The primary objective for any business is to increase their conversion rate in sales. Yet, they do not simply appear out of thin air. A lot of work is required before potential customers purchase a company’s products and services.

For online retailers, key performance indicators (KPI) are one of the best weapons at their disposal. KPIs supply them with a lot of valuable data, the type that assists them in identifying strengths and weaknesses with their current approach. The result: overall performance can be enhanced to generate more sales.

One of the essential KPIs is undoubtedly conversion rate.

When a business understands and optimizes conversion rate, it can better support company growth. This is achieved by gaining a better picture of their leads, and how many of these are being converted into sales.

The conversion rate in sales is important. That has been established. Yet what is it exactly? How is it calculated? How can it be improved? The following guide will answer all of those questions and more.

What is the conversion rate in sales?

Conversion rate in sales is a metric used to assess the efficiency of turning leads into conversions. These conversions can come in different forms. For example, a business could look at email newsletter sign-ups or get customers to fill out a form as a conversion.

When it comes to conversion rate in sales, however, this metric allows you to track when a lead becomes a paying customer.

It goes without saying, but conversion rate is an essential metric to track. It allows you to assess the performance of your sales team, including their efficiency and effectiveness in converting new leads into clients. It is also useful in ensuring both your sales and marketing teams are aligned and aiming towards the same general goal.

Attracting potential customers is only half of the battle with any marketing campaign. Once you have got people onto your website – whether through search engine optimization (SEO), paid ads, social media, etc. – the next step is to get them to buy. Without that, all your marketing efforts are ultimately for nothing.

By tracking conversion metrics, you learn much more about the effectiveness of your marketing and conversion strategy. This information then supplies the impetus to enhance your return on investment (ROI).

How do you calculate the conversion rate?

The good news: the sales conversion rate is easy to calculate. It is a simple case of taking the number of leads, dividing this by the total sales numbers, and multiplying the number by 100 for the percentage.

For more clarity, here is a more direct look at the formula:

(number of sales/number of leads) x 100 = conversion rate for sales

Here is an example in action. Say you have generated 200 leads in the past month. From these leads, you have sealed 20 sales. Here is how this will look with the aforementioned formula:

(20/200) x 100 = 10%

That 10% is your sales conversion rate. Is that a good rate? Well, this is dependent on numerous factors.

Your industry, business type, products, and website traffic – all of these play a role in what constitutes a great or poor conversion rate.

For instance, a high-volume business will be aiming for a sizeable conversion rate percentage. On the other hand, a retailer selling high-end products will likely be thrilled with a percentage that sits around 2-3%.

Which tools help with tracking and completing conversions?

You know how to calculate the conversion rate in sales, but now there is just one issue: how do you actually acquire those conversion and sales numbers?

Fortunately, you do not have to get out a pen and paper to manually track the numbers. There are various tools available to not only help with keeping track of conversions, but also to get them over the line.

Now that poses another question: Which tools are best for the job?

Do not worry – there is no need to search around for the best software solutions. Below is a quick list of the tools you should consider for tracking and completing conversions:

Plausible Analytics

Being able to track your web traffic is vital with conversion rate, and the most popular free option is undoubtedly Plausible Analytics.

You can gain automatic, real-time reports about everything from visitor numbers to bounce rates. It also integrates seamlessly with other traffic avenues, such as Google Ads.

Note: We use Plausible Analytics for our business because it respects your individual privacy (unlike Google Analytics).

Crazy Egg

Heat mapping software is beneficial in learning more about website visitors, and Crazy Egg is one of the best around for this technology.

Site activity, like which pages receive the most clicks and scrolling, are all tracked with Crazy Egg, giving you insight into content that is working and what requires tweaking.

HubSpot

CRM solutions are not much more comprehensive than Hubspot‘s offering. This platform delivers marketing, content, and sales management solutions, along with a whole host of optimization tools for conversion rates.

Plus, if you are operating on a tight budget, a wide range of these features are still available via the free version of HubSpot.

HotJar

HotJar is a sophisticated software option that allows you to learn more about the customer journey. As well as discovering how users act and feel on your website, it teaches you what they desire from your content.

Fast to act, easy to use, and powerful freemium options, HotJar is a top choice for optimizing conversions.

Related: 5 Best Market Research Tools

SurveyMonkey

While you can grab a lot of data through analytic tools, it is always wise to take a proactive approach and go directly to your target audience for more information. This can be done with SurveyMonkey.

Known as the go-to option for creating online surveys, this software is ideal for putting together surveys and collating the results via eye-catching data-reporting visuals.

ConvertBox

As the name suggests, ConvertBox is a great all-in-one package for converting website visitors. This tool helps with utilizing calls to action (CTAs) that deliver results, ensuring that visitors complete the customer journey.

With additional features like segment funneling and A/B split testing, ConvertBox is an excellent solution for securing those conversions.

Simple strategies to improve the conversion rate in sales.

Even with the assistance of the aforementioned tools, this does not necessarily mean your conversion rate in sales will be improved. It is necessary you take the appropriate steps and put together a comprehensive, organized strategy that will increase your digital customer acquisition rate.

