Mentee: Olly, I have an idea.
Olly: Cool, I love ideas! What is it?
Mentee: So, I was thinking of creating a new offer for my agency. A paid audit. I would look at their business and point out the bits that aren’t working.
Olly: What’s the purpose?
Mentee: If I offer the audit, and highlight the problems, they’ll be more likely to buy my service afterwards.
Olly: Why focus on this right now?
Mentee: Because I’ll make more money. Also, I saw someone on Twitter doing this and he said it works great.
Olly: But why this? Why now?
Mentee: Because if I improve conversion, I’ll make more money.
Olly: Yes, but remember our strategy. You already close over 80% of sales calls. You don’t have a conversion problem. You have a lead problem.
Mentee: So, it’s not that this is a bad idea… it’s just that it’s not a priority?
Olly: Think about this: Everything you do has a cost — time, focus and energy. Spend a day on this, that’s a day you don’t spend on something else.
Mentee: Right. During our strategy work, we identified that I don’t have enough leads. So that’s the biggest priority.
Olly: Correct. But we can make the numerical case too. Let’s say your idea works, and you raise conversion by 10%. You’ll go from 80% to 88% close rate. Nothing to sniff at… but closing 88% of zero leads is…
Mentee: Zero.
Olly: It’s zero.
Mentee: So, if we got more leads, that’ll have a bigger impact than improving conversion.
Olly: Exactly. If we 10X leads, that could 10X the business. That’s where you should focus.
Mentee: Got it. While I’ve got you, I had another idea too.
Olly: Tell me.
Mentee: I thought maybe I should redo my website — make it look amazing, with case studies, graphics, and my story.
Olly: Why?
Mentee: Because people expect to see visual quality from me. That will convince them to buy.
Olly: That’s a conversion project.
Mentee: Oh yeah. And I don’t have a conversion problem.
Olly: Correct.
Mentee: I have a lead problem.
Olly: You do.
Mentee: One more idea I had…
Olly: Go on…
Mentee: Everyone’s talking about webinars. I think I should try one.
Olly: Why?
Mentee: Because I know people buy from webinars. If I run a webinar to my list, I’ll make lots of sales.
Olly: That sounds like…
Mentee: Conversion.
Olly: Uh-huh.
Mentee: So, what I’m taking from this is… we should just stick to the plan.
Olly: Stick to the plan.
Mentee: And not get distracted.
Olly: And not get distracted.
Mentee: Thanks Olly
Olly: 🙂