By The Numbers - Choosing a Lead Management System

It is always interesting to ask a person what kind of lead management system their business has. Some have absolutely no system in place, while others have some pretty nice ones in place. The ones I am thinking about right now are the ones who have some type of system in place and say they track everything!

Not so long ago I was at a trade show. There I met a business owner who told me she tracks everything! (Now imagine her head nodding and then shaking as she says, I track everything...EVERYTHING!) I agreed that it is a wonderful thing, and figured that since she tracks everything, she would be able to pop an answer to my following question right off the top of her head: What percent of gross revenues go to pay for marketing? In other words, how much does it cost you to get a sale? She looked at me with a confused look.

Let me explain. There are so many beautiful lead management systems out there. There is not even a price tag attached to many of them. Others are very nice and have a nice price tag as well. Some of them show beautiful charts and graphics and all kinds of interesting data. But few, very few, show the exact numbers a person needs to run their business effectively without having some extra programming done to tie some important numbers together. This was one case like I just described.

A lead tracking system that tracks simply the number of leads along with names and addresses is pretty much just a contact management system, and should not be mistaken for a lead tracking system. To read more click here...

By The Numbers: What Should A Closing Ratio Really Tell You?

Throughout time we all come across people who like to talk about their closing ratios. If you are just hearing percents being tossed around, the comments are probably coming from a sales rep who may think he/she is irreplaceable!

What is in a closing ratio? The experienced business owner will know immediately that it is not just the percent of sold vs the number of possibilities that tells whether or not a sales rep is profitable. Sometimes that same owner or manager may not be able to tell you exactly why, but their gut tells them whether or not a sales rep is profitable.

What should we examine? Well, for starters, if you are a company that pays for leads to come in the door, those leads vary in cost. If you have a sales rep that is given expensive leads and a sales rep that is given inexpensive leads, the one given expensive leads will have to either sell at a higher close rate or close at a higher price. If you are giving leads that cost minimal to nothing, the close rate or sale amount of the next person does not have to be as high.

Let's take an example: Paul and Mark are salesmen. Paul has been given 50 leads that cost about $100 each, or $5000 worth of leads. Mark has been given 50 leads that cost $50 each, or $2500 worth of leads. If they both close 30 leads, they both have a 60% closing ratio. If their contract sizes are the same, Mark has been more profitable for us because we have spent half as much on advertising for his sales as we did for Paul.

Of 50 leads again, if Paul's closed five leads at $30,000 each, he made $150,000 in gross revenues at a 10% closing ratio. On the same token, if Mark sold 30 leads at $3000 each, he had a 60% closing ratio and gross revenues of $90,000. If we were looking at just the closing ratio, we would say Mark is our high closer, but in reality Paul should be considered the "high" closer. It is his closes that are bringing in better revenues.

Now the trick for you as an owner or manager is to use the data you collect to your benefit in growing your business. We need to step up Paul's closing ratio because he is bringing in the higher contracts. Put a high close and high contract together and you get some winning numbers. On the same token, find out why Mark is not getting higher price sales. Could it be that he is timid in asking for a sale on higher price products or services? Step over the timidness, put the shoulders back and ask for bigger sales! Increased prices with his closing ratio, and you will see increased revenues.

The whole purpose of tracking closing ratios is so that you have some system in place to hire, fire, train and assign. Hire based on the fact that you will track salesperson effectiveness on items other than just a simple closing ratio; fire based on the fact that if expectations are not filled by the numbers that tell the story, then they are shown the door. Training can be adjusted when you start to sehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gife trends within the sales team or individuals. Lead http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifassignment can certainly be streamlined when you see salesperson strengths and weaknesses, and you can clearly see that certain people sell certain leads or types of sales better than others.

George Odiorne once said that if you can't track it, you can't manage it. This hold true for closing ratios, too! Tracking will increase gross revenues!

WINNERS KNOW THEIR NUMBERS!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Susan_Raisanen

By The Numbers is a lead, sales and marketing tracking software created to show exactly the numbers needed in running your business effectively and profitably!

