Measure Your Results for Faster, Easier and More Success

When I was studying for my MBA, my most challenging class
was statistics. And even though I managed an A- in the
class, it took every one of the few analytical brain cells
I had to do so.

So imagine my pleasant surprise when I sat down to analyze
the statistics of my business over the last 12 months and
found myself engrossed, fascinated, excited and practically
dancing for joy. Armed with this critical data, now I know
exactly where to spend my time and efforts going forward to
receive the highest and best rate of return!

I ran a total of about 20 reports, but let me share some of
what I learned specifically from my shopping cart’s reports:

Shopping Cart Stats

The shopping cart system I use (1ShoppingCart) has the
ability to run sales reports in a variety of ways. Below
are four of the reports I ran, what my results were, and
what I will do with those results:

a. My Monthly Sales Totals…

…showed me that my best month financially was December,
with a close second in February and a third in October.

I reviewed my marketing and sales (making offers)
activities for those months, and what I found was this:

In December, my best financial month, I held my 50% off
holiday sale – and I didn’t have to do a thing to bring in
those sales, other than promote it. So, if you’re
hesitating about having a sale, and even more so if you’re
hesitating about giving a big discount, don’t. You’ll not
only make sales that you wouldn’t have otherwise, you’ll
likely make MORE sales than you would have otherwise, which
of course means more money.

In February, I launched the first edition of my “21 Easy &
Essential Steps to Online Success System” – and it’s become
my bestselling product. Those are two solid reasons to do
an updated and revised version, which I am right now.

In October, I held my “How to Make Your Teleseminars Make
You Money” teleseminar. Obviously this was, and is, a hot
topic, for my market, so I packaged it into a product for
immediate purchase (click here for details). I’m also
considering adding it to my list of live programs to offer
this year.

b. My Sales by Ad Campaign…

… showed me which special offers were the ones you were
most interested in taking advantage of. Now I know which
offers to consider repeating, or offering on another
product or program in the future.

c. My Sales by Clients/Customers…

… showed me who my top clients/customers are, what
they’ve bought, and how much they’ve invested in my
offerings. And since I know that one of the most effective
ways to grow a business is to make additional offers to
those who have already bought from me, you can bet that not
only will I do that, but I’ll do it in a way that makes
them feel special – because they are to me – by offering
them special access or discounts or additional benefits as
my way of thanking them for their continued business and
loyalty.

d. My “Where did you hear about us” Report…

… showed me that even though I thought that some of my
online networking efforts weren’t really paying off, mainly
because I didn’t think I was focusing enough time on them,
I was wrong. It seems even the small amount I had been
doing was making an impact.

So now I know the top 4-5 places to really focus those
efforts going forward. This makes what can seem like an
overwhelming marketing activity (some lists are SO active)
into an extremely managable and once-again enjoyable one.

I gleaned all of this information from just four reports
from my shopping cart. And this doesn’t include the reports
I ran from my email list service (Aweber) or from my web
stats (Google Analytics).

Measuring the results of your business activities is
critical to your success, and anyone can do it (it’s really
one of those “if I can, anyone can” kind of things). I
really want to encourage you to take a look at where you’ve
been over the past 6-12 months, analyze that data, and make
some strategic decisions about where you want to focus your
efforts going forward to get where you want to be.

© 2007 Alicia M Forest and ClientAbundance.com

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Alicia M Forest, MBA, Multiple Streams Queen & Coachâ„¢ and
creator of “21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success
Systemâ„¢, teaches coaches, consultants, and other solo
professionals and online entrepreneurs how to attract more
clients, create profit-making products and services, make
more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and
deserve. For FREE tips on how to create abundance in your
business, visit http://www.clientabundance.com/