“I agree with you Chris,” I said “But the same rules apply
on and offline. Success of any business can be determined by the numbers. And
the better you know the numbers the better off you’re going to be.”

“Fletch, he said, the numbers are different on line. You
need bigger numbers just to make a dent.”

“True,” I snarled. “That’s because everything is at arm’s
length.”

“Boys,” Kate said, ‘Play nice. Instead of acting like two
skunks in a spraying match let’s put some numbers on the table and compare,
okay?” With that she unfolded a paper napkin and put three columns on it headed
Chris, Number and Fletch.

“Chris, if you are selling on line what are the key
numbers?”

“Visitors, click thrus and conversions/purchases. We gather other
stuff as well like pages examined and cart abandonment and restarts but those
are the biggies,“ Chris responded. I average between 20 and 30% of the visitors
clicking through.

“Okay, Fletch what about you?”

“I look at contacts, meetings and contracts as the
primaries. I do a lot of networking as you know but I’ve honed it to the point
that I seldom leave a gathering of 40 to 50 people without having one or two folks
I need to follow up with. I’ll spend an hour with them and know whether to try
to make them a client. I close over 50% of those I pursue.”

“So,” Kate continued, “Each of you start with a pool of
possibles. Chris let’s them self select, while Fletch winnows out a few for
further discussion. Agree? Then both of you have to convince them to buy and
that gets us to the real number that is important. Each of you have a monthly
number that you have to hit to pay the staff and pay the rent, the taxes and
keep the lights on. So let’s say that each of you has the same monthly number
and for comparison purposes let’s make it 10 Grand.”

Both Chris and Fletch nodded their assent.

“Chris, how many clients at your average income per client
would it take to make $10,000?” Kate asked.

He replied, “Ten at about $1000 each.”

“What percentage do you close of those that click through?” She continued.

“Truthfully, about 20% on the first visit,” Chris said
quietly.

Kate swung to Fletch “Same questions,” she said.

“Average client income and number is the same.” I answered.
“But I close about 50% on the first sit down then add another 30% on second and
third visits. I closed you on a third visit as I recall.”

Kate, unflappable as usual continued. “So, if you two
actually know what your close ratios are the sales math for you on a monthly
basis looks like this.

Chris (on line)                 Number                                  Fletch (In person)

10                          Customers
per month                           10

20%                       Close
ratio                                             50%

50                          Click
Thrus vs Sit downs                        20

25%                       Percentage
of visitors/possibles            10%   

200                        Visitors/
Possibles required                    200

Both of you need to get to the same number of people to make
it work. The only real difference is how you do it.”

So the question of the day is: How can on line and in person
working together make it easier for each other?”

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Jerry Fletcher understands how the synergy of on and off line
marketing can build a business. Visit www.JerryFletcher
to learn more.

Need a speaker that can make this kind of
hard-nosed marketing part of a meeting or convention? Visit www.NetworkingNinja.com to learn more,