Forget the Yellow Sticky Notes - Get a Lead Tracking System Instead!

It is known and verifiable that tracking will increase revenues. One of the first and most simple reasons boils down to the fact that you have a system in place. Yellow sticky notes are not considered a revenue-producing system! I shall explain...

In the not too distant past, I made a visit to a certain company. Now, mind you, this was not just any ordinary company, but a company that has a very good reputation and quite a number of employees. They have their trucks all over the valley, they have advertising everywhere, and from the looks of it, the employers and employees are bringing home some money.

Expecting to see a company that would have a pretty good system for handling leads, I asked what their procedure is for lead, sales and marketing tracking. My answer from the gal at the front desk? "Ummm, nothing. I just write down the name and number and give it to one of the guys to follow up." No spreadsheets, no database, nada, nothing! Quickbooks was the only tool they used for tracking leads, and that isn't even a lead tracker....it's a sales tracker.

This was surprising to me. First of all, the owners were spending a significant amount of money on advertising and had absolutely no idea of the return. Who knows whatever happened to all those yellow sticky notes or pieces of paper written and handed out? There was no count on even something as basic as the number of leads, muchless the ability to tie those leads to any certain advertisement or salesperson.

Secondly, these people were not even capturing names and addresses of prospects they could market to in the future if they did not buy now. Many companies pay top dollar to buy completely cold mailing lists in an effort to start marketing campaigns. These people had a warm list at their fingertips and did nothing to generate business from it. They were squandering a huge asset that would help them grow their business.

And third, they have absolutely no idea of sales reps' strengths and weaknesses, not to mention how many leads versus sales are coming in. Since the cash intake has been comfortable and in fact generous, they were not concerned. There was no way for them to analyze and adjust their training for their salespeople because they had no way to measure what kinds of leads were lost sales. By this I mean, maybe a salesperson was bringing in all kinds of sales for one type of product or service. We do not know how much money was left on the table for sales he/she did not know how to sell.

This scenario is not uncommon. I believe that if the owners understood how much more they could be increasing revenues just by following the numbers on any one of the 3 points mentioned above, they would not be so lackadaisical in tracking. Even one recovered lead can mean thousands of dollars (long or short term) to a business owner, depending on the product or service offered.

Another reason for not having a tracking system in place is because it seems like such a daunting task. Many of them may remember the headaches of instituting new systems. Many of them are afraid of the costs of initial investment. Many of them really have no idea where or how to begin collecting the data, and once they have it, they are not quite sure what to do with it. These are typically fears associated with prior experiences, but nowadays there are so many simple yet effective solutions available, and these solutions will not even be considered a cost in the end because the result is increased revenues. We compare it to putting gas in your car. Sure, it costs something to drive a car, but what good is your car if you can't drive it and it is unable to deliver you from point A to point B? It costs something to run your business, but why run it when you have no idea where you are coming from or where you are heading? Besides, unlike gas, a system will pay you back plentifold.

Hopefully you're not one of those who just scratches a lead on a piece of paper and sticks it in a sales rep's mailbox and counts on that sales rep taking care of it from there. If you are, a simple change into a tracking system may change the entire direction of your business or grow you more profitably from where you stand right now.

Remember, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Hard to manage all those yellow pieces of scratch paper floating around out there....

WINNERS KNOW THEIR NUMBERS!

Susan Raisanen, By The Numbers


Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6530187

Delivering Happiness

Delivering Happiness. Hmmmm, I thought happiness can't be bought or sold? Tony Hsieh, President of ZAPPOS, and Stephen Colbert talk about how promoting happiness within the company culture will provide a way for profits.

To me, the most important line in the entire video is: "The mentality is we should just focus on profits and happiness has no place in the work place, but what's interesting is research has actually shown that if employees are happier and customers are happier in their strong company cultures that actually drives business results and those business tend to outperform their peers in the long run."

Enjoy the food for thought as you think about how you can promote a happy culture within your business!

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

By The Numbers: What Does Acquisition Cost Mean Anyhow?

