Many of us who are in business, whether we own a company or we’re in sales, have an end result or goal for ourselves, our team, and our organization. However, few people really know and track the numbers or the metrics that’ll help us get there.
So what I want to do today is ask the following 13 important questions. These are not all-encompassing, and there are other relevant questions when it comes to business development. But these are a good start. It’s vital that you know the answers if you want to hit your goals. As I go through this list, I want you to think, “Do I know these numbers? Do I know these metrics? Do I at least have a good idea of what these numbers/metrics are?” If not, consider spending some time figuring this stuff out, because it’s going to help you achieve your end result goal.
1. How many qualified leads do you need per month?
2. How many marketing activities are necessary to produce those qualified leads?
3. How much financial investment is required to produce those qualified leads through the different marketing activities?
4. If the marketing activities in question take time, then how many hours are we talking about? What’s the total time investment?
5. How much is your (or your people’s—whoever will be doing the said marketing activities) time worth per hour?
6. What is the total investment to produce the number of qualified leads you seek? Both in terms of time and in the actual hard cost of money.
7. How many sales meetings do you need to gain a paying client?
8. What is your closing ratio?
9. How long does it take, timewise, to go from the initial contact with a prospect to when they actually become a paying client?
10. How much do you make on each product or service that you provide?
11. What product or service provides the best margin?
12. How long do you keep a client?
13. What is the lifetime value of each client?
I want to encourage you to think about these questions, and take action on figuring out the answers. Ultimately, these numbers will give you a better gauge on how to hit your desired end result. So go out, and make it a better than amazing day.
