This article is about the first step to improving your sales conversions.
It is proof of how a series of minor improvements can help you increase sales dramatically.
Of course the better your starting position, the less likely you are to have dramatic improvements. Even so, just a 10% improvement in the conversion of profitable business has got to be worth having.
So, how can we boost our sales conversions?
Now you cannot manage what you cannot measure. So…
We start by defining a process:
- Define/document what steps are involved in your sales process
- Standardise the sales process across your team (or organisation)
- Ensure that each step during the sales process is carried out in a systematic way
- Log the results.
Allow me to use an example from the insurance industry:
Let’s take a look at a ‘traditional’ attempt to secure new business via cold-calling and compare this to the ‘model’ process that is supported by The Key 2 Growth’s Insurance Accelerator offering for Insurance Brokers.
I’ve used an example of a sales pipeline of 2000 and some indicative step by step conversion rates:
| Step | Traditional % | IAP % | Traditional in pipeline | IAP in pipeline |
| Build Pipeline | – | – | 2000 | 2000 |
| Set Appointment | 40% | 40% | 800 | 800 |
| Secure necessary paper work | 50% | 90% | 400 | 720 |
| Sit Appointment | 80% | 90% | 320 | 648 |
| Agree to Quote | 50% | 70% | 160 | 453 |
| Obtain Policy Terms from Insurer | 62.5% | 62.5% | 100 | 285 |
| Prospect ‘buys’ | 40% | 70% | 40 | 200 |
So in this example we have given a ‘simple’ 7 step process.
[Of course we should break down each step further. Just think; how often have you seen an organisation lose track of an appointment because they did not actually allocate it to anyone?]
These figures would suggest a 500% increase in conversions is possible. In reality it could be less although it could be a lot more!
Even the 500% improvement in the table above can be improved upon. A simple 10% improvement in each of the step by step conversion rates above would increase the sales by a further 94%.
It is worth repeating this. If you have a simple 7 step process, and if you can improve your conversion rate at each step by just 10%, you will double your sales!
So you can see, it really does pay to define and measure your sales process. This is the first step to improving your sales conversions.
If we go back to the original example and improve each step again by just 10%, we will have 388 sales. That is almost a 1000% improvement on the original 40!
The table below supports the Mathematics:
| Step | Prospects to next step | IAP % | IAP % + 10% | New Prospects to next step | Overall % Increase(compared to traditional model) |
| Build Pipeline | 2000 | – | (+10%) | 2200 | 10% (10%) |
| Set Appointment | 800 | 40% | 44% | 968 | 21% (21%) |
| Secure necessary paper work | 720 | 90% | 99% | 958 | 33% (140%) |
| Sit Appointment | 648 | 90% | 99% | 949 | 46% (197%) |
| Broker wants to quote | 453 | 70% | 77% | 730 | 61% (356%) |
| Broker secures ‘appropriate’ cover | 285 | 62.5% | 69% | 504 | 77% (404%) |
| Prospect ‘buys’ | 200 | 70% | 77% | 388 | 94% (870%) |
Can these figures actually be achieved?
Understanding metrics and conversion rates are critical to any business.
We believe the real point here is that by understanding the steps in the process, measuring the success rate, and taking focused action to improve upon the priority areas of concern; those sales conversion rates really can start to move.
For a confidential discussion on how The Key 2 Growth can help in your particular circumstances, please contact me, Malcolm Rose, on 01293 880180 or email askarose@thekey2growth.co.uk