What's Standing Between You and More Sales?

Are your sales where you want them to be? No? What should
you do first to build sales? First, assess where you
are. Your answers to the following questions will put you
on the road to increasing your sales.

Question #1 - What have you done so far to market your
business?

Set aside ten minutes, grab a pen and paper, or a keyboard
and write it out. Writing out what you have already done
is key. Once you write down what you've done, you may see
overlooked techniques you can implement.

Question #2 - How many leads do you get each week?

If you have a store or website, your leads are your visitors.
Many business owners don't know this critical number. They
assume that if they have low sales, they just need to build
traffic. They could be throwing money away. Here's how:

Imagine spending money to bring visitors to an online store
that looks unprofessional or where visitors can't find what
they want. Most, maybe all of the visitors leave without
buying. The same money that is spent on bringing more
traffic would be better spent making the website work or
look better.

Question #3 - How many leads become your customers each week?

When you know how many people visit each week and how many
become customers, you know a very important number. This
number is how well you convert visitors to customers. Is it
1 in 100? 20 in 100? Maybe it's 1 in a thousand. Can your
business do a better job in converting visitors to customers?

Question #4 - Where do your visitors come from?

Which ads are sending you leads or visitors? Which websites
and email newsletters are referring visitors to you?

Question #5 - Where are your SALES coming from?

At first glance, this seems to be the similar to "Where do
your visitors come from", but it's not. Website A may refer
a thousand visitors and give you 0 sales. Website B can
refer a hundred people and 20 buy from you. You'll want
to find more Website B's.

Question #6 - What measurable outcome would you like
from your marketing efforts?

Lots more sales! Of course. But how do you hit this
target? What are you aiming for so you can get more sales?

You can't hit what you're not aiming for. Would you like
more visitors, more leads, and more phone calls from people
who want what you have to offer? Or, if you're already
getting plenty of inquiries, would you like to close more
sales? Or would you like more current customers to buy
again?

By evaluating what you have been doing, you can get on
track to marketing better and building sales.