Latest / The 3Bz Podcast - Building Better Business / EP136 - Turning Data Into Decisions with Zoë Dew: What to Track (and What to Ignore)

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EP136 - Turning Data Into Decisions with Zoë Dew: What to Track (and What to Ignore) · The 3Bz Podcast - Building Better Business

• 0:01
  Hi there business owner, and welcome to the Three BS Podcast,
• 0:04
  the place where we go beyond the numbers and dive into the
• 0:07
  strategies to help you build a Better Business one step at a
• 0:10
  time. I'm your host, Stephanie, a
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  multi awarding entrepreneur with over a decade of experience in
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  the bookkeeping and currency world.
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  If you're a business owner looking to streamline, grow, and
• 0:19
  get back the time that you deserve, you're in the right
• 0:21
  place tackling real world problems, answering tough
• 0:24
  questions, and digging deep into business building secrets in
• 0:27
  just 15 minutes each week. So, Are you ready to build a
• 0:31
  Better Business with confidence and clarity?
• 0:33
  Then let's go. Hello and welcome back to
• 0:37
  another episode of a Three Bees podcast, your go to place for 15
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  minutes of CPD certified motivation, inspiration and
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  education. Each week.
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  As always, I'm your host Stephanie, and this week I have
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  an amazing guest with me who I am so excited to talk to.
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  Hello Zoe, would you like to introduce yourself?
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  Hello, I'm Zoe Joo. I run Zoe Joo Consulting.
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  I am a consultant in the data revenue operations space and I
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  work with high earning multi offer business owners to make
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  more money from the audience that they already have without
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  working harder. Amazing.
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  I am so excited for this conversation.
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  So Zoe and I both have an absolute love for data.
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  You're going to hear that word a lot this episode, but I think we
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  come in from 2 very different angles.
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  Are both equally important for you as a business owner if you
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  are looking to build a Better Business, which I presume you
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  are by listening to or watching this episode.
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  So First things first, sorry, Uh, many founders know they
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  should look at the numbers. We talk about a lot on the
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  podcast already, but they avoid it and they bury their head in
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  the sand. What's the biggest mindset shift
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  that you think makes this a little less intimidating?
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  I think it's twofold. So firstly, I think people or
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  business owners don't love looking at their numbers because
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  they feel like they're not doing as well as the industry tells
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  them that they should be doing. And I know you've spoken quite a
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  lot on differences between revenue, net profit, costs,
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  income, like all of the different things that are not
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  nuanced enough when people are marketing themselves.
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  So marketing numbers are so like the marketing reported revenue
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  and things like that is so different to actually what's
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  going on behind closed doors. And I think most business owners
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  who are good at looking at their numbers are those that can see
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  the different layers that are integral to running a successful
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  business. And the mindset shift that I
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  think most people need to be looking for is it's OK not to
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  know. It's OK if I don't know.
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  There are experts who do. Who can I ask to help me explain
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  or help explain to me what it is I need to know and what number I
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  need to be looking at to know if I'm being successful or not.
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  So that's one side of it. And the other side is taking
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  numbers in isolation doesn't really help anyone.
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  So often if you're working with someone who's a specialist, I
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  don't know, in copy or in tech or in something that's not
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  accounting anyway, like take, take away the accounting side of
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  it. But something when you're
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  looking to improve the performance of your business,
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  they will ask you a really abstract question like, well,
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  what's your conversion rate? OK, and so that can be
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  intimidating to someone, but even if you it's not
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  intimidating to you, the thing you should be asking back is
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  what are you wanting to know from me answering this question?
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  Because a conversion rate can be anything from someone visiting
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  your page and clicking on a link to visiting your page and buying
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  something. I use the analogy of looking at
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  a shop window. So a conversion rate could be
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  someone walking past the difference between someone
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  walking past the shop and stopping to look or stopping to
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  look and walking through the door or walking through the door
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  and browsing or browsing and purchasing.
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  So what is I mean there we've got like 5 different points of
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  conversion. So when you when This is just a
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  really super specific example that's been on my mind recently.
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  But if anyone was to ever ask you what is your conversion
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  rate, I can understand why business owners get frustrated
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  and in a bit of a fluster because like, well, what are you
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  asking? What what what are you asking me
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  to tell you here? So the main underlying thing is
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  if you don't know, it's absolutely fine.
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  Either go and Google it or ask someone who does know, or ask
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  specifically what are they looking for so that you can get
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  the best help from them. Amazing.
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  I never thought of it like that. Like conversion rate to me was
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  always how many people click the button in my emails.
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  Like I didn't think that there was so many other ways of
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  conversion rates And when you hear that the industry standard
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  should be this many percentage Click to open ratios and in
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  blah, blah you made in this that might not be specific to you and
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  your business type and I never really thought of it that way.
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  Yeah, so like, so e-mail conversion rates is a great one.
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  I could sit here and be like, I've got 6565% open rate on my
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  emails. That's how good my emails are.
