To Boost Conversion, Start Here…

I recently used what I'm going to share with you now to boost the conversion rate from prospect to customer by 400%.  A fair hike up,  I'm sure you'll agree.

Given that one of my websites is Sian Murphy Copywriter, you might be expecting me to divulge that after an extensive and costly review of the copy,  I tweeked one dull word and hey presto, the magic turn of phrase emerged which had people flocking to buy.  But I didn't.

Let me tell you the story…

One of my regular business coaching clients asked me to revamp the copy and marketing for one of their sales processes, which was just dead in the water.  Now, this is a business in the real world with warehouses, big noisy machines and foremen with toetectors, hard hats and high visibility tabards.

The sales staff  were cold calling, all with fancy scripts, to get contact details (the list) and subsequently convert them into paying customers – something to do with printers and inks and stuff.  But the conversions weren't happening, product wasn't moving and all of this lack of profit being delivered by a the resource intensive practice of cold calling.

What they expected was a rewrite of their copy and cold calling scripts, followed by an intensive training programme, all of which takes yonks and so doesn't come cheap.  I suppose you've worked out that didn't happen.   Instead, I spent a couple of hours and yep, we got a 400% boost in conversion. Here's what I did.

I put in a system. Using a piece of paper, a pencil to scribble a flow chart. A simple scheme for contacting prospects was enough to secure the conversions.  Consitency and continuity for staff and customers is the key.

I'm not going to publish the system here, you wouldn't believe how simple it is, and I'm not sure it would help much, because every sales process is individual, but there is a fine lesson here.  When something isn't performing as you want, I suggest you follow these guidelines…

• Don't decide what needs fixing before you've looked at what's broken.  Don't make assumptions about why something isn't working.
• Decide what the problem is before you go about mending it.  Write it down so you have it very clear.
• Review the whole process, no matter how pointless you think that is.  Even better, get someone who doesn't know the system to pull it apart for you.
• Start with the cheapest solution and work your way up.  Don't just fling time and money at a problem and hope it will go away, because it won't.

I don't know what the copy and marketing was like for the process I looked at.  Could still be crap.  But I do know this, my client could have spent loads and loads getting it rewritten and it still wouldn't have worked because there wasn't a system to the sales process.

And there are two stages to implementing a system.  The first is to develop the system and the second is the decision to automate.  Well planned automation, using appropriate tools, will save you time and money – as long as you use the right package.

We once had an autoresponder which used to drop out, without preamble or explantion, every now and then – so losing us leads unless we checked it was still working every hour or so. An expensive pain in the bum.

All of the tools we use and recommend on this site are reviewed here so you don't have to waste your time and money sucking and seeing.