6 Steps to Creating a Constantly-Improving Sales System

Sometimes, it helps to take a step back and look at the BIG picture of different areas of your business.  When it comes to sales systems, one big picture view that bears examination is the process by which a good sales system becomes a great sales system

If you follow these six steps with some degree of consistency you can’t help but see increasingly better results from your online selling efforts. Of course, the more consistent and focused you are the better your results will be.

Step 1: Plan

Before you start to build your sales system, give it a bit of thought. You don’t need an exhaustive plan, and it need not take you a long time, but make sure you know what you are building before you build it.

I’ve found that the easiest way to plan a sales system is to create a map, like this one…

If you are a VisiOlo member, you can use the set of template maps we have created for you. If not, no sweat, you can create a map easily with a pencil and paper.

Step 2: Build

This one is pretty clear, right? The next step after planning is building.  You’ve probably already built a sales system or two, but I can offer some advice from my experience.

First, it’s really critical to separate the Build process into stages; write the copy, design and format the pages, set up autoresponder, set up ecommerce system, test. When you are writing, for instance, do very minimal formatting, just enough so that it is clear where the headlines, sub-heads, and text emphasis should be.  For instance, if you want a box around a testimonial, don’t create the box, just put a note in brackets saying [box here]. You don’t want to lose any writing momentum you have built by switching suddenly into design and layout mode.

Second, many of the tasks in this stage are perfect for outsourcing. If you can afford to outsource anything, I would suggest starting with the design or ecommerce system setup. For instance, if you use Rapid Action Profits, John Burnette will do a complete setup for you, including testing, for just $45.  He’ll do a great job and you won’t have any of the headaches.

Step 3: Deploy

Now that your system is set up, you need to turn it on and start driving traffic to it.  For brand new systems, I’m not an advocate for a big ‘event type’ launch.  There are plenty of ways to do re-launches, or special events using launch tactics after you get rolling, but until a system is tested and refined a bit, I think glitches, mistakes, and missed opportunities absorb a lot of the launch energy.  Along those lines, many times, I prefer to have a ‘hidden’ launch before I open up the real thing.  A hidden launch is a private offer to previous customers or members of a certain community and it’s a good way to start momentum rolling for a new sales system.  Plus, you’ll get testimonials and some conversion rate history to share with possible JV partners.

After deployment, there is always traffic coming into your system through your promotional efforts, But the focus of this post is not really traffic generation. The Deploy step is more about getting the system up and running than anything else and it takes a bit of traffic to do that.

Step 4: Measure

Now that you have deployed your system you want to measure your results.  You’ll need data on at least two levels 1) a summary level that gives you key metrics and 2) a detail level that allows you to measure conversion rates for each step of your selling process and also how each traffic source is performing for you.  There are ways to get this data with various free tools, but, of course, VisiOlo makes it a lot easier.  This is, after all, what we are best at.  Regardless of how you get your data though, please don’t ignore the overwhelming significance of easy access to marketing metrics.

Step 5: Plan

Based on your measurements, you should be able to identify areas that you would like to target for optimization.  The biggest improvements come from making improvements to your offer pages — perhaps improved headlines, or a sweeter offer.  But there are many places in your sales system where you can either add offers, build feedback loops, remove extraneous steps, or communicate better. Target one part of your sales system and develop a plan for improvement.  Again, your plan does not have to be extensive, but just writing down a few steps will keep you focused.

Step 6: Optimize

With your plan in hand, all you need to do is make sure the steps get done.  If you do *anything* to improve your sales system after it is deployed, you will be miles ahead of most people. It can be a simple step, but any step toward improved performance will be well rewarded.

Now, simply repeat steps 4 through 6 consistently, and, over time, you will find you can make substantially more profit, and create substantially more satisfied customers if you follow this process.

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I’m sure it is abundantly clear that I place a high value on being able to measure marketing results.  I mean, I went so far as to create software from scratch so that I would have the *right* measurement and analysis tool for my business — that software is now available to you.

