A couple of years ago, I finally realized that one of my real superpowers in my business was my intuition. And that as the CEO of my enterprise, this is one of the most valuable tools I’ve got in my arsenal.
When I ignore my intuition, things go to shit pretty quickly. So when my gut speaks, I listen.
I’m going to wager to guess that you’re nodding right along, because you, too, rely on your gut to run your show.
But there’s a little problem with too much intuition, too much relying on all the feelings ﹘ sometimes it can be seriously short-circuited by things like PMS, ego or that nasty bitch in your head. (Or possibly even delusions, because hey, sometimes big dreams give way to delusion.)
Which is why if you really want to succeed, you need to find a way to strike a balance between the realities of your business and your gut feelings. I like to think of this as the gut check vs. the reality check.
Why You Can’t Ignore the Numbers
When you’re in camp intuition, it’s all too easy to let that be your driving force and run from a place of knowing.
And that’s a big old problem. I know because I see this every freakin’ day, sometimes multiple times a day. People struggling to make their business work because they’re doing their absolute best but they aren’t looking at the numbers. Or they’re unwilling to because they feel like that makes their business icky or soulless.
I get it, I really do. But if you’re going to be the boss, you need to get this in check and understand that, if you’re going to succeed, your gut cannot be the only thing running the show.
Knowing your numbers doesn’t make you sleazy or soulless. It makes you smart. Smarter about your decisions. Smarter about what to do next. Smarter at predicting results. Most of all, it sets you up in a way that means you can set goals and reach them.
When you know your numbers, you can create a realistic plan and reverse engineer what you need to do from there. Best of all, you’ll suddenly find more flow and ease in your business because the plan is solid and you’re not killing yourself chasing unicorns.
Business gets a lot less scary when you have facts on your side.
[Tweet “Knowing your numbers doesn’t make you sleazy or soulless. It makes you smart. New post by @magspatterson”]
Breaking Down Your Numbers: Making Conversion Rate Your BFF
So, what numbers do you need to pay attention to? There are a lot of numbers floating around your business, and unless you’re a math whiz, you likely don’t want to crunch them all day long.
There’s one simple number that can help our businesses grow and thrive.
Meet conversion rate.
This little number is something you want to make your BFF because it holds so many secrets to what’s really happening with your marketing and sales. This is exactly why conversion rate matters.
(If you want to learn the ins and outs of conversion and what exactly conversion rate is, check out the new challenge I have coming up at the end of this post.)
And before you tap out by saying, “Hey Maggie, I’m not like the Internet marketing dudes. I’m not going to run my business this way,” I encourage you to take a second and hear me out.
How did your last launch go? Your last anything? Did you meet your goals, or were you flying on a wing and a prayer? What if you could make where you’re succeeding even stronger so you could reach more people?
I know that as online business owners we’re all special snowflakes, so this type of thing can feel super restrictive, but knowing your conversion rate actually is a proven way for you to take power back in your business. For you to be the fierce and feisty CEO of your empire, because you’ve got shit handled.
Plus, things get simpler when you combine the power of your gut feelings (intuition) + reality (facts) to guide the way.
A great example is list size. In no way do I advocate for treating your list like an ATM or focusing on growing in a way that’s not aligned with your vision. (Nor do I condone becoming obsessed with numbers.)
A typical conversion rate when selling to an email list in our industry is 1%. You may get a higher conversion rate depending on your activities, but if you plan for 1%, you’ve got a great baseline.
So why then do people expect to have a list of 1000 people and get 100 people enrolled in their thing? It’s because they don’t know the numbers. Or they expect that their special snowflake status will supercede facts and they will be the raging success story that defies the odds with their 10% conversion rate.
What if…instead of making things so hard, we looked at the facts at hand?
What if…we just took a few minutes and really focused on the realities of running an online business, instead of raging so hard against the “rules” because we’re scared of being a sleazebag?
What if…we used our gut check alongside our reality check?
Here’s a math equation you can stand behind no matter how creative/special/unique/amazing/mathphobic you may actually be:
Gut check + reality check = unstoppable success
That’s something I totally stand behind in my biz, and I invite you to join me in finding out how you can put conversion rate to work.
[Tweet “Join the free Conversions Challenge with @magspatterson to get your gut checked. #conversionschallenge”]
