Alright, so marketing statistics isn’t the most appetizing of topics. But it’s one of the most sustaining for your business. If I told you that a little bit of number crunching could lead you to mouth watering cost reductions you’d listen up, right?
So let me ask you these questions:
- How many new leads have you had this month?
- How many new customers have you acquired?
- How many customers have you lost?
- How many complaints have you received?
- How many sales have you made?
- How many sales have you lost?
- How much did you spend on advertising this month?
- How much business did your advertising bring you?
I could go on endlessly. And you could yawn and tell me it doesn’t really matter in the short term. It’s just one month. And anyway, it’s the long-term picture that counts, isn’t it?
If you think that, you’re dead wrong. And it won’t be long before your business is, itself, a statistic – and not the best kind.
So how many new leads have you had this month? Was it an average month? A bad month? A good month for leads?
Where did your leads come from? How do you know? One of the most important questions, if not the most important question to be asking potential customers is: “How did you find us?“
If you don’t ask this question every time you get a lead, start asking now. And write the answers down so you can look for patterns and find the marketing strategies which are working best to bring you new business.
This is serious stuff. If you already have such a list, good for you. Now, without looking at it for this month, guess where most of your leads came from? Now guess second and third place.
Were you right? What do your answers, compared to the actual statistics tell you?
How does this month compare to the rest of the year? To the same time last year?
Doing this kind of basic number crunching will help you to ask your own questions, and to find the answers you need to keep your business on the right track to success.
So, off you go… nibble a number or two!
