What you focus on will improve.
I asked Tina where the majority of her leads came from. With a very proud expression on her face, she turned to dig through the dusty pile on her desk and after a few minutes whipped out what seemed to be a lead report. And a lead report it was!
It broke down every lead, where it came from, the cost of the lead, and the amount of revenue generated from each lead. It was a beautiful thing!
This is amazing! How often do you pull this report (as it looked dusty) and what do you do with the information when you get it?
I pull it every month and then we umm….well we…actually Crystel, I just put it in this stack on my desk.
What? This is great information and you don’t do anything with it?
No. Not really. I know we should. I just don’t know what to do with it.
Well let’s take a look at the report and see what it tells us to do.
Tina and I reviewed the lead report and in about 10 minutes we knew exactly what to do.
The report showed that Tina was getting about 1100 leads a month from social media. Each lead cost approximately $0.78 and the average revenue generated per lead was $4,800.00.
It also showed that radio generated 1 lead per month on average, cost $390.00 per lead and generated approximately $1,640.00 in revenue.
I’m going to sum this one up for you quickly. While there were a lot of variables. The radio ad may not have been enticing enough, ran the right time of day, targeted to the right audience, the initial choice was still clear.
Social media provided the largest number of leads and average dollar sale.
So what if they invested that $390.00 per month in social media? At an average cost of $0.78 per lead we could expect that they would generate about 500 leads per month. AND with an average dollar sale of $4,800.00 it would produce an additional $2,400,000.00 in revenue PER MONTH.
Yes, that’s assuming they closed all 500 leads and the average dollar sale stayed the same. But hey, even if we were only half right Tina could still generate over a million dollars a month in additional sales!
Tina, unlike most business owners I work with, did a great job at tracking her leads. She just needed to understand the power of her tracking and what to do with the information.
Most small business owners are so caught up in the day operations of the business they fail to focus on the key indicators of their business, like leads.
If you’re not tracking where your potential customers come from begin today.
Roger, where do your leads come from?
Everywhere.
Everywhere?
Actually Crystel I don’t know. I’m guessing my website.
How do you plan your marketing if you don’t know what medium generates the most leads?
C’mon now. You know I don’t have a marketing plan. That’s why I called you. I need your help getting more customers.
Ok, well the first thing we’re going to do is find out where your customers are coming from.
How do I do that?
Since you don’t have a way to track currently we’ll start simple. You’re going to begin to ask every person who calls how they heard about you. And then keep track on this sheet.
After a month of asking and tracking, we found that the majority of Roger’s leads didn’t come from his website. They came from referral sources in his industry. Roger was an electrician. The majority of his leads came from contractors, plumbers, real estate agents, and insurance agents.
And THAT is where Roger began to first focus his efforts, in building relationships with new contractors, plumbers, real estate and insurance agents.
Roger’s business grew 67% that year. And we can tie that growth directly to tracking and focusing on leads. Yes, we ultimately built a systematized marking plan as well. However, only after we began tracking and discovering where his customers were coming from.
The Dunlap’s were finally tracking their leads. Simply by asking the question how did you hear about us? They were shocked.
They thought the majority of their leads came from social media. Once the Dunlap’s began asking they realized the MAJORITY of their customers saw the Farm Market Open flag and decided to stop in.
Their customers explained, that before the OPEN sign they knew their was a beautiful farm there. However, they didn’t know there was a business who offered a wedding venue, grass fed beef, vegetables, and blue grass events.
The Dunlap’s farm was located on a highly traveled road. Just by tracking and focusing on what generates new leads (putting up the open flag every day) they’ve increased their leads!
Start today. You can start as simple as Roger by asking each new customer how they heard about or found you. You can be as complex as creating a marketing plan that has a specific link or phone number tied directly to each medium. The key is first to track. Then you can test, measure and improve with the information you receive.
Start Tracking Your Leads Today:
- Understand what medium generates the greatest amount of leads
- Grow your leads by investing your resources into the top lead generator
- Grow your customer base