The key to business success lies not in the number of enquiries you receive or even the number of paying clients you have but in the profits you make.

But ask virtually any business owner what they really need and they’re more than likely to reply, “More customers.”

They mistakenly assume that ‘more customers’ means ‘more profits’ but it doesn’t. If you don’t believe this, try and pay your office rent or the electricity and telephone bills with ‘more customers’. It is impossible.

To be successful, a business needs to make a profit. It doesn’t matter what industry or market your business is in, to remain viable, you need to make a profit.

While having more customers or clients will result in more revenue, it doesn’t always result in more profit. Increased revenue does not necessarily mean success – it might just mean more expenses: higher overheads, bigger staffing levels, more delivery costs, a need to find bigger facilities, etc.

So what businesses really need (even if their owners don’t realise it) is to find a way to make more profit.

One of the easiest ways to do that (and it’s a low-cost way) is to become more effective at converting customer enquiries into actual paying customers.

Think about how much effort and time you invest in generating client enquiries and what it would mean for your business if you could increase the number of people who decide to buy from you.

Let’s say that right now for every 10 leads (enquiries) you get, you manage to convince two people to buy your £300 service. That means your ‘conversion rate’ (the number of prospects who decide to buy your service) is 25% and from that, you get a total of £600.

But then you discover a more effective way of persuading people to buy your service. You don’t have to spend any more on advertising or marketing and you’re not attracting more prospects but suddenly, for every 10 leads you get, you receive five assignments. Your conversion rate has effectively jumped to 50% and you get a total of £1500 in new business.

You haven’t had to spend more on marketing – you’ve just got better at persuading people that you have a service they will benefit from – and you’ve increased your profits.

So how do you persuade more people to buy your service (without spending more)?

You stop wasting time and money trying to convince ‘everyone’ to do business with you. You give up on fruitless exercises like trying to educate the world about your service. Instead, you focus on those potential clients who recognise they have a problem, realise they can’t fix it alone and understand they need help. And you persuade them that you are the only one to fix their specific problem.

How?

You start positioning yourself as an expert at solving a specific market’s problem. Write articles and get them published. Write a book about the way to solve the market’s problem. Offer free information products (special reports and White Papers) that address ways to resolve that specific problem. Establish yourself as the person who is most qualified to fix the problem your target audience has. It won’t cost you more but it will bring you more clients and profits.