Success Story: How Our Client Improved Their Close Rate by 40%
Episode 753: Show Notes
Today we are unearthing an episode that we recorded at the end of 2022 because it’s important that you hear this. The strategy this client used is still extremely relevant and effective in the current sales climate where leads are a little bit wonky. This is the perfect time to seek improvement opportunities within your sales cycle and work on increasing your close rate.
We walk you through how our client was able to increase her close rate by a whopping 40%, and how you can be just as successful in your own sales process. In this season, focus and refine how things are looking in your business. Evaluate what’s working, what’s not, and use that critical information to make strategic, educated plans as you move forward with your business. Start gathering this data and figure out where you want to place your focus and where your biggest opportunities are right now.
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Looking at your metrics occasionally is critical, and people often get hung up on top-level metrics such as followers and email lists. We encourage you to care more about the overall sales process and you selling your service! It’s critical to figure out how many followers are actually taking action, landing on your website, booking a discovery call, etc. We do not want to hear you say the words “I think,” “I feel like,” “I assume that” or “well it’s probably” when it comes to making plans and recording data.
Just like we tell our clients, we want you to pull out a spreadsheet, do the math and figure all of this information out. Then you’ll be able to find the critical themes in your business so you can work out what is and isn’t working and land on a realistic price point. We often find that our clients are so much closer to solving their problems than they realize. You may be thinking that things have to be way harder than they actually are. Today we’re using particular examples from a previously aired episode to help you learn how to improve your close rate.
The Dangers of Gut Reactions and Assumptions
The dilemma that the client we’re discussing today faced was three people saying no to her service. What’s interesting about this particular case is that generally, when clients start saying no, the gut reaction is to lower your price. Our client was catastrophizing and worrying about losing a chunk of deals during her busy season. She even made up a number and decided that she would lose 15 of her clients out of the pure panic she was experiencing. We are not going to make the same mistake because that doesn’t serve or help us!
As she realized why people were saying no, she realized that the people who said yes early in the year versus those who said no later were two completely different tiers of people she was pitching to! She realized that all of the people who had said no were lower-level contacts within the organization. We want you to learn from this, stop talking to those people, and just talk to the higher-level people instead. This particular client also couldn’t reduce her price point without drastically changing her deliverables and that added a limitation to things.
Another client of ours has experienced a cashflow crunch and as a result, started to feel as if they were bad at their job. It is easy to start making assumptions about your own performance and skills and we want you to separate your self-worth from your business performance because if you don’t, it’s going to affect you incredibly negatively. In this case, this client was feeling this way after a bad month that ended up improving and if we averaged the two, she had actually improved her close rate dramatically; from 47% to 87%!
Why You Can’t Control Getting Leads and What We Want You to Control Instead
We all know that getting leads is one of the things that are most out of our control. We all know it! You do different things that spur leads and connections being put in front of you, and after that, there really isn’t much you can do. You can’t make people hop on a call or close a deal. The only thing you can do is make sure (very quickly) that as soon as someone does show interest, you find out if they’re an ideal client, get the information you need from them, find out their problem, give them your solution, and put them through an experience that makes them say yes if it’s the right fit. Those are the only pieces of this puzzle that you can control.
The Comparison We Don’t Realize We’re Making
The idea that businesses need to see growth every year is an absolute myth! Not only is this completely ridiculous, but it is also impossible. We really want you to do some self-reflection on this and make sure you don’t have unrealistic expectations of yourself and your business. This client shared the number of leads she got in 2020, 2021, and 2022 and before truly looking at them, she told us that 2020 was her best and busiest year ever because she was saying yes and taking on every single lead that came her way. But that is just not sustainable. The effects of that year were that of a pandemic bubble, and expecting the results of that year to be the same year after year was inappropriate.
This unrealistic perspective comes from the massive corporations that have to share information about their growth, but you are not required to disclose this information at all! We are not always after a massive improvement and if your goals are to grow a sustainable business, then you can create a more timeless approach to achieving your goals. Comparing yourself to massive companies with completely different business models is problematic. We don’t want you to fall into this trap!
The One Thing to Focus on Right Now
We really want you to leave this podcast today with some tangible takeaways to help you so, start tracking every lead! Anyone who is going through your sales process needs to be documented and you need to understand what parts of the process are working and what needs improvement. Just remember that there’s nothing wrong with changing parts of your sales process for your own convenience. As you’re focusing on improving these different checkpoints, the thing that we want you to be mindful of is that people are often talking about improving conversions from a digital sales perspective and not from a service perspective so a lot of the advice you’re getting is not actually effective for your business model at all.
Instead, you need to focus on real relationships and treat every lead as an actual human being with thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Then you can show up for people yourself as a real human! You will enjoy your sales process more because you’re developing real relationships and you will also feel more connected to your people – something we know so many of you are craving. Remember to have the data to back everything up before deciding what areas need to be changed or tweaked, and once you have all those pieces, we only want you to pick one area, and we are going to go all-in on refining that area!
If you need help brainstorming the changes you want to make, need strategic advice, or even just a sounding board, please reach out to us. We would love to chat!
Quote This
Getting leads is sometimes one of the biggest things that’s out of your control.
Highlights
The Dangers of Gut Reactions and Assumptions [0:18:16]
Why You Can’t Control Getting Leads and What We Want You to Control Instead [0:23:42]
The Comparison We Don’t Realize We’re Making [0:25:18]
The One Thing to Focus on Right Now [0:36:38]
Today’s Guest:
Abagail & Emylee
The Strategy Hour Podcast
The Strategy Hour Podcast is a twice weekly show hosted by Abagail Pumphrey and Emylee Williams, the founders of Boss Project. Join us for semi-ranty biz conversations for service providers looking to ethically grow their agency businesses. Episodes cover everything from lead generation to leadership mindset to team culture and beyond.
