The Secret to Predictable Success

Know thy Numbers!

If there was a 10 Commandments of Business, I’m sure this would be one.

“Know thy numbers or pay with eternal business damnation.”

Alright, maybe not damnation but damn, your making it way harder than it has to be.

We were recently featured by Ontraport, the software we use to help run our biz.  I admit it was a bit of a head swelling experience, but no worries, enough bumps in the road since then has cured all the swelling!

Watch Our Interview Here:

The point and the title of the article, “Predictable Success” is the meat of the matter.  Know thy numbers!

Look, we aren’t super geniuses or wizards.  There is no magic spell.

We just like to be able to forecast our income as best as we can.  We also like to be able find the areas to improve on so we can keep that graph line moving in an upward trajectory.

Steph and I have consulted and surveyed thousands of wedding businesses over the years and one of the most common issues is…

Most wedding pros do NOT know their numbers. In fact I’m usually pleasantly shocked when they do.

So what numbers am I talking about?

There are several categories of numbers that you need to be on top of, but I’m going to focus on the one of the most important ones that makes your phone ring and fills your email inbox with leads.

Know They Website Visitors

You have a website right?  I know some haven’t gotten around to that; way too much going on to be be bothered.

For the rest of you; here is a critical number you need to know: your website visitor numbers.

#1 – Use Google Analytics (or other analytics) tracking.

The way to pull this off is to have analytics installed on your site.  It sounds a lot harder than it is.

Overwhelmed by the thought of it?  Get over it and hire someone to do it for you.

#2 – Track your website lead conversion.

Next, figure out how many of those visits end up becoming leads that contact you.  For example, let’s say 10 out of 100 visitors typically becomes a lead.  That would be a 10% conversion rate, meaning that 10% of your website visitors convert aka become leads.

#3 – Track your meeting conversion.

Take this one step farther and figure out how many of those inquiries turn into meetings.  Let’s say that out of every 100 leads, you get 50 of them to meet with you.  Your lead to meeting conversion rate is 50%.

#4 – Track your booking conversion.

The next step would be to figure your closing rate or the bookings that come from these meetings.  We’ll keep the numbers simple and say that 50% of the couples who meet with you end up booking you.

#5 – Determine how many website visitors you need to book ONE wedding.

Follow this formula using the example numbers in this article:

1 / [Lead Conversion %] / [Meeting Conversion %] / [Booking Conversion %] = [Number of website visitors]

1 / 10% / 50% / 50% = 40

In this example, you need 40 website visitors to book one wedding.  And if your goal is to book 5 weddings every month…you need 40 x 5 = 200 website visitors.

Now you have predictable lead flow.

Fix the Leaks in Your Sales Funnel

This is a simple example of a sales funnel.  The mouth of the funnel would be them visiting your website and the other end of the funnel would be when they become your customer.

Knowing your numbers can also help you solve some of your business weaknesses.

So you say, “I’m not getting any leads from my website.”

Are you getting traffic?  Are people actually visiting your site?  Are they leaving right away or are they reading your content?  What pages are they entering on and which are they bailing on?

When you know your numbers you can examine what happens at each stage to find the “broken links” in your sales chain.

There are many strategies to fix these issues, but one thing is for sure…

If you don’t know where the problem is you’re going to have a hell of a time fixing it.

Unless you have kick ass psychic abilities, and then, why are you even reading this?  You already know what I’m going to say.

Think about how your wedding business can benefit from this information.  How much stress could it relieve?  Wouldn’t it be helpful to be able to see and fix the holes in your funnel?

If you haven’t already, it’s time to know thy numbers and stop committing the sin of cluelessness.

What do you think?

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