What Successful Entrepreneurs Don’t Want You To Know.
Most of the times it’s the simple things that IF applied methodically can produce results beyond your expectations. I’m going to reveal to you something so simple but yet so powerful, that it can transform and take your business to the next level in just 12 months. And before they know it, your competitors will be shaking their heads trying to figure out how you’re doing it.
It’s a simple concept that’s been around for more than 50 years in American business. And I am 99% sure you already implement one in your business, but you’ve never thought of applying it to your marketing. It’s so critical for the operation of any business to have one that without it a business could not function and would be literally unmanageable.
It’s called a SYSTEM.
If you have a manufacturing operation you have a system in place to manufacture your products. Like some kind of assembly line, or “system” that enables you to produce whatever it is you make in an orderly “systematic” way, that you “repeat” day in and day out. In addition, every department in your company has it’s own departmental system that works in sync with the company wide system. This is important so the business can operate in a cohesive manner to prevent major problems from disrupting the process and creating chaos.
If you have a medical, dental or legal practice you also have systems. A client or patient comes in for the first time and they have to first go through the initial intake process. They have to fill out a bunch of forms so you can have the information you need to help this patient or client get the results he or she is looking for within your “system.” You wouldn’t administer medication without first performing an examination and determining the diagnosis. This patient or client cannot be medically treated or defended in court until he or she goes through a set of procedures that is part of your particular system.
I could go on with examples but I think you get the point by now. And by the way, when I talk about systems in this example, I’m not necessarily referring to computer systems. Although computer systems play a critical role in any operation, the systems I’m referring to are the processes or procedures that you must have in place so your business can operate effectively, if at all.
So if operational and departmental systems are crucial to the success of a business, why is it that 99% of businesses do not have a marketing system?
What makes us think that we are going to be successful in growing our businesses exponentially without a marketing system? Don’t we depend on systems at every other level in our organizations, that if not in place would bring our operations to a screeching halt?
Do you see how neglecting or failing to have a marketing system is just plain irrational? And what’s really astonishing is that by implementing “systematized marketing” in your business, you dramatically increase the chances of beating your competition and dominating your market.
Some businesses spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in internal systems to run their operations but don’t see the value in investing in systematized marketing.
Maybe marketeers as myself are partly to blame for failing to present the problem in a clear and concise way that most business owners can understand. This is what I’ve attempted to do in this article.
Maybe instead of thinking of it as a marketing system lets look at it from a different angle. Lets call it a “lead generation” system. I think this will help you better understand it’s importance and why it is critical to your efforts in taking your business to the next level.
The function of marketing is to generate leads and to convert those leads into customers. Normally, only a small percentage of leads convert to customers. Say about 3% for this example.
Side Note: Historically the national average for sales conversion is between 3% and 5%, but it’s not unusual to achieve higher conversion ratios in certain businesses. It depends on other factors that are beyond the scope of this article, so for this example we’ll stick with 3%.
The other 97% of those leads are now called prospects. Most businesses neglect this 97% of prospects that don’t “buy now.” They fail to realize that just because they don’t buy now doesn’t mean they won’t buy later. Maybe they weren’t ready to buy for whatever reason. Some needed more information, others don’t trust you or your company, and some just don’t have the money or budget for it at the moment.
Should you neglect the 97% that didn’t “buy now”? You absolutely should NOT for two important reasons…
First, a percentage of them, more than you imagine, will buy later down the road when they’re ready, “IF” you stay in contact with them (follow up) through your marketing.
Secondly, it is highly unlikely that your competition has a marketing system in place to nurture a relationship with these prospects to convert them further down the sales cycle. The business that does wins them over.
Let’s do some simple math to see what this represents to your bottom line…
Using a conversion ratio of 3%, we’ll say that you have yearly gross sales of $1 million. And let’s say that your gross profit margin on those sales is 25%. This translates into a gross profit of $250,000.
If your conversion ratio is 3% (3 out of every 100 leads buy) and you have yearly sales of $1 million, we can figure that if you were to improve your conversion ratio by just one additional point to 4%, you would automatically increase your gross sales to $1.33 million.
Keep in mind that the cost of sales remains the same, because you didn’t spend more to acquire additional leads, you simply improved your conversion ratio to 4%.
You increased your gross profit dollar amount from $250,000 to $333,333. That’s an increase of $83,333 that went straight to your bottom line by simply improving your conversion ratio by 1 percentage point.
This 1% improvement in your conversions is responsible for a whopping 33% in gross sales. This kind of performance can be achieved when you have a lead generation machine with a follow up system in place.
This is how you dominate your market and leave your competition eating dust.
There’s an old Chinese proverb that says: “Victory Goes To The One With Superior Forces At The Point Of Contact.”
If applied to business, “superior forces” refers to your marketing, and the “point of contact” refers to when your marketing comes in contact with your prospects.
All things being equal, he or she with better marketing wins.
Below is a diagram of a “marketing/lead generation” system so you can have an idea of how it works.
