Sales & Customer Growth
Before getting more enquiries, find out what happens to the ones you have
If ten enquiries become two sales, getting twenty enquiries may bring four. But if the problem is that half the enquiries never get a reply, fixing that may do more than any advertising. This session maps the path from first enquiry to paid order, counts the people at each step with whatever records the business has, and picks one point to improve.
Explore this page7 sections
Conversion is a number you can know.
Conversion simply means the share of people at one step who move to the next: enquiries who ask for a quote, quotes that become orders, orders that are paid and delivered. Owners often speak about it as a feeling. A rough count from a notebook or chat history turns the feeling into something specific.
Small numbers can mislead, and a month's results have many causes. The session is honest about this: the aim is not scientific proof, but better questions and one carefully chosen change at a time.
What the session covers
32 topics across 6 areas. Six parts, using the business's real records.
Drawing the JourneyEvery step, in order.5
- How a stranger becomes a customer in your business
- Typical steps: enquiry, reply, conversation, quote, decision, order, payment, delivery
- Who handles each step
- How long each step takes
- Where customers wait without hearing from you
A simple line of boxes on one page is enough.
Counting at Each StepFrom records you already have.5
- Using a notebook, a billing record or a chat history
- Counting the last month or the last fifty enquiries
- Writing the count at each step
- Working out the share who move to the next step
- Noting where the records are missing, and fixing that going forward
Finding the Biggest LeakOne place to work on.5
Very small counts will be rough. Participants are shown how to treat them as hints and not as proof.
- Comparing the steps and spotting the largest drop
- Checking whether it is a genuine problem or normal for your business
- Looking at the time taken at the step, not just the numbers
- Reading a few lost cases to see what happened
- Choosing one step to work on
Possible ReasonsBefore changing anything.7
- Slow or unclear reply
- The wrong type of customer
- Price or value not clear
- Quote hard to understand, or sent late
- No follow-up
- Complicated payment or delivery arrangements
- A product or service issue that sales cannot fix
Asking a few lost customers, politely, why they did not go ahead is often the most useful step.
Choosing One Change to TestSmall and measurable.5
- Writing the change and why you expect it to help
- Deciding what you will count
- Setting the length of the test: usually four weeks
- Changing one thing at a time
- What would count as no effect, and what you will do then
Keeping ScoreA habit, not a project.5
- A weekly sheet with counts at each step
- Ten minutes at the same time each week
- Reading the trend over several weeks
- Comparing before and after, with caution
- Sharing the numbers with your team
What participants leave with
- A map of their own sales journey
- A first count of enquiries at each step
- Their biggest leak and possible reasons for it
- One written test for the next month
- A weekly tracking sheet
What this session is not
- A guarantee of any particular conversion rate
- A statistics course
- Training in website or app analytics tools
- A comparison with other businesses' numbers
Who teaches it
- Sales and operations practitioners
- Business owners who track their own sales numbers
- Sales managers
- Business analysts who work with small businesses
How the session runs
Three hours, in a small group. Participants bring whatever records they have of recent enquiries and orders. The practitioner shows the counting method on a clearly hypothetical business, then each participant draws their own journey, counts at each step and identifies their largest drop. They then write one test, exchange it with a partner for feedback and set up the weekly sheet.
What your students leave with
- A drawn map of their sales journey, from first contact to payment
- Counts of how many people reach each step, from their own records
- The point where most opportunities are lost
- A list of possible reasons for that loss, and how to check each
- One change to test for a month, with a before-and-after measure
- A simple sheet for tracking conversion weekly
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Count what happens, find the biggest leak, and test one fix.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.