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  But what I'm not telling you is that I've got 160 people on my
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  e-mail list. So actually 60% of 160.
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  You're the accountant. I don't think so.
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  Maybe 90 people are reading my emails.
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  My click through rate's about 2%.
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  That is not converting into sales, like that's not creating
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  sales for me. The sales come from my frequency
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  of emailing and the fact that I e-mail every day and I get 60%
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  open rate is probably more impressive.
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  But if you look at someone who's got 15,000 people on their
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  e-mail list and their open rate is 30%, actually if you look at
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  it, what's that 5000 people reading their emails every time.
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  So it's, that's far more impressive.
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  But on the surface, you know their open rates half, half the
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  amount of mine. So actually, is it that they are
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  worse because they have half of the open rate of me or are they
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  better because they've grown their e-mail list to 15,000
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  people and they've still got 5000 people?
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  Like it's just, and I can understand why business owners
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  get frustrated with all of these numbers getting thrown around,
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  but it's kind of why I don't hold any value on industry
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  standards because it's so unique to your business.
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  I, I hold a little bit more faith in industry standards for
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  your specific niche. So like if you were to look at
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  some of the big names who are also serving the audience that
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  you serve and look at what they're doing as benchmarking,
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  that's fine. But really my personal view is
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  you should only benchmark against yourself.
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  And the only way you can benchmark against yourself is if
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  you're actually looking at what's happening in your
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  business, noting it down and coming back to it later.
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  Yeah, I was going to say that. That's me.
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  I just bet myself against myself.
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  It's the easiest way. So we were talking about
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  layering. You're saying looking at all the
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  different layers of maybe like the finance numbers and
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  understanding what that means. I guess that gets more
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  complicated when you've got more than one offer, more than one
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  business or different levels within your business.
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  So is there three key metrics that every multi offer business
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  should track first before getting into more complex
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  things? Yeah, definitely.
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  I mean, personally, I think it's a lot easier if you're just
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  starting to like look at what these numbers are and look at
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  how you can improve things. I actually think it's easier to
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  track behaviour than numbers. So you can track numbers super
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  simply in terms of how many inquiries have I got and how
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  many sales have I got. That's a really easy thing to
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  look at. Don't complicated with audience
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  numbers because again, audience numbers is a huge variable.
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  You know, is audience numbers, how many people on your e-mail
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  list are on your e-mail list? Or is it, are you including
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  every person that who's been in every room that you've ever
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  spoken in, are they now in your audience?
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  Because see what they are aware of you.
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  It's a really arbitrary number to look at.
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  If you if you look at actually how many people inquired to work
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  with me this week and how many sales have I made, that's I'm
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  going to kind of lump them together if I can like steal an
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  extra 1 because that gives you a really easy conversion rate.
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  You know, I got 10 inquiries this week and I got 2 sales.
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  That means I have a one in five conversion rate or 20%
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  conversion rate. And that's a really easy thing
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  to go. OK, well, if I increase my
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  inquiries, does that increase my sales?
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  Yes. OK, that's my conversion rate.
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  I just need to know I need to get more inquiries in.
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  Great. But actually I would look at 3
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  behaviours you can track or maybe even four and two.
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  Then that will then inform how many inquiries you're getting
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  when you are doing these behaviours.
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  So the behaviours are #1 did was I visible today?
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  Did I market myself today? Where did I market myself?
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  How often did I do that? So, you know, I posted on all my
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  social media, I sent an e-mail out, you know, maybe they're the
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  things that you were to be visible.
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  Secondly, did I make an offer today?
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  Did I actually ask anyone to spend any money with me?
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  Because that's, that's the biggie for me.
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  Most people are not making offers.
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  When I say offer, I mean, I'm asked and put my hand up and go,
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  I can do this for you and come and spend some money with me.
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  So did I make an offer today? And you need to be doing that
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  every single day to make sure that you have inquiries coming
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  through the dock. 4th This is something that people do
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  inherently but don't track, which is did I deliver
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  excellence to my existing clients today?
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  What did I do that delivered value to people who are already
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  spending money with me? People who are already spending
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  money with you are five times more likely to spend more money
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  with you than someone who's new. So actually most of us should be
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  concentrating on serving the people that are already
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  customers because they will come back.
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  And then finally, did I have a conversation with someone who is
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  already in my world? So that might be a past client,
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  it might be someone who you are peers with.
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  So for instance, like you would be in my network.
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  So I would put in my phone or like in my calendar, like check
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  in with Stephanie because you, we have similar contacts, we
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  know similar people. So have I made connections with
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  people who I already know who could be referral partners?
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  That's basically where we're going there.
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  Those 4 behaviours are the only things that you need to inform
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  where your enquiries are coming from and where your sales are
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  coming from. And you will very quickly work
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  out which lever you need to work on to get more enquiries in.
