leads vs appointments

One of the key statistics I look for in companies is the lead to appointment ratio. This number can tell you a lot about your business and where it is going, as well as what is working and what isn’t. I use it a lot to know if my marketing, in general, is working.

We all know to get more business, we need to generate more leads. But to generate more leads, we need to market, advertise, jump up and down in the street – pretty much do whatever it takes. But we need to quantify what we are doing and make sure it is working. And the first indicator you can use is the amount of leads that you are generating.

Let’s take a direct mail campaign for example. If you start the campaign in January, you will want to watch the amount of leads come in for the next few months. They should go up. If they don’t, you know something isn’t working in the campaign itself. And if you aren’t even keeping track of the leads to begin with, you would be completely lost!

Now let’s say that the leads go up, but the appointments stay the same. This can tell you that the marketing is working, but there is a problem with the sale or the pricing or something else. You can keep the campaign and change something in the pipeline. Again, all by just looking at the lead to appointment ratio. And imagine knowing how many leads came in during the same month last year at the current year time…now you have historical data. Even better!

So, start keeping track of the leads as they come in. Start keeping track of the appointments as you book them. Let’s try and find your ratio!