You must turn those prospects into sales.

Conversion rates are often given little thought by the average business owners, and invariably when I ask them out of the blue, they take a guess. That's not good enough. You have to start measuring it now.

Regularly, business owners greatly overestimate the percentages. I remember one who guessed that she sold to 80 or 85 percent of people who called or came into her business. After some serious testing and measuring we discovered it was nearer 35 percent. This came as a huge shock to the owner, but it also represents a tremendous opportunity.

Think of the bottom-line difference you can make by significantly boosting your conversion rate. If you can take your conversion rate from 30 percent to 60 percent, BAM, you've just doubled turnover.

So, do you know what your conversion rate is right now? If you don't, now's the time to quickly work it out. Here's how:

CONVERSION RATE

Start date:
End date:
Leads survey date:
Number of leads:
Number of sales transactions:
Conversion rate (transactions / leads x 100):

We're now going to work on the next part of your instant marketing plan, the section that aims to put strategies in place to dramatically improve your conversion rate.

It's possible, and here are the ways to make it happen. 92