Maximizing Your Revenue: Understanding Lead Indicators

In today’s business world, especially in the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing, knowing how to grow revenue and recognize lead indicators as a result of your business growth strategy keeps you on the right track. 

We’ve already spoken about how focusing solely on your revenue growth can be a bad thing for your business. We’ve broken down how revenue is the outcome, not the strategy itself and also have shown you how to create a good business growth strategy. 

The next question we’ll help you answer is how to optimize your efforts as a business. In this piece, we’ll go further in detail about the best ways to grow revenue, how important lead indicators are and how helpful time management can be when it comes to building client relationships. Every business, whether they're a large or small wants to increase their market share and grow their revenue and we'll show you how.

Growing Your Revenue

Looking at Your Lead Indicators

When you look into your business, you probably focus mostly on your business's performance, and more specifically, on your revenue. You'll look at what money is coming in, your gross profit and your profit figures. The thing is, profit is the result of a good business strategy. So focus less on the results (i.e. top line revenue) and look at your lead indicators, which truly drive the results. 

Your lead indicators can be elements like website traffic, conversion rates, lead-to-close times and close rates, which can all measure how you bring in business. You can look at these metrics more in-depth too, to see how effective your services are with your target audience. This helps you gauge how well you've branded yourself in the market, what your market position is like and what your brand strengths are. 

Focusing on Your Metrics

Once you've brought in a client, the metrics that you'll use to measure your revenue will shift to take into account how well you service them. This is where that foundation of trust that you began to develop to bring them on will come in handy. They wouldn't have signed on with you if they didn't believe you could deliver upon your promise. The trick is to focus on your customer retention rates and the average fees that you're charging them. 

Think of it like a math equation: number of clients x average fee. 

Finding Your Niche

With the use of your growth equation, you can then think about revenue generation in terms of looking at what products and services you have to offer both existing customers and potential ones. Look at your product development and ask yourself a few questions.

How can I add value for my client?

Can I add any new products or services for them?

Use the answers to these questions as a way to find your niche and dig into it as a focus area. Look to who already trusts you, your existing customers and clients, and ask them what you can help them do better. If you want to work out the 'dollar metric' of worth: average fees vs. the number of transactions.

This is where you could use a service matrix — put your list of clients down one side of a spreadsheet and then, in the columns, put the services you offer. Then, tick off which clients have what services.

This is a simple, easy way to work out where the holes are in your serviceability, allowing you to craft marketing campaigns to bring in more leads and build your revenue. 

Lead Indicators

But how do you know what a lead indicator is, let alone what a good one looks like? Well, the simple explanation is that it's a metric type that helps business owners predict any future performances or outcomes as well as decision-making.

A good lead indicator is always linked closely to your desired outcome or your goal, like increasing sales or your profit margins, and can be measured consistently over time. For example, tracking website traffic, social media engagement and email open rates can give you insight into your customer base and help you adjust your pricing strategy and sales process to increase sales revenue. Additionally, by identifying new markets and services, you can expand your revenue streams and generate revenue growth.

By using lead indicators to inform your business plan and marketing strategy, you can drive revenue growth and retain repeat customers. Once you figure out the obvious way they work, lead indicators are an easy marker of how well your business revenue is doing and how you can stay on track. 

Keeping Track of Time

One of the most critical elements you need to keep in mind when you're figuring out how to grow your business revenue is time management. Time management is just as important to keep track of when it comes to building rapport because you build trust.

When you track time, you gradually become more proactive than reactive too because customer retention and, more importantly, customer satisfaction become more important. If you can show your clients the time and effort you're putting into their marketing strategies and their businesses, then they become open to new opportunities. Accurate time tracking can help you generate traction, trust and value in your relationships so keep your eye on the clock. 

Time Management Applications

As a digital marketing company, we know just how many tabs you can have open at one time, or how busy you can be with client meetings and whatnot so here's a tip. Apps are your friend. There are tons of applications out there that help you keep track of what you're doing, how long and who for but there are few out there that can help you track lead indicators and create a seamless workspace quite like Accelo. 

Opportunities Abound

With some time management apps, some modules can track the number of leads that you’re getting and what your close rates are. Knowing what these numbers look like allows you to refine your sales process to find the best customers in your target market. It also allows you to be able to expand your sales strategy in your growth calculations, to further your relationship with your existing customers.

An example tactic to increase your close rate could be as simple as giving the client more options to pay the bills or articulating your services more enticingly. An obvious way you could get an easy yes could be by using an electric signature. Accelo's Sales module keeps track of this close rate metric and allows you to make informed decisions. 

Reports Time

What you can measure, you can improve, right? So having clear reporting will allow you to see how you’re going, and whether you need to change your tactics. With the right time management app, it can help you analyze your lead indicators and keep track of how long you spend on your clients, with their monthly retainer, which can be incredibly helpful when you’re giving them your monthly report. 

In your client reports, you can show your clients exactly what your services have been generating for them, making it a win-win for everyone. The retainers show your clients tangible proof of the hard work and time that your business has been putting in, developing rapport and loyal customers. It proves to them that you've delivered on what you said you would and that their business, and the contract that they have with you, is worthwhile. 

Now Start Growing

Increasing revenue is probably always at the top of the goals you want to achieve at the start of the new quarter, with increasing margins and attracting a wider target audience following quickly behind. Recognizing what a good lead indicator is, focusing on finding your niche and tracking your time with software like Accelo can help you achieve those with time and patience. So now it’s time to find the time management application that works for you and watch your revenue metrics build and your business grow.

About the Author

Tom Parker, Director at Dilate Digital, is a CPA and business advisor with 14 years of experience working with SMEs. He inspires and teaches small business owners and helps them grow their businesses and achieve their potential through marketing, brand development, systems and business strategy. Tom’s wife and three kids are his number one priority and when he’s not working he enjoys spending time with them, being outdoors and building anything from cubby houses to pizza ovens.