But people who know me commonly assume that the reason I am so focused on measurement and analysis is because I’m a ‘numbers guy.’ And that couldn’t be farther from the truth.  The reason I am so focused on marketing metrics for Infopreneurs is because I know three things: 1) nothing is more important to an Infopreneur’s business than the effectiveness of their selling system, 2) if Infopreneurs don’t make good decisions about the most profitable places to spend their time and resources they won’t survive and 3) with with a little bit of focused attention, taking small steps to optimize a sales system over time can transform a mediocre business into a profit-pulling powerhouse .

When you *know* these three things, there is only one conclusion you can draw — it is vitally important to be able to measure and analyze the performance of every component of your selling system so you will know where to focus your optimization efforts in the future.  It’s not a choice of if you are going to work to improve your marketing results next month, it’s a matter of what you are going to choose to focus on.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spacepleb/ / CC BY 2.0

It’s all about focus — the decisions we make about where to place it.

What really determines your focus are the strategies you choose.  Metrics only tell you what happened in the past and where you might focus your optimization efforts.  Strategies, guide your activities and great strategies give you the biggest return for the time and resources invested.

Since choosing strategies wisely is such a critical skill, I thought I would invite my readers to work out their strategic thinking muscles with a little optimization strategy challenge.

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As I watched John Reese’s new video which is part of his pre-launch for Opportunity.com I was struck by a couple of things. First, I always like his style. His presentation skills are top notch. Second, this video epitomizes the idea of “flawless execution of the bacis” — it’s not complicated to build effective online selling systems.  And third, without good tracking, metrics, and reporting, anyone who uses a system like this will leave a lot of money on the table.

If you watch the video, you will see that “Sales Per Subscriber” is one of the key metrics that John uses — a very powerful metric indeed.

Right now, VisiOlo provides these kinds of metrics, but not for “other” people’s products — in other words, we can show you key metrics like this for *all* of your products, but it is difficult (if not impossible if you stay in the white hat side of the ring) to track sales for affiliate products in one place.  Of course, you can log in to multiple accounts and transfer all of the information to a spreadsheet to calculate a metric like this, but that takes lots of time and — as such — people won’t do it for long.

I have a solution in mind, or at least a possible solution, that would allow VisiOlo to track affiliate sales and add these into the overall metrics for users.  Only time and testing will proove if I am right or wrong.

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The most spectacular successes are based not on perfect execution, but on consistent course correction.  No one gets from point A to point B in a straight line — zigs and zags are the norm, not the exception.

Several years ago I was discussing the various zigs and zags of my business model with a good friend and former client — a gentleman I came to think of as “The Shaman Entrepreneur” because he is quite good at building businesses and he is also, literally, a shaman.  Dave has provided some real gems and observations for me over the years, but one that really stuck in my mind was his response to me when I was lamenting a particular zag (or was it a zig?) that ended up costing me a good year and a half of time and resources to get back on track.

He said, “Doug, that’s normal.  There are no straight lines in nature, nor do they exist in business.  Of course, you need to have a vision for where your ship is headed, but on your way to your goals you can count on being off course most of the time.  The trick is to know when you are off course, and make constant (hopefully small) course corrections. If you want to avoid big detours in the future, you just need to make sure you know when you are off course earlier.”

“My “ship?,” I asked?

Dave laughed, “I’ve used that analogy a lot and it has helped me keep a good perspective on progress toward my goals. When I say “ship” I’m not talking about an ocean liner, I’m talking about a rocket!”

Dave went on to explain how the first manned Apollo mission to the moon (Apollo 8) was almost scrapped because the engineers could not solve the problem of keeping the rocket on course. In fact, they could do no better than keeping it on course 20% of the time. The best scientific minds in the world worked on the problem and could not develop a way to maintain an accurate trajectory.

When you are trying to land a man on the moon for the first time in history, being off course 80% of the time is not a comfortable idea. The breakthrough came when the NASA engineers changed the way they looked at the problem. Instead of trying to stay on course all the time, they focused on developing superior measurement technology that allowed them to make constant small course corrections.  End result, Apollo 8 was indeed off course 80% of the time, but they hit their target within 12 feet on their first attempt to put a man on the moon.

