Q.  In the FAQ called “How Can I Improve Sales”, you talked about Way to Wealth Formulas.  I now understand that I can’t just “have more customers” – I have to increase my Marketing Leads or my Close Rate – but how do I improve my close rate?

A.  Recall the Customer Formula, which says this:

Marketing Leads  X  Effectiveness Rate  =  Customers

Assume that you have 100 Marketing Leads.  If your Effectiveness Rate (or Close Rate) is 18%, you will end up with18 customers.  But what if you could increase your close rate to 25%?

Q.  Just a reminder that I ask the questions around here.  What if I could increase my close rate to 25%?

A.  Great question.  Now you would have 25 customers – a 28% increase – and that’s just one of the levers that you can pull on the Way to Wealth!  But you want to know HOW to do that.  First and foremost:  FOLLOW YOUR FRANCHISE SYSTEM!  Your franchisor has a proven system, other franchisees are using it to succeed, and you should too.  It’s what you invested in. 

Q.  Follow my system – use what I paid for - is that all I have to do?

A.  No, but you’d be surprised how many franchisees invest their money and lives in a proven system, and then ignore much of it and try to reinvent everything.  The top 10% in any franchise follow their system – AND do other things well.

Q.  Okay, how else can I increase my Close Rate?

A.  Fish from the right pond.  You have a target market.  You have an ideal client - someone whose demographics and psychographics mean that they need, want, and can afford your product or service.  If your marketing tactics are bringing you too many unqualified leads, change them.  Use tactics that target more of the right customers.

Q.  Some of our sales tactics are great, and others, not so much.  How can I improve the process itself?

A.  Start by defining your sales process, and then repeat it.  Take what works and make it happen every time.  If you’ve found it best to make three contacts with a prospect by telephone and e-mail before the sales call, then build it into your process and DO IT, every time.  Do you have a killer script to greet customers when they walk in your door? DO IT, every time. If you’ve been doing something and your numbers show that it doesn’t work, STOP IT.  

Q.  I have a good sales process that is part of my franchise system, and I’ve fine-tuned it and tailored it to my market.  But some of my staff uses it well, some, not so much.  How can I improve their close rates?

A. Hire slowly.  Fire quickly.  Make sure you have the right people. 

Train them.  Train them again.  And again.  Train them on your sales process.  Train them on your products.  Train them on selling.  Train them on lead generation, on getting appointments, on listening, on building rapport, overcoming objections, closing techniques.  Train ‘Em in the morning, train ‘Em in the evening, train ‘em all through the night. 

Q.  But when will they sell more if they’re spending all this time training?

A.  During “Golden Time” – when your sales opportunities are the highest.  But the biggest mistake many businesses make is not investing enough in training.  As Brian Tracy says, they have a three-step training program:  “Here’s your business cards, here’s your brochures, there’s the door.”  You wanted to know how to increase your Close Rate, right?  Find ways to free your sales people from administrative tasks, excess travel time, inefficient time-wasting activities, but don’t throw training and development in that pile.  Sending your sales people out to do things exactly the same way they’ve always done them means you’ll get the same Close Rate. Make a training and development plan for the year, customize it for each employee, and DO IT. 

Provide your staff with training, scripts, and feedback.  Figure out what your best people do, and replicate it! 

Here’s a critical concept for you:  The Four Stages of Competence.  This principle says that people go through four stages as they learn a skill:

• Unconscious Incompetence – We don’t know what we don’t know.
• Conscious Incompetence – We know what we don’t know.
• Conscious Competence – We are consciously using a new skill.
• Unconscious Competence – We excel at it without thinking about it.

Your training and development goal is to move your staff through these stages.  Train them, incent them, and motivate them to know the sales process so well, and be so good at it, that they automatically do it – superbly - every time. 

Q.  I’ve recommitted to my system, we’re fishing from the right pond, and we have a great Training & Development plan in place.  What’s next? 

A.  Measure.  Adjust.  Test new ideas, quickly implement the ones that work, quickly stop the ones that don’t. 

Q.  What’s the measure of success for new ideas? 

A.  Quantify your ROI - Return on Investment - for each tactic.  This is critical.  You’d be surprised how many businesses have no idea what the results are from tactics that cost them a lot of money.  One of our coaches was talking to a business owner about a certain business directory whose pages are one of the primary colors.  He was spending $4,000 a month for advertising – and had no idea how much business it brought in, if any.

Imagine that you could place a series of ten full-page ads in your local newspaper that costs you $1,000.  Sounds like a great deal, right?  Only if you know how much revenue came your way.  So, what if you got 500 leads?  That’s $2 for every hand that was raised to say, “I’m interested”.  Sounds good? What if those 500 leads brought 50 customers who spent $10 each?  You didn’t even pay for the ad! 

Now imagine that you only got ten leads.  Wow, that’s $100 per lead – pricey!  But what if 8 of them buy from you, and spend $1,000 each?  That’s an ROI of eight times.  When franchisees get that kind of ROI, their heart rates accelerate rapidly. 

And so does their income.

Q.  More Marketing Leads, a better Close Rate, good stuff!  And what if I could sell more to my customers, more often?

A.  A great question, so let’s talk about the Revenue Formula in the next FAQ!

For more information: francoach@focalpointcoaching.com or call Alice at 877-433-6225