Roy Williams, the Wizard of Ads, shares a brilliant insight from one of his fastest growing retail clients today in his Monday Morning Memo:
I asked, “How is traffic trending? Are we ahead of last year?”
“Roy, I don’t measure traffic.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Last week one of my salespeople made 63 sales presentations and closed only 24 of them. That tells me 39 people bought somewhere else. And right now they’re telling all their friends why they bought where they did. They’re showing off their purchases and explaining why they didn’t buy from us.”
“Good point.”
“That salesperson is no longer with us.”
“You’re really serious about this.”
“Today’s close rate is the most reliable indicator of tomorrow’s traffic. When close rate is high, traffic increases. When close rate begins to slide, traffic soon begins to slide as well.”
The same applies online.
When a visitor comes to your website prepared to buy — not everyone will buy right away, of course — and isn’t converted by your sales process, they are likely to buy from one of your competitors. When they brag to their friends about what they bought and who they bought it from, it won’t be you they rave about. It’s the customer experience that matters.
Can you tell me why they shouldn’t have bought it from you?
