About Business Development

In the last month, I’ve worked with a number of businesses with a common problem: measurement.

You’ll know the old adage about gambling, “only bet what you can afford to loose.” I have a theory about casinos. The reason that a lot of people loose all of their money is that usually, there’s only a measurement of failure and no measurement of success. It’s easy to measure failure - you’ve no money left. But how do you measure success? If you don’t decide what will be a successful visit before you start, how will you know how to stop gambling?

Your business development and marketing activities are no different. Wherever possible, you must measure the success of campaigns to see what works and what doesn’t. The things that work well and generate a return on your investment can be increased, using the budget that you gain from quitting the things that don’t.

Many of my clients use Google AdWords. Focussing on the Cost Per Click and the Click Through Rate is only half the story. The real money is in the Conversion Rate - when the visitor to your site makes a purchase, or picks up the phone, or whatever the main point of your site is.

With the AdWords example, Google provides conversion tracking, free. You are able to track which keywords, which ad groups and even which campaigns produce the greatest return on investment - and they may not be those that generate the greatest CTR!

Without measurement, you’re risking loosing everything without knowing what success looks like.