Hey there, my fabulous listener, welcome to episode 259 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.

Thanks for lending me your ears today – I know you have lots of choices, so I sincerely appreciate me being one of them!

If you’re enjoying this podcast – I’d love you to take a screen shot and share it on your socials and tag me in it.  How cool would that be!

Don’t forget you can get the show notes for this podcast at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/259

Did you have a listen into last week’s episode? Last week my special guest Emma Lovell chatted to us about building your personal brand alongside your business brand.  Something I failed to do when I first started in business.  It’s a great episode with so much gold. Head back there if you didn’t get a chance to listen in already- click here to listen to ep 258 – www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/258

But before I get started, I wanted to give a shout out to this week’s podcast sponsor Are you tired of wasting time on financial admin?  Simplify your business with Thriday.  Thriday is the next-gen accounting platform that automatically reconciles your expenses, calculates your tax and chases up overdue invoices.  You can control it all from one place.  Imagine how much time that could save you.  Business finance doesn’t have to consume you.  Become a Thridayer and live your best life! https://www.thriday.com.au/

But today’s episode is about leaky profits.  Are you leaking money in your business? My primary goal of my business is to make small business simpler for you which has the secondary goal of making sure I help you make more money.

There’s only 3 ways you can really make more money in your business;

1. Get more people buying from you (Win new business)
2. Sell it to them at a higher price (Increase the transaction value)
3. Get them to buy from you more often (Increase the frequency of the sale)

The harsh reality for many businesses is they are focusing heavily on the first step of winning new clients, (which also happens to be the most expensive of the three options) but even when they make a connection with a prospect and draw them into their business, unless they buy instantly many of these prospects simply leak out of the funnel.  Getting people who already know like and trust us is the cheapest and somewhat simplest way to grow our profitability.

Chances are that right now you are leaking profits from your business for one reason alone – you don’t have a CLIENT OPTIMISATION FRAMEWORK in place.

Client Optimisation means that you have a clearly defined process to capture initial contacts and have a system for nurturing them into clients.

Too often prospects visit a business, whether online or physical, and simply come in and go out without any connection being made.

This means that the money you spent on marketing to grab their attention has been wasted as you failed to connect.

The reality is not everyone who comes in contact with you is ready to buy in that moment, so you MUST have a system in place to maintain communication and nurture the relationship until they are ready or choose not to buy.

There are 4 common leakage points and most businesses have at least a few of them. Let’s take a look at what they are and more importantly how you can plug the gaps.

Leakage Point 1

The first profit leakage for most businesses happens at the point of entry.

This is the point when the prospect first visits your website or premises. Too often a prospect is allowed and even encouraged to come in take a look around and then leave, without ever being offered the chance to connect with the business.

It is vital that you are giving people a reason to connect with you.

This means you need a tool that represents real value that people will want to gain access to. It’s what is commonly referred to as a Lead Magnet.

If you don’t currently have a compelling reason for people to share with you their name and email at a minimum then there is NO QUESTION you will be leaking prospects and therefore potential income.

Leakage Point 2

The second and often most overlooked leakage point is the ability to NURTURE a new lead.

If you have been successful in making a connection and gaining some basic contact information from a prospect you now need to be able to insulate them until they are ready to buy.

Statistics show that today prospective buyers may require as many as 12 to 15 contact points before they are comfortable to buy.

I was always taught about the Rule of 6, but now it’s probably the Rule of 6×3!

Because in the past after the initial contact point it usually only took about 6 touch points to make the sale. But things have changed. The marketplace is noisier, with more competitors clambering for your prospects attention.

What does that mean for you?

It means you need to work hard to GET and HOLD the attention of your prospects.

I teach my clients to build longer marketing funnels and to be prepared for the need to deliver more value over a longer period of time to win the same buyer they used to get with a shorter sequence only a few years ago.

When you realise that the AVERAGE buyer requires a dozen or so touch points and you only have one or two in place the issue should be obvious.

If you don’t have an effective NURTURE SEQUENCE in place you are simply becoming a touch point for a competitor and shorting their nurture sequence by warming the prospect up for them.

One of the things I see with my clients is when we address this one GAP and implement a solid sequence of nurture their income jumps dramatically.

Your ability to maintain a communication with your prospect while they are in your marketing funnel is crucial.

The fact is the days of meeting a prospect today and pitching them tomorrow are all but gone. If your strategy is make a pitch to a prospect and if they don’t say yes instantly, you discard them because you have no way to nurture them, then you are leaking money BIG TIME!

Leakage Point 3

Learn How to Sell!

There is little value in becoming a great marketer and being able to attract lots of prospects if you are unable to CONVERT any of them into buyers.

The third leakage point then, is the lack of a sales system.

A predictable sales process that everyone follows and understands.

Now the sales system I teach is based on the principle of NO PRESSURE SELLING.

There is never a need to push or manipulate someone into buying anything. The truth is NONE of us want to be SOLD to, but we do want people to HELP US buy.

The cornerstone of this philosophy and what I teach all my clients is that your goal is NOT to try and CONVINCE someone to buy from you. Your goal is to help them DISCOVER why you are the best option.

The simple way to determine which side of the equation you fall into, Convincing or Discovery is to measure one thing next time you’re having a sales meeting.

Who did most of the talking?

If it’s you then you are almost certainly in a CONVINCING MODE.

If it’s the prospect then you are in DISCOVERY MODE.

Selling isn’t about talking it’s about LISTENING!

Many business owners are in such a habit of trying to convince people of their abilities that they are literally talking themselves out of the sale.

Bottom line, if you’re doing all the talking, you’re likely leaking a lot of income.

Leakage Point 4

The final leakage point occurs when businesses fails to maintain communication with the client and offer them other purchase options, upgrades and buying opportunities.

The most likely people to buy from you are those who already have.

In other words, you are at least 10X more likely to get an existing client to buy again then you are to attract a new client, yet most businesses spend the majority of their time, energy and resources focusing on new business.

Take a look around and you’ll quickly realise you are again haemorrhaging profits.

One of the worst (and all too common phrases) to hear in business is ‘Oh I didn’t know you did that’?

If you are hearing clients say something similar to you it means you have failed to educate them about the full range of services you offer.

Once you have won a client it is now crucial that you ensure you are able to maximise the share of wallet you can claim.

The client has the money and is willing to spend it. They already know and trust you. If they go elsewhere for a service you could have delivered, you guessed it, you just leaked more profit!

The ability to attract and convert new buyers is an important skill to develop, but you must never lose sight of the fact that you are likely leaving a lot of money on the table by not nurturing your prospects for longer and then giving your clients more buying opportunities.

Address these leakage points in your business and watch your bank balance start to grow.

If you’d like to continue the chat, join me and join in the fun in my Facebook group Like Minded Business Owners https://www.facebook.com/groups/LikeMindedBusinessOwners – love to hear from you over there.

So, that’s it for episode 259. If you loved this episode and found it valuable, please take 30 seconds out of your day to leave me a rating and review if you want where you are listening.  One more goal of mine is to reach more people with this podcast, and you can help me achieve that, by leaving me a review!  Thanks in advance.

See you next week on the podcast for episode 260!

Thanks again to Thriday – the next-gen accounting platform that automatically reconciles your expenses, calculates your tax and chases up overdue invoices. https://www.thriday.com.au/

But in the meantime, let’s hang out on social and get social on social – you’ll find me on Instagram, Facebook and my fav LinkedIn.

But whatever you do,

……..remember small business peep, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!