It's easy to get lazy when a business can pick the low hanging fruit available in an easy marketplace.
Markets shrink, funding dries up, prospects aren't as easily found, or profitability margins decrease. So what do you do? Many business owners don't know how to tweak their marketing and sales systems, so they can track the marketing numbers at each step in the sales process and grow in new directions. For example, important performance metrics like Key Performance Indicators (KPI) measure specific goals for your businesses that can reach across multiple sectors.
I have seen (in several industries) that the businesses who have weekly sales meetings, track their numbers, and hold team members accountable, are successful ... while those that guess and "assume" are usually out of business. It's just a matter of time.
The key is knowing the numbers -- what is the average expected result, and how you are measuring up against that result for each step in the process.
But many people don't want to track the marketing numbers, because they might have to admit that they aren't doing their job and letting their teammates down. Others simply do not have the systems or do not understand how to track those numbers or understand the benchmarks of the average business, the good business -- and the great business.
Many self-employed business owners just feel what they are doing is "working" without having tested it or tracking where they are at.
Unless you have completed valid measurements and received statistically reliable results, you don't have any idea whether you are improving or going backwards.
Especially in a crazy lockdown economy, it's important to get ahead of the curve and not rely on lazy systems for your business.
So, here is the cold, hard truth: if you don't know how to test scientifically -- or if you do know but you think it's not necessary -- your business is on the slow road towards oblivion.
Here are the sort of things you should be watching...
If you want to develop business mastery, it starts with an expertise in direct marketing and sales. And that means establishing the ability to measure the following factors :
- Statistically valid testing at each stage of the sales process
- Structuring price, term, refund, and premium tests for profit -- and what works
- Determining the true lifetime value of every new customer
- Calculating "allowable acquisition costs" (what you can spend to get a customer)
- Measuring responsiveness by advertising source
- Identifying the "doubling date" or "half-life" of a new offer or customer
- When is the right time to purge unproductive prospects and staff
- How do you identify opportunities for multiple streams of revenue within your business (the numbers should tell you)
If you don't have the ability to measure these areas and marketing numbers in your business -- or if your key people cannot -- consider your business to be in trouble.
That being said, these are the sorts of conversations we love to have with you. We'd love to be a resource and to help you see the opportunities -- and the traps -- within your business.
We're here to help. Let me know if you have any questions. Use our contact page to set up an initial consultation or give Emerald Financial Partners a call today!
410-224-2600