Is your conversion rate struggling? The following tips will highlight what you can do to push this metric in your favor.

Arrange a sales funnel.

A common mistake eCommerce stores make is trying to rush through a sale. It is only natural for online retailers to be eager to get customers to part with their money. However, you cannot simply go, “Here is a product; buy it now.” This is an ineffective strategy.

As a result, it is essential you create a sales funnel. A sales funnel focuses on the following aspects:

• Awareness
• Interaction
• Interest
• Action

Slowing it down gives your potential customers room to breathe. This then assists with building trust and developing fruitful relationships, which is the key to landing those all-important conversion rate in sales.

Be clear with your value proposition.

What do you have to offer to customers? Why should they choose your business – and its products – rather than a competitor? Clarifying this for your audience is essential when trying to enhance those sales numbers.

This is where the value proposition comes into play. When you put together a clear, persuasive value proposition, you have the necessary ingredients to bake up website content your audience wants to consume.

Provide social proof.

How many times have you purchased a product online without looking at past customer reviews? The answer is either rarely or never. Nowadays, everyone would like to see if what they are buying is the real deal, so they head to the reviews section to see if everything is on the level.

As a result, you need to ensure social proof is part of your strategy. By delivering a customer review section or some select positive comments, you can build trust and convince potential customers to press that “Buy Now” button.

Purchases should be effortless.

You should never put up any roadblocks during any part of the sales journey. Even if potential customers have seamlessly traversed your sales funnel and are ready to buy, they can quickly abandon their plans of completing a transaction for one simple reason: their payment option of choice is not available.

From credit cards to PayPal, it is crucial your website offers a wide range of payment options to cover all bases. Yes, some of these involve bigger charges than others, but it is better to pay these charges and secure a sale rather than miss out on the latter.

Of course, it is not only about payment options. Payment pages should be easy to navigate and intuitive. Plus, the less data that has to be inputted by customers, the better.

Eliminate all the distractions.

You know how easy it is to get distracted while browsing the internet. Well, you do not want to amplify this by having distractions on your own website.

The last thing you want is a webpage that is too busy, where it is full of visual inputs that cause a user’s eyes to dart around like a fugitive on the run. When attempting to sell something, you need to make this action as clear and straightforward as possible.

By minimizing distractions, where you remove unnecessary extraneous information and page links, there is a greater chance a customer will complete their purchase. If possible, try and delete everything from a page that is not a positive contributor to the conversion rate.

Do not allow customers to delay making a purchase.

Potential customers can be indecisive. They can delay completing a purchase and think, “I will do it tomorrow.” Once they leave your website, various reasons can crop up, resulting in them never returning, which is a problem for you. They could find an alternative product or a different retailer selling it for a lower price.

One way to get customers to buy immediately is by instilling a sense of urgency. This can be done in two main ways:

1. Time-related urgency
2. Quantity-related urgency

For example, the latter can be saying you only have five products left in stock, while the former could detail how long is left until your sale ends.

Remember that if you opt for scarcity as a marketing tactic, it must be authentic. There is no value in lying to customers.

Pay attention to the competition rates.

You might not like your competitors, but it is no good to simply bury your head in the sand. In fact, you have to be continually assessing their position in the market and what they are currently doing. Without this approach, your conversion rate can drop – and you will not know why.

The competition can change up their game at any time. They can improve their marketing efforts. They can lower their prices. They can do collaborations. Just like your business, the competition will not stand still in their efforts to improve.

By keeping an eye on competitors, you can react to their moves. Furthermore, you can learn from them and discover new tactics, markets to explore, opportunities, and so on.

Perform A/B testing throughout your website.

You have followed the above tips. Your content is now in place. The work is done, right? Wrong. When it comes to optimizing your conversion rate in sales, there is one aspect that cannot be understated: testing.

Even if you feel like your content and website are perfect right now, they might not be perfect for your audience. This is why testing is so essential. Continually experimenting with layouts, changing up the CTA, testing out different copy, etc., helps to maximize performance while mitigating the risk associated with creative decisions.

A/B testing is one of the most effective ways of performing this action. Also known as split testing, you effectively create two versions of a website element – say, a headline or image – and pit them against each other. Based on the one that receives the most positive reaction from your audience, you opt for this on your site.

As long as you have the right strategy, it is possible to nail your conversion rate it sales. To ensure you meet your goal, though, it can be useful to follow our guide and use it as a checklist.

Measure, adapt, and grow.

In the end, the best way to improve your conversion rate in sales is to constantly be measuring what you are currently doing, and then to make changes as needed based on the data.

The businesses that fail to adapt will never grow their revenue. Conversion optimization tips that work today might not work tomorrow, making it all that more important to keep a close eye on the sales conversion tactics you use.

A big part of making sure you are using the right tactics is by knowing your customers, and this can only be done through market research.

If you need a quick & easy way to discover more about your market, then I invite you to give GapScout a try! We specialize in helping businesses understand the trends in their market though sophisticated AI analysis of reviews in your industry.