Sales & Customer Growth
Total sales tell you what happened. A few other numbers tell you why.
Many owners know their monthly sales and little else. They cannot say which source brings the best customers, how many enquiries become sales, or how long a deal takes. This session helps owners pick a small number of measures they can actually collect, read them sensibly and act on them.
Explore this page6 sections
You cannot improve what you only see once a month, and only as a total.
A rupee total says little about the cause. Sales may be up because of one large order, or down because a good source dried up. Without a few supporting measures, owners respond to the symptom: they discount, advertise or blame the market.
Measuring does not need software or a data team. It needs a handful of well-chosen numbers, recorded the same way each week, and the discipline to look at them. This session keeps the list short on purpose.
What the session covers
31 topics across 6 areas. Six parts, from choosing measures to making decisions.
Choosing What to MeasureFewer measures, used regularly.5
- Start from the questions you want answered
- Results, such as sales and margin, versus activity, such as calls and quotes
- Measures you can collect without extra effort
- A weekly set and a monthly set
- Dropping any measure nobody acts on
Eight useful numbers beat thirty that nobody reads.
The Core MeasuresThe ones most small businesses can use.6
Participants work out which of these they can calculate today, and which need a small change in record-keeping.
- Enquiries received, by source
- Enquiries that became quotes, and quotes that became orders
- Average order value
- Time from first contact to decision
- Sales and gross margin by product, service or customer
- Repeat business as a share of sales
Conversion, Step by StepWhere deals are actually lost.5
- Counting at each stage of the sales journey
- Why a drop at one stage needs a different fix from a drop at another
- Slow response to enquiries as a hidden cause
- Separating poor leads from poor follow-up
- Comparing this month to the last few months, not just to last month
Customers, Not Only SalesWhat a customer is really worth.5
- Margin by customer, not only revenue
- How much it costs to win a customer, roughly
- Customers who buy once and those who return
- Payment behaviour as part of customer quality
- A customer who is large but costs more than they bring
Numbers That MisleadRead with care.5
- Averages that hide one very large or very small order
- Small samples, such as a good week with five enquiries
- Seasonality and festival peaks
- Counting activity as if it were progress
- Targets that reward the wrong behaviour
A number is evidence, not a verdict. Ask what else could explain it.
A Weekly Review and a DecisionWhere measuring pays off.5
- A one-page sheet that anyone in the business can read
- Who prepares it and who looks at it
- Two or three questions to ask every week
- Making one change at a time, and checking its effect
- Sharing the numbers with the team honestly
What participants work on
- Their own list of six to eight measures
- A simple tracking sheet with their last three months of data
- A conversion calculation from enquiry to order
- A one-page weekly review template
- One decision they intend to take, and how they will check it worked
Questions that reveal the current state
- How many enquiries did you receive last month, and from where?
- How many became orders?
- What is your average order value?
- Which customers bring the most margin, not the most revenue?
- What would you change if you knew one number better?
How the session runs
Two to three hours, in a small group. A practitioner who runs a sales function shows the handful of numbers they actually watch, and the ones they abandoned. Participants then pull three months of their own records into a simple sheet, calculate what they can and agree what to start recording. Bring invoices, enquiry messages or order books for the last few months. Rough figures are fine.
What your students leave with
- A short list of six to eight sales measures that fit their business
- A way to collect each measure with the records they already keep
- A one-page weekly sales review
- A clearer view of where enquiries and deals are lost
- An understanding of which numbers can mislead
- One decision they will make from their own figures
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.
Pick a few numbers, record them every week, and act on what they show.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.