(Script for the Video is as follows:)

WHAT DOES ACQUISITION COST MEAN? More importantly, how does it affect your business?

Just the other day I had an interesting conversation with a person who sells marketing. We were looking at marketing costs and sales for a certain company. Just for now we’ll call that company ABC.

She was all excited about profits from a certain advertisement ABC had placed. She said, “This is great! They spent only $2000 for the advertisement and their sales were $12,000. They profited $10,000!”

Right away my little mathematical mind started turning, and I said, “But that’s almost a 17% acquisition cost.”

And she said, “Huh? They spent $2000 to get $12,000. That’s a good thing, right?”

I hated to spoil her little victory speech, but she needed to know about the ACQUISITION COST, one of the MOST important numbers in running business! In very simple terms, acquisition cost means “cost of getting a sale.”

I knew a little bit about ABC. For example, I knew that in their budget they planned:

10% Marketing – That means 10% off the top of each sale goes toward marketing
10% Commissions – That means 10% off the top of each sales goes to pay commissions
10% Overhead – This is where you get the money to pay for a roof over your head, the phones, the heat, the air conditioning, trucks & maintenance, etc.
55% Cost of Sale – The hard costs that go into providing a service or product: labor & material

If they followed through on all this, then ABC would generate and could plan for 15% PROFITS.

So again my little mathematical mind says, Ok, on $12,000 in sales I should generate about $1800 in profits.

Let’s see where that $12,000 for ABC Company actually went.

Follow me as I do the math:

$ 12,000 Total Sales
-2,000 Ad Costs (16.6%)
-1,200 Commissions (10%)
-1,200 Overhead (10%)
-6,600 Cost of Sale (55%)

Which leaves: $ 1,000 TOTAL PROFITS

According to their budget, ABC should have been able to plan on $1800 in profits.

But now with these numbers they can only plan on a best case scenario of $1000 in profits if the job goes well…and that allows no room for error.

As you can very well see, this is a far cry from the original $10,000 profit the marketer was talking about.

But when you don’t know your numbers, it is easy to be fooled by a word such as “profit” that is tossed in front of you so carelessly. Well, maybe not even careless. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt. They just don’t know!

And you won’t either…if you don’t have a tracking system in place.

So far, the only profit I could see was what that marketer was making.

It is only when you know your numbers and know your profit margins that you can intelligently visit with those marketers that knock on your door.

You owe it to yourself and your business to know exactly what acquisition cost you can afford in order to profit from the work or service you provide.

And when you have an effective lead, sales and marketing tracking system in place, you can be confident that you know exactly what you are talking about.

As we always say, WINNERS KNOW THEIR NUMBERS!

P.S. There are things that could have been done to lower that acquisition cost while spending the same amount of money. Think on that one…until next time!

If you’d like to know more information about how tracking acquisition cost in your company will increase revenues, call me at 480-652-9212 or email me at info@getbythenumbers.com.

Join those who are making life a whole lot easier and business whole lot more fun AND profitable!

I wish you great success!

Susan

By The Numbers: Lead, Sales & Marketing Tracking

At what point does a business owner start to feel a need to track? From those we talk with, most of them are spending right around $100,000 a year in advertising. Evidently that's the point that it "hurts" to spend without knowing where it's going. For myself, I'd rather know even before that point.

Often, once a person starts tracking and find out how simple and effective it can be with the proper systems in place, he wishes he had started earlier. It is a definite "revenue maker". The problem was that he didn't know how to track and, furthermore, didn't know WHAT to track.

This video is one that many have watched just to get a better idea of what goes into tracking; in other words, what do I need to know in order to increase revenues in my business? Where do I begin?

Enjoy the food for thought! I'd love some feedback, too.

By The Numbers - Using A SMART Phone To Blog

This is something new for me. I'm sending a note to my blog from my very smart phone! This is just a test so bear with me. See what I'm all about at www.getbythenumbers.com.

By The Numbers - What Are You Doing With Your DEAD Leads?