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  It will, it will become so clear once you start tracking those
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  four things. You I've got it on, I've plotted
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  it on a, on a graph for a client before you know, when you are
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  visible and you have that spike in visibility, your inquiry
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  spike goes at the same time. It sounds really simple, but not
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  enough people do it. But also when you are, when you
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  make more connections with existing clients and referral
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  partners, that is when the sales convert.
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  So it's, it's doing all those four things that really make a
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  difference in your business. And I'm not going to sit here
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  and tell you to track audience growth or conversion rates or
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  click through rates or anything like that, because they actually
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  don't really mean anything if you're not doing any of those
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  behaviors. You've just blown my mind.
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  Absolutely blown. My mind, you've just changed the
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  way my KPIs are gonna run from now on.
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  I think that was amazing. Thank you.
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  Yeah, one question. On that though, I'm getting all
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  the goodness here as well. Thank you audience for joining
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  us every week on the Three BS Podcast.
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  So I'm getting all this gossip for my own businesses.
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  If you've got multi offers, do you track those things per offer
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  or do you track those things as a whole as a business?
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  I would say if you zoom out and look at your quarter, depends
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  how you run your business. It depends where you are in
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  business. Most multi multi offer people
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  that I work with plan a year out probably and then zoom in on
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  1/4, zoom in on a month. So when you are zoomed in on
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  that quarter, you will know what your focuses are for that
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  quarter. And I would be tracking
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  certainly the convert metric of have I made an offer today, I'd
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  be tracking that per offer. But in terms of visibility,
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  generally if you're visible, it's going to help all your
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  offers. If you're being visible
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  delivering excellence to existing clients, that will only
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  be for the offers where you're you are in delivery mode.
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  And for the referral network, that's probably again going to
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  be more of a general across business situation.
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  So even if you have multi offers, unless they're in wildly
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  different industries, which is where I would kind of argue,
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  have you got different businesses?
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  And therefore, yeah, if you have got different businesses, then
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  yeah, it would be over all of them.
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  But if it's that you're multi offer and maybe you've got a
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  group program in membership, you do 1 to one work and you do
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  white labeling, maybe like they're the four things that you
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  do then attract. So visibility, delivering
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  excellence and amplify like your referral network, they're all
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  going to be across all of your offers.
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  And then the convert metric is probably going to be specific to
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  whatever you're selling that month or you're going to be
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  selling in the next month. Amazing.
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  Absolutely blowing my mind. We are at the end of episode
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  already. So quickly before you leave me,
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  a question I always ask my guest is if you could describe your
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  business in one word, what would it be and why?
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  Resilient so my business, my actual business name, my
• 13:53
  official business name is falling forwards limited, right
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  And when I, I don't know if I'll just briefly say falling
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  forwards means that every failure that you have, you build
• 14:02
  on it and you go again and you go again stronger.
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  And everything that's happened in my life is a result of a
• 14:09
  failure that I've had. So I failed my A levels, I then
• 14:12
  went to university, I failed my degree.
• 14:14
  I then went and did a different degree from that.
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  I got my dream job. I got sacked at the last
• 14:20
  employed role that I had, which meant that I went and set up my
• 14:22
  business. Every failure that I've had has
• 14:25
  resulted in a bigger success. So my business is resilient
• 14:31
  because of that. And you are resilient and you
• 14:35
  are amazing. I think that's incredible.
• 14:38
  This episode. There's all three of the three
• 14:39
  bees pillars, motivation, inspiration, and education all
• 14:43
  rolled into one. How incredible.
• 14:45
  So where can people find you? Where people connect with you?
• 14:48
  Let's build your audience as well as mine.
• 14:51
  Instagram is the best place to come and find me.
• 14:53
  It's Zoe R due so ZOERDEW. That is actually my handle
• 14:58
  across all platforms but you won't really see me anywhere
• 15:01
  else. Instagram is my main vibe and my
• 15:04
  website iszoedue.com. Amazing.
• 15:08
  And we'll pop those in the show notes people can connect with
• 15:09
  you to. Thank you so much for joining
• 15:11
  me. That brings to the end of
• 15:13
  another episode of the Three Bees podcast.
• 15:15
  Please do like rate and review wherever you're watching all
• 15:17
  listening. And it really does help push
• 15:18
  this episode out to more business owners so we can all
• 15:21
  build better businesses. And I'll see you next week for
• 15:24
  the next one. Bye.
• 15:25
  Bye. Thank you.
• 15:27
  And that brings us to the end of another episode of the Three
• 15:30
  Bees podcast. I hope you found it useful and
• 15:32
  that you're walking away with some motivation, inspiration, or
• 15:35
  education to help you build a Better Business.
• 15:38
  Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, and of course, connect
• 15:41
  with us on social media for more insights, tips, and behind the
• 15:44
  scenes content. Your next step in building a
• 15:46
  Better Business is just a click away.
• 15:48
  I can't wait to connect with you and I'll see you on the next
• 15:50
  episode. Bye.