, “Currently they are under-rewarded compared to the impact they can have on financial performance and overall business efficiency.”
Cheryl Black, customer service director at 02, one of the report’s sponsors, added: “It is all too easy to say what’s good for the customer is good for the business and leave it at that. This report challenges us to start thinking about how we measure changing customer behaviours, and the role our staff have to play in it.”
The research was sponsored by 02, BT wholesale, and South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Executive.
The report, return on customer service the bottom line is available to purchase online from http://www.instituteofcustomerservice.com
Resource