Have you ever read the book, Three Feet From Gold? This story is familiar to many of you, but to those who have not read it, it is about a Darby, a miner, who gave up just 3 feet from gold. He missed his fortune that had been well within reach had he known what to look for.

The junk man Darby sold his machinery to hired experts to look at the mine and, being knowledgeable, they found the fault line that showed gold should be within three feet...which it was.

Darby had that same fault line sitting in front of his eyes, but he did not know how to read or use it to lead him to gold. Someone else did.

What kinds of gold mines are sitting in front of your eyes every day, yet you do not realize it?

Look at your database, for starters. How about those DEAD leads from a year or two ago? What are you doing with them? Are you continuing to reach out to them? They obviously wanted or needed a product or service at some time or another, but then why did they never buy?

Think of the economic times of the past few years and how it affected people's minds, the uncertainty of everything during election time, the lack of funding from banks, and so on. Maybe they just didn't want to part with their money; maybe they figured they can do the job themselves; maybe they settled for less than best.

Could those times have possibly affected your customers' decisions on whether or not to sign a contract with you? Now that times have settled down somewhat, have you gotten back in touch with them to see if they might be wanting to do something today?

If, over time, you have tracked all your prospects, customers and the status of each lead, even DEAD leads, you should be able to pull them up and start to mine the gold just three feet from your chair.

I challenge you to call back 10 DEAD leads a day for the next week at least. Renew acquaintances, send cards, go for lunch.

I promise you, there is someone waiting for your call!

"WINNERS KNOW THEIR NUMBERS!"

Susan

By The Numbers - Always Learning!

First of all, this is pretty cool. I'm writing this from my iPhone while attending the Millionaire Mind Intensive in Glendale, AZ. Think the people are a little excited or what? We are talking about having ways of passive income and making your money work for you instead of working for your money. Seriously...my gosh, that's part of the premise of By The Numbers, too. Are your marketing dollars working for you?

By The Numbers - Successful & Effective Marketing

Here is a great example of what makes my job so much fun: I'm getting ready to film a series of 15 videos tomorrow, and for that I wanted some true numbers of how By The Numbers has helped our people. One guy said that he was spending $270k/yr in marketing for $2.5mil in sales. That's 10.8% for marketing. In 2010 he spent $170k in marketing for $2.9mil in sales. That's 5.9% in marketing! Less money spent, more sales taken in. That's effective marketing!

And you won't know it unless you track it!

WINNERS KNOW THEIR NUMBERS!

I wish you success.

Susan

By The Numbers - Counting on the Golf Course

Just for kicks on this overcast but beautiful Friday morning, I had to show you one of my favorite spots in Scottsdale...the 8th hole of Starfire Golf Club's King course! Every time I play at Starfire, I stop in this spot and look around to try take in the beauty.

What does this have to do with lead, sales & marketing tracking? Well, I am not tracking leads on the golf course, but I sure am counting the strokes. (And sometimes, on a bad day I might even say I got a lot of strokes for my money, and then walk away and wonder why I willingly play this game!)

Anyhow, here's a peek inside the life of some of us here at By The Numbers. Tracking numbers is our life in both business and at play.

By The Numbers - What Lead Tracking System Are You Using?

Note the look on this woman's face. Her phone is ringing. It's more than likely just another customer who called in a few weeks ago for an estimate and hasn't heard back from anyone.

Forget it. Let the phone ring. Before she takes any more calls, she's going to put those leads in alphabetical order and try to get some assemblance of order around here. She's feeling a little overwhelmed, to say the least.

Obviously it's a little over the edge, but the emotions this woman is feeling are not uncommon for those business owners who are stressed because they haven't taken the time to put a tracking system in place.

It's time to step back, breathe deep, and set up your systems.

We know, we've been there (but not for long). Call now. By The Numbers can help! If you can't manage it, you can't measure it. WINNERS KNOW THEIR NUMBERS!

By The Numbers - How Does Tracking Increase Revenues?

The other day I said that tracking will increase revenues. One of the most basic reasons for lead tracking is so that leads will no longer disappear into the wild, blue yonder, or in other words, leads will no longer be lost.

