Business Coaching

Have you ever answered a question with a question? That habit can be awfully annoying in your personal life, but in the world of business, it’s a great way you build your conversion rate.

If you can get a conversation rolling with any of your customers, you’ll learn more about them and the way your business is perceived than you can imagine.

Would that make a difference to your conversion rate? The answer is most definitely yes.

Asking questions increases your conversion rate by building rapport with your customer and ensures that the sale becomes their idea and not yours.

If it were easy, everyone would do it, but too many businesses fail to ask simple questions because it means their team has to be skilled at active listening.

You can ask questions about your customers’ work, business, kids or hobbies, as long as you’re listening with sincere interest.

It can even be helpful to write down some of the answers so you can remember important information for future communication.

People will buy from you once if they like you, but they won’t come back unless they trust you and your business.

You build that trust by developing relationships over time, by asking questions and listening. By having these conversations, you find out what your customer’s needs are, giving you the ability to fill those needs more easily.

Most importantly for any business, you can generate a legion of “Raving Fans” this way. By building rapport and attaching importance to each conversation, the relationship grows naturally, until buying from you is a natural thing.
This isn’t easy for everyone.

Have you ever found yourself talking too much or saying things you shouldn’t?

If you have, you know that once you find yourself doing all the talking you are no longer in control. The person asking questions sets the direction for the conversation and you want to direct your customers to buy, and by asking questions you remain in control of the conversation.

If the customer is dominating the conversation by asking you questions make sure you answer the question with a question, but vary the questions that you ask, don’t simply respond with “why?”

Take the time to engage the customer and start to ask relevant questions that will lead them toward a purchase.

Questions can guide consumer interest, discover a need and give accurate information. In doing so, asking questions will also help you build rapport and referrals through the “Raving Fans” you develop.

If you haven’t started answering questions with questions, begin to develop those scripts today and see how it can help your business grow.

Knowing your business' numbers is very important.

Any Business Coach knows that knowing your numbers is a necessity to survive when running a business.

Do you know your numbers in your business?

If you don’t think knowing this information makes a difference in business, it does. It can mean the difference of making more profit. Knowing your conversion rates is essential. Think about doing it in various steps:

You need to know your numbers for every step of the sales process.  For example, in a retail fashion store, getting customers in the store is one thing, starting a conversation is another, getting clothes tried on, and so on …

Do you know it for each and every sales person at every stage of the process ?  Dale might beat Sally, but Helen beats Dale, and all at different stages of the sales process, so they can learn each stage from each other.

Do you know your conversion rates for each marketing medium.  As in, do you know what the rates are for Yellow Pages V Referrals, not just think you know, but actually know.

How much do customers spend on the initial transaction? How much are they worth over their lifetime of buying from you?

How many referrals do you get from each marketing medium and from each salesperson, and so on?

Is this a lot of work?   Yes…but it’s worth it.

Imagine you knew that every $1,000 advertisement bought you 100 leads and 20 sales of $500 each.  How often would you invest $1,000 to make $10,000? What if they came back for three years on average and spent another $2,000 on average?

So, it’s work, and it might be hard work, but it’s much better to do the work than struggling to pay the bills because you don’t know your numbers.

If you’re struggling with keeping track of your numbers like this, perhaps a business coach could help. See what a free business coaching session can do for your business.