For an interesting read/listen on the topic check out Wayne Hodgin’s podcast and transcript Off Course – On Target: The Story

Since this conversation with The Shaman Entrepreneur, I’ve adopted this way of thinking and have found more success and less stress in my business life.  Knowing that the key to less painful and costly course corrections is better measurement, I’ve also focused on creating better “instruments” for my ship.

Getting quick and meaningful feedback about how your business is doing is more than important, it is critical to being able to hit your target. In order to know where you need to be, you first need to know where you are.

This is why I have dedicated myself and my business to creating better measurement tools for Infopreneurs.

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Photo Courtesy of Nicolas Valentin and Flickr

When I was a kid, my Dad used to take me fishing a lot.  We would get up at like 3am, grab some quick breakfast (usually pancakes or oatmeal) and jump in the car before there was even a hint of sunrise.  Within an hour or so, we would pull in to the trail head parking lot, grab our gear, and take a short hike to someplace like Rainbow Lakes. We would always be the first ones there and we would be at the lake before the trout started to feed.

I loved those trips and I cherish the memories.

But I didn’t like getting out of bed in the morning THAT early.  I was comfortable under my covers sound asleep – cocooned in my comfort zone.  If my Dad didn’t prod me and drag me out of bed, I would have happily slept on — never knowing what awaited me outside my comfort zone.

The same is true in business, only it is a lot more intense because there is a lot more perceived risk in business than in fishing.

Business is scary for many of us, especially for independent entrepreneurs.  Just making the decision to take control of your own destiny requires a big jump out of the comfort zone for most of us.

We make the jump anyway. We throw off the covers and hit the trail with hope, aspirations and big plans.  We land on both feet and start walking into the unknown wilderness.

Little do we know at the time, but this is just one of many leaps that we must make out of our comfort zone.

In fact, the best things in business happen outside of our comfort zones.  Like the fishing trips I took with my Dad at oh-dark-thirty in the morning, they can’t be experienced or benefited from while residing under the covers.

The natural desire to remain in one’s comfort zone is one reason why most businesses don’t measure their results consistently.

But there is only one way to be the first one on the trail — the one who sees the sunrise, breathes the fresh air, and lands the hungry fish — and that is to get out of your comfort zone.

Turn on the light, throw off the covers, and develop a fool-proof measurement system for your business.

Until you do, you won’t know what you are missing — and, believe me, when you are landing an 18″ rainbow while everyone else sleeps, you aren’t wishing you were in bed under the covers.

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One of the first things I do with my consulting clients is to establish some key metrics that we can use to measure their marketing systems.

I can tell you, out of over a hundred clients, I have yet to work with one that already had good marketing metrics.

The reason MOST businesses don’t use good marketing metrics is threefold:

1) They don’t know what to track

2) It can be VERY difficult to track marketing results in most businesses — especially offline businesses with a salesforce

3) Even if the right metrics can be easily tracked, retrieving and analyzing the data is rarely easy.  It takes effort and therefore, sometimes (most times) doesn’t get done.

Getting the right metrics in place is easier with some clients than others. With my corporate clients, it usually means just figuring out what data to collect and how to collect it.  With clients who don’t have much money, and no IT department to rely on, it can be really tough.

But I always push for my clients to get proper metrics in place — sometimes it never happens.

But when we DO get the right metrics in place and have an automated process for tracking and reporting, great things happen.

It’s literally almost like magic. When you start measuring something, it just tends to start to improve. Not by itself, of course, but visibility brings focused attention to the most important projects.  And things improve, almost like magic.

That’s why I’m really excited about a new feature for VisiOlo that we just rolled out today.

It’s called the dasboard and our “Very Private Beta” users have access to it as of this morning.

The Dashboard is the first thing VisiOlo users see when they log in.  It shows them all of their key metrics — all in one place — ready to view at a glance.

Here’s a screenshot of our new “baby.”

We couldn’t be prouder!

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One of the key things I want VisiOlo to do is to provide at- a-glance marketing metrics for Infopreneurs.

Right now — in the current version — we have a placeholder for the “dashboard” which will be a place that users can go to quickly view the key metrics for their business.

Since we have almost wrapped up the features that we need to activate for the Very Private Beta stage, it is time to thinking about the next set of upgrades. I really want to make sure we start building out the dashboard as soon as possible, so I expect at least some components of the dashboard will make it into the beta release.