Let me tell you a story about a visit to a certain company. Now this was not just any ordinary company, but a company that has a pretty good reputation. They have their trucks all over the valley, they have advertising everywhere, and from the looks of it, the employers and employees are bringing home some money.

Expecting to see a company that would have a pretty good system for handling leads, I asked what their procedure is. My answer from the gal at the front desk? "Ummm, nothing. I just write down the name and number and give it to one of the guys to follow up." No spreadsheets, no database. Quickbooks was the only thing they used for tracking leads, and that wasn't even a lead tracker....it's a sales tracker.

This was surprising to me. First of all, the owners were spending a significant amount of money on advertising and have no idea of the return. Secondly, they were not even capturing names and addresses of people they could market to in the future if the people did not buy now. And third, they have absolutely no idea of salesreps' strengths and weaknesses, not to mention how many leads versus sales are coming in. Since the cash intake was comfortable, they were not concerned.

This scenario is not uncommon. I believe that if the owners understood how much more they could be increasing revenues just by following the numbers on any one of the 3 points mentioned above, they would not be so lackadaisical in tracking. Even one recovered lead can mean thousands of dollars to a business owner.

Hopefully you're not one of those who just scratches a lead on a piece of paper and sticks it in a sales rep's mailbox and counts on that sales rep taking care of it from there. Remember, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. Hard to manage all those yellow pieces of scratch paper floating around out there....

WINNERS KNOW THEIR NUMBERS!

By The Numbers on Lead Tracking Software

I have heard that most businesses lose 80% of their leads. First of all, ouch! Secondly, how can this happen? Unfortunately, we see it happening over and over again. How can it be that a company that will spend 10% or more of its budget for marketing will not track even, at a minimum, the calls they get from that marketing?

Here at By The Numbers it seems we are hearing that the main reason for not lead-tracking is that business owners simply do not understand how lead-tracking will dramatically increase revenues. Sure, he may say that he knows they are probably missing sales because of not tracking. The truth of the matter is that he really does not comprehend, and because of that lack of comprehension, he has not searched to find an efficient and effective way to do so. And bottom line, he has no idea how much revenue is being missed because of it.

How would you use lead-tracking to increase revenues? A few ideas come straight to the front of my mind: 1) no more lost leads, 2) assign to salesperson's sales strengths, 3) assign to salesperson's lead source strength, 4) adjust your training where weaknesses appear, and 5) adjust your marketing to demographics of audience.

In the coming days, I will explain more about each of these ways you can use lead tracking to increase revenues. Just remember, WINNERS KNOW THEIR NUMBERS! If you can't track it, you can't manage it.

To Your Success!

Susan

By The Numbers - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

"May joy and peace surround you,
Contentment latch your door,
And happiness be with you now
And bless you evermore."

-An Old Irish Blessing

By The Numbers - Closing Ratios Pt 2

By The Numbers - Closing Ratios

Yesterday, here at By The Numbers, we talked about Scott. Today it's Pablo's turn.

As you can see, Pablo had 100 leads and closed 38. That's a 38% closing ratio. In our case, we wanted a minimum of 33% closing, so he's doing fine there. However, we're not stopping there. We need to look at what it's costing us to get those sales.

Look a little more to the right. You'll see that it cost us $13,668.31 to get $243,335.83 in sales. That means 5.62% off the top of each contract is going directly to marketing. In this case, that is just fine because we have budgeted for our marketing to be up to 7%. Pablo is doing just fine so far.

In fact, just a side note...if you look again you'll see that it costs about as much for Pablo to get $243,335 in sales as it does for Scott to get $73,525 in sales. Yikes! Better do something about that. Either give Scott some cheaper leads or no leads. Have him hit the trail.

Are we in the clear with Pablo yet? Not quite. We still need to see if his jobs are profitable. Stay tuned!

By The Numbers - Closing Ratios

By The Numbers-Closing Ratios

When looking at sales rep closing ratios, it is not enough to simply look at how many leads they are closing. You have to also look at the cost of those leads and the size of the contracts.

