As a business owner, you need to know your numbers.
You wouldn’t just let the new member in class load up the barbell blindly on their first day of class, right? (I hope not!)
The same thing applies to your business. Knowing your numbers will allow you to set clear benchmarks for your business and can drive your decision making. In the simplest form, if numbers are trending well, you do more of it. If they are trending poorly, stop. Easy, right?
It is, only if you know how your business is performing.
On that note, understanding your leads (lead tracking) is one of the most fundamental metrics you should be tracking.
Leads represent growth. In our industry, it’s not enough to keep the status quo. Members move. They change jobs. They have kids. Member turnover is a real and normal thing.
But if your business has no control over no new leads or you don’t understand how to convert leads to members, then your business is slowly dying. So you need to keep a pulse on your leads.
Leads = Growth Pipeline
Let’s just take a step back and examine this equation:
Leads = New Members = Revenue
There’s obviously a lot more to that equation and they are not 1-to-1. But for the sake of this argument, we just need to understand the basics. Without new members, you’ll have no revenue growth. And you can’t predictably add new members without adding new leads.
So understanding your lead flow will allow you to make revenue predictions with some certainty.
Lead tracking = Sales Efficiency
If you're not already tracking your leads, congratulations! You have your first assignment.
Build the foundation for tracking and understanding your leads.
Lead tracking will help you identify which parts of your sales process perform well, and which parts need work.
For example, let’s say your new lead flow is pretty healthy with 15 new leads per week. That’s pretty good. Of those 15, 12 of them schedule an initial consult. Also pretty good. But throughout the week, only 2 of those show. That’s not good.
Since you’re tracking leads at every point of the sales process, you immediately know where the weak point is. Your lead follow-up strategy going into the initial consult needs to be looked at.
Making these changes can also help with properly recognizing your target audience and developing a plan to better understand your market. Keeping track of your leads will also help with staying organized as a business and making sure every team member is on the same page.
How you should be tracking you leads
Nailing down the stages of your sales process is the first step in tracking your leads. As an example, your sales process could look something like this:
- Incoming inquiry: At this point, the lead has submitted their contact information through your website, social channels, or in person.
- Qualified lead: You’ve gathered more information through a quick chat to see if they are a good fit for your services
- Consultation: Identify if your services meet the specific needs of the lead.
- Sale Pitch: This is the stage where you describe to the client how your services can help them toward their goals.
- Close: Make the ask. This is where you present the purchase.
Choosing the method of data entry is next. If you need something to get started with and you’re looking for something that’s free, we recommend using Google Sheets. It will take manual entry for every movement of every lead you see, but it’s great practice. You can also export a csv any existing contacts that you may have from your email and bring them into the spreadsheet to get things started.
At this point you’re ready to set up the spreadsheet columns and decide what information you would like to capture. The lead’s name, email, phone number and home address should be recorded. The current stage in the sales process, the source in which the lead came from, the time of last contact, as well as any notes that pertain to the individual should also be included in the data entry process.
PushPress Sites
(Now here comes our sales pitch...)
Now you know how important tracking your leads is. If you want to automate the lead tracking from your website to a membership, we’ve got you covered. Websites by PushPress. No one loves manual data entry!
With Websites by PushPress, we integrate your website with your PushPress system and take care of the entire lead tracking process. We’ll show you exactly how many leads your website is generating, all the way to how many leads have converted to a membership. One of the best metrics we show is the estimated dollar amount associated with each lead.
Ultimately, the solution you pick isn’t as important as just having a system in place. Track your lead metrics for a month. Look back to see where leads are falling off, and work quickly to improve that step of the process. Your business depends on it!
