Friday, December 21, 2012

3 Ways to Boost Sales This Week, Without Advertising

I just consulted with the owner of a tutoring school with 3 branches. He really needs to grow his sales.

Before prescribing any marketing "medicine," I asked a few questions to diagnose his condition.

Turns out that his average student stays for 9 months, paying $250/month, for $2,250 in lifetime value.

Before joining, prospective students pay $200 to take an assessment test. And 33-50% of those prospects sign up at his 3 branches (he couldn't be specific about the exact conversion percentage).

After a few more questions and answers, I gave him these 3 easy ways to boost his sales ...

1) Find out the exact conversion percentage at each school. That way, you know who's marketing well and who needs help, so you can prioritize your efforts.

2) Find out exactly what the manager says and does at the school with the highest conversion percentage. Then, roll out their "script" to the other 2 schools.

When you know what works and you do more of it, you are guaranteed to increase sales. So following steps 1 and 2 are a slam-dunk certainty.

(Wait. What about you? What works best to turn prospects into clients for your business? Are you doing as much of it as possible? Why not??)

Here's my last suggestion to the school owner ...

3) Waive the $200 fee on initial assessments, for anyone referred by an existing student.

I told him NOT to worry about the $200 he'll lose by not charging these prospects for tests. Because they walk into his lobby with $0 acquisition costs.

He can still charge the general public $200 for testing, but when people are referred and get the assessment for free, they feel part of an exclusive club ... AND they feel obligated to reciprocate in some way for receiving a $200 gift ... which will likely boost conversions above the current 33-50%.

And I told him to focus on the figure $2,250, which is the lifetime value of every new student who signs up during the "Free Assessment" referral campaign. That's a very motivating number.

(Wait. What about you? What's your lifetime client value, or LCV? Don't know it? Then how can you know how much you can afford to "buy" new clients for with your marketing?)

I hope you find these 3 ideas helpful. None of them will cost you a nickel in advertising. None requires any investment in new technology. And all can be done this week.

Meanwhile ... if you want to put an end to "feast-or-famine" syndrome in your business, my free Client Cloning Kit can help you. Grab your copy here, while they last.

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