In this picture you see Scott and Pablo. Scott was assigned 79 leads and closed 12. His closing ratio is only 15.9%. That doesn't look good already, but then to add insult to injury for the business owner, it cost $12,940.58 to get those sales of $73,525.83. That means that the company owner is paying 17.6% off the top of each of Scott's contracts in order to get a job.

In this case, the marketing should have been around 5% in order to stay within the right profit margins. Scott is not making money for the company already before he has a signature on the contract at at the rate he's selling. Of course, if he'd increase his closing ratio those costs might go down, depending on the cost of leads and contract sizes.

I'll explain Pablo tomorrow. In the meanwhile, go to either www.bythenumbersroofing.com or www.getbythenumbers.com for a further explanation of what should be looked for in closing ratio reports.

By The Numbers - Whose Fault Is It When Your Marketing Does Not Work?

We here at By The Numbers are always looking for good marketing articles and advice to share with our friends and customers.

Following is an article I received from Rich Harshaw at Monopolize Your Marketplace. It is a list of the ten things you might wrongly blame for your marketing that does not work.

CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE.

By The Numbers - Tracking for Forecasting

Recently I had an interesting experience that gave me an increased understanding of tracking first hand!

I work with a certain company's sales team on setting and reaching goals. Each one had determined for his/her own self the dollars in sales they intended to make for 2011. In my mind, I knew what should be true according to the law of averages and truth in numbers, but now it was time to show it to some doubting Thomases as to how it really works.

Here's what I did: I ran historical reports showing how many leads turned to how many sales which in turn created how many dollars for each individual. Then I just flipped it forward and said, ok so-and-so has to have so many qualified leads per day in order to make the goal. That is, if he/she keeps the average contract size the same as the previous year or two, the projected outcome should be close to target. If the contract size increases, obviously the number of sales can decrease...but we were just following and projecting on law of averages.

After a few weeks I brought the goals with me to a sales meeting along with the leads and sales reports for each person. In every case, the number of leads and sales was directly proportionate to what had been projected! For the person who doubled his leads required, he doubled his sales. For the ones who slacked on soliciting leads, their sales were lacking in direct proportion to the number of leads they had.

It was truth on paper. I had to say nothing more. WINNERS KNOW THEIR NUMBERS!

How can you know unless you track?

Susan

By The Numbers - Totally Missing the Boat

I had an interesting conversation with another person yesterday. Bless her heart, she is trying to get her business cohorts to understand the importance of tracking, and all the numbers she is showing them are numbers that she has found to be important to the business; however, in further discussion I could see clearly that she is totally missing the boat on what numbers to track!

The reason I called was for something totally other than tracking, but somehow we got on that subject. Imagine that, since tracking is what I typically spend my days and nights trying to teach people!

Anyhow, I asked her what numbers she was tracking, and she said things like ZIP codes they work in and types of jobs they do. Sure, those are important, too. Then I asked if she is doing anything to track where the leads are coming from and what percent of sales is going directly to marketing. Her response was, "Oh, they would never understand that! They do not even understand the numbers I'm showing them!"

My response to her? "Show the owner. He understands the money dropping out of his wallet."

WINNERS KNOW THEIR NUMBERS!

Susan

By The Numbers - Tracking Marketing ROI

I just spent a good portion of the day today calling on businesses that have permanent displays set up in a local show room that reminds me of a home show minus the salespeople. The concept is great in that homeowners can wander around without feeling pressured by sales.

The reason for my calls to the business owners was to find out whether or not the display is giving them a return on their investment. Surprisingly many of them had only gut feelings and could not answer a definite yes or no. In fact, several said straight out that they do not track, so they can't say for sure, but they think that maybe yes. Others said straight out that they do not believe they get many sales, but they get a lot of calls anyhow.

Wow. We have said it before and we say it again, WINNERS KNOW THEIR NUMBERS! How can you manage something you can't measure?

