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.Some people seeing this contact the company for moreinformation.Some of those receiving more information in whateverway (from telephone contact, brochures or website) askto see someone.A sales person has a meeting with them (it could bemore than one).Some people will want a formal quotation or proposal(and there could be other stages such as a presentation,demonstration or sample depending on the nature of theproduct or service).While some orders may come now (or earlier), otherprospects need following up by phone, email, in personor whatever is appropriate.Finally, you can log the number of firm orders that comethrough the system.It should be noted here that by its nature this process is waste-ful.If prospects drop out at a late stage (at worst because theyfeel that something has been done inadequately) then the timeand cost it took to get them that far is gone for ever, and asimilar investment of time and effort needs to be made to getanother prospect through.In tough times this kind of wastage issomething very much to be avoided.It does not matter whether your list of stages is longer orshorter than the example above, the second action is then thesame in principle.You need to put some numbers to the conver-sion rate.Let s say, for instance, that only 10 per cent of peoplereceiving details move on to do more, or that half the peoplesales people meet with agree to a formal proposal being submit-ted, or that half the people getting proposals actually commit toan order.The question then is, can these conversions beimproved? 168 Tough tactics for tough timesIf, again just as an example, the ratio of proposal documentsto orders seems poor, perhaps a different type of proposal (orjust a better written one) might change things.Often the overallratio is high: we will resist putting numbers to it as businessesdiffer too much, but many prospects must go in at one end foreach single firm order resulting.There is often plenty of scope for action and improvement inthis situation and taking it has two additional advantages.First,it improves differentiation throughout the sales process.If youcan win enough sales from (less aware) competitors it maymake up for a shrunken market.Second, the changes indicatedare often not high in time or cost to achieve, which is just whatyou want in tough times.And another idea&Action in this area, and perhaps others too of course, is somethingthat can be shared around.If there is a sales team, getting eachmember to do some investigation and think about possible changesin discrete areas of the process is more manageable than oneperson struggling to review and change everything.Provided every-thing is pulled together and any changes well communicated(something that may involve formal changes to policy and practice),all this can result in significant and rapid change. 16950Maximizing webbusinessTechnology has a way of creeping up on you.One day the inter-net is an uncertain prediction, now we are all learning to surfand references to e-commerce are all around.You may havebought this book by contacting a website (the publisher, KoganPage, has one: www.koganpage.com), and many businesses ofall sorts, even small ones, have their own website.Indeed tocreate a simple website is now a classic low-cost option.Leaving the technology aside (as it is beyond our brief), awebsite is no more than a new option in the promotional mixand needs to be considered accordingly.Setting up a website canbe time-consuming and expensive; so too can maintaining itand keeping it up to date.But it compares favourably withmany other sorts of marketing option, and is something thatcan be got under way quickly.Whether you are starting fromscratch or if your website is simple, perhaps out of date and duean overhaul, this is something to address as soon as tough timesappear on the horizon.Indeed a (good) website provides a sepa-rate, perhaps additional, way of doing business.Whatevermight be done to ensure this is or will be working effectivelyneeds thinking through; the action starts with a basic first ques-tion that is very obvious and straightforward. 170 Tough tactics for tough timesActionThat first question is, what objectives do you have for yourwebsite?There may be several, but they should all be specific.It isimportant to know whether the cost of setting this up is deliv-ering what was intended; important, not least, to know how asite is developed.Perhaps the site is in part a source of refer-ence.You want people to consult it to obtain information (andbe impressed by it at the same time).This may save time andeffort otherwise expended in other ways.Perhaps you intendthat it plays a more integral part in the selling process, and youwant to measure its effectiveness in terms of counting thenumber of new contacts it produces and, in turn, how many ofthose are turned into actual revenue-producing customers
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