As a result of this focus, I’ve been working toward developing a list of the top 10 most important marketing metrics and I thought I would record my progress here. This list is definitely a work in progress because I fully expect to change it and refine it as I go along and as I get feedback from readers and VisiOlo beta users.

Below, is the list as it stands right now. These are not listed in order of priority, and I have defined only 7 out of the 10, but my brain hurts so I’m going to leave it here and pick it up again in the next few days.

Each metric would be calculated based on a variable period of time (for example today, past 7 days, past 30 days, past 365 days, etc.). And time frames will be comparable, so users will be able to detect trends.

1) Sales Per Visitor

(Total Sales)/(Total Visitors) = (Sales Per Visitor)
This metric says so much, but the most immediate benefit is that it provides a benchmark for measuring the value of a visitor and how much one can spend to get one visitor and still remain profitable.

2) Sales Per Subscriber

(Total Sales)/(Total Subscribers) = (Sales Per Subscriber)
I find this metric to also be very useful, and it is generally easy to get the right data to calculate this one. Not all of my sales come from my email list, some come from other traffic sources like social networks and joint ventures, but still looking at Sales Per Subscriber on a macro basis is very helpful. When I calculate this metric, I include all sales, even ones that did not come from subscribers. It’s not so much the number that matters, but how it changes over time as a result of my optimization efforts that really tells the story.

3) Sales Per Transaction

(Total Sales)/(Total Transactions) = (Sales Per Transaction)
One of the fastest ways to increase profit is to increase sales per transaction. There are really only two ways to increase sales per transaction. 1) Increase prices for existing products 2) Add new products to the mix that sell at a higher price point than your existing products. Both are a great way to significantly improve profits.

4) Total Active Customers

(Sum of Unique Customers Who Have Purchased At Least Once in the Time Frame)
This metric is a bit unique because it tells you how many true customers you have for whatever time frame you define. Lets say I compare in the past three months versus the past 12 months. I might find that the more recent period shows more active customers than the longer (12 month) period. Because the number of active customers is trending up, I must be doing something right.

5) Sales Per Customer

(Total Sales)/(Total Active Customers) = (Sales Per Customer)
Ah, this one becomes very interesting. It is rather difficult, given the tools that most Infopreneurs have, to calculate Sales Per Customer. We know how many people bought, but we don’t know *who* bought (without a lot of digging). One sale could represent a new buyer, and another could represent a repeat buyer — someone who bought something from me in the past, and has now purchased again. But this is an *important* metric because when you focus on increasing sales per customer great things happen. When you focus on delivering more value to your existing customers, profits rise dramatically in any business. We develop strategies that are aimed at selling ‘back-end’ products to our existing customers, but actually measuring our results is difficult at best.

6) Average Daily Sales

(Total Sales for Time Frame)/(Total Days in Time Frame) = (Average Daily Sales)
I’ve found that the most consistent and useful way to measure gross sales is on an average daily basis. It’s a lot more accurate than looking at monthly numbers because months vary in terms of how many days there are in each month. This allows one to easily detect true trends by comparing Average Daily Sales for one time frame versus another.

7) Average Daily Opt-ins

(Total number of New Subscribers)/(Total Days in Time Frame) = (Average Daily Opt-ins)
For now, I’ve restricted my definition of “subscribers” exclusively to mean “email subscribers.” Ultimately, I’d like to be able to track Twitter subscribers, FaceBook Page Fans, RSS Subscribers, etc. because frequently my social network grows as fast or faster then my email list, but tracking email subscribers is easy, while tracking social network subscribers is a bit more difficult. So I’d rather have a clear view of the metrics I can get *now*, then work on pulling the rest of the data at a later point.

I’m feeling like this is a pretty good start. Some of the metrics above can be calculated out of data we are already collecting, but a few will require some creative thinking and considerable extra coding.

There are also other metrics I would like to track, but these are the ones that I think we can create without having to jump too many technology hurdles.

I’m also hoping to get some feedback, so if there are key metrics that you use in your business, or that you wish you could use in your business, then please leave a comment and tell me about them.

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