Just before I started closing down my computer here, I looked through my email to see what I still had to answer today, and found this interesting article on tracking Marketing ROI. Obviously, we have a software product to offer that tracks all of this, so we don't promote the tedious Excel sheets, but if you are not going to use a software program that gives you the analytics you need, by all means, at least start with an Excel sheet or two or three or four or seven... Whatever you do, track!

I wish you great success!

Susan

By The Numbers, IRE Vegas

It's late Friday evening, and I just returned from spending a tiring but very rewarding week getting ready for and displaying at the Int'l Roofing Expo. I met a lot of really neat people, some great business owners and we had fun sharing about the day-to-days of business. One thing that consistently came up in conversation with some of the most successful business owners was that you have to know your numbers. Businesses are run By The Numbers, and without a knowledge of the numbers that matter, a business shall never grow. I couldn't agree more.

Do you know your numbers?

Susan

By The Numbers will be at Roofing Expo in Vegas

By The Numbers is excited to be exhibiting for the first time at the International Roofing Expo at the Las Vegas Convention Center February 16-18, 2011.

As you may remember, our background began in roofing and home improvements. The main reason By The Numbers was created was because the owner of a roofing company was frustrated with not being able to find a software that was ready upon installation to give the numbers absolutely necessary in order to make marketing and sales people decisions.

Because of our background in roofing, it has seemed a natural to market to the roofing industry (although many of the companies that use By The Numbers have nothing to do with roofing). Going to the Expo will almost be like "Coming Home", and we're looking forward to it.

Stop by booth #1767, take a look at our show special and see how effective lead, sales and marketing management can help your business increase its gross revenues!

WINNERS KNOW THEIR NUMBERS!

For more show information, CLICK HERE.
For more exhibitor information, CLICK HERE.

By The Numbers - SaaS revenue to grow five times faster than traditional packaged software: IDC

Only a few short years ago we didn't even know what SaaS meant. Now today studies show that it has come lightyears and the future looks even bigger for Saas, its use and its sales.

I'm going to let the following article speak for itself:

Written July 28, 2010
By Mark Cox

Pretty much everyone in the IT industry is aware that the Software as a Service (SaaS) model's growth has outstripped conventional software. But a new study by IDC provides a quantitative examination of exactly how much higher the growth rate is, and the amount may surprise some.

The IDC study showed the Software as a Service (SaaS) market had worldwide revenues of $13.1 billion in 2009. IDC forecasts the market to reach $40.5 billion by 2014, representing a compound annual growth rate of 25.3%. By 2012, IDC expects that less than 15% of net-new software firms coming to market will ship a packaged product (on CD). By 2014, about 34% of all new business software purchases will be consumed via SaaS, and SaaS delivery will constitute about 14.5% of worldwide software spending across all primary markets.

"The SaaS model has become mainstream, and is quickly coming to dominate the planning -- from R&D, to sales quotas, to partnering, channels and distribution -- of all software and services vendors," said Robert Mahowald, vice president, SaaS and Cloud Services research at IDC.

"Enterprise IT plans are rapidly shifting to accommodate the growing choices for sourcing most or all IT software functions, from business applications to software development and testing, to service and desktop management, as SaaS services become available from established vendors and new models for accessing functionality in the cloud creates lower-cost options and more tailored models for consuming IT services," Mahowald added.

The study also forecast that by 2012, nearly 85% of net-new software firms coming to market will be built around SaaS service composition and delivery; by 2014, about 65% of new products from established ISVs will be delivered as SaaS services. SaaS-derived revenue will account for nearly 26% of net new growth in the software market in 2014.

Traditional packaged software and perpetual license revenue are clearly in decline, IDC says. They predict that a software industry shift toward subscription models will result in a nearly $7 billion decline in worldwide license revenue in 2010. As a result, a permanent change in software licensing regime will occur.

IDC also says that SaaS segment mix will shift toward infrastructure and application development and deployment/PaaS, and away from U.S. dominance. IDC expects that by 2014, applications will account for just over half of market revenue. This shift will happen in part as a result of increasing IT cloud spending by enterprise IT groups and commercial cloud services providers (cloud SPs) relative to end-user spending.

By The Numbers - Welcome to the Int'l Roofing Expo in Las Vegas, Feb 16-18.

By The Numbers personally invites you to attend the International Roofing Expo® in Las Vegas FOR FREE (register by Jan. 28th)! The special registration link for free expo pass and discounted conference passes is below.

February 16-18, 2011 at the Las Vegas Convention Center

Visit us in Booth #1767

Start 2011 off strong by attending the first and largest roofing industry gathering — your most cost-effective strategy to stay competitive, profitable and strong. Join us to see our latest products and services that will make a real difference in your business success.

• Hundreds of resources

• 43 educational sessions

• Community Service Day

• Keynote by Joe Theismann

• NEW! Renewable Energy Pavilion

• Product Showcase

• Live Demonstrations

• Exhibitor Product Clinics

• Metal Marketplace

• Welcome Party at TAO

• NRCA Annual Convention

REGISTER NOW for FREE admission to the Expo, the Keynote by Joe Theismann, the Welcome Party at TAO and the Live Demonstrations — a savings of $65 — if you register online no later than January 28, 2011.

Click here to register now! Don’t delay!

By The Numbers - Back By Popular Demand: FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2010

Here you are...the compiled list of our customers' and friends' favorite. Happy reading and make sure to let me know of your favorites to put on the list for 2011! Just send over an email to susan@neednumbers.com. I keep an active and running list at all times.

1	The Glass Castle	Jeannette Walls
2	The Hard Way	Lee Child
3	A Million Little Pieces	James Frey
4	Sarah's Key	Tatiana de Rosnay
5	The Ultimate Gift	Jim Stovall
6	Last of the Breed	Louis L'Amour
7	Mrs. Kimble	Jennifer Haigh
8	These Happy Golden Years	Laura Ingalls Wilder
9	Miracle in the Andes	Nando Parrado and Vince Rause
10	Don't Sniff a Gift Fish	Patrick McManus
11	Think & Grow Rich	Napoleon Hill
12	The Dirty Life: On Farming, Food, and Love	Kristin Kimball
13	The Translator	Daoud Hari
14	The Shack	Wm Paul Young
15	Predictably Irrational	Dan Ariely
16	The Ultimate Sales Machine	Chet Holmes
17	Tribes	Seth Godin
18	Gifted Hands	Dr. Ben Carson
19	Lone Survivor	Marcus Luttrell
20	The Compound Effect	Darren Hardy
21	Timepiece	Richard Paul Evans
22	Rhett Butler's People	Donald McCaig
23	A Piece of Cake	Cupcake Brown
24	Purge	Sofi Oksanen
25	Worth Dying For	Lee Child
26	Saving CeeCee Honeycutt	Beth Hoffman
27	House of Winslow series	Gilbert Morris
28	Winslow Breed series	Gilbert Morris
29	Atlas Shrugged	Ayn Rand
30	Crush It!	Gary Vaynerchuck
31	Making Them Believe	Dan Kennedy & Chip Kessler
32	Make Them Laugh & Take Their Money	Dan Kennedy
33	Blood Trail	C.J. Box
34	Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
35	Hillary's Secret War	Richard Poe
36	Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion	Robert B. Cialdini
37	The Pledge: Your Master Plan for An Abundant Life	Michael Masterson
38	The Holy Bible
39	The Magic of Newsletter Marketing	Jim Palmer
40	Stick Like Glue	Jim Palmer
41	Wordpress for Dummies	Lisa Sabin-Wilson
42	Get Content, Get Customers	Joe Pulizzi & Newt Barrett
43	Web Design for ROI	Lance Loveday & Sandra Niehaus
44	Where the Red Fern Grows	Wilson Rawls
45	Decision Points	George W. Bush
46	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo	Steig Larsson
47	The Five Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lasts	Gary Chapman
48	Power Down	Ben Coes
49	The Emperor Series (4)	Conn Iggulden
50	The Genghis Series (4)	Conn Iggulden
51	Under and Alone: The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America's Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang	William Queen
52	Without Fail	Lee Child
53	The Great War Series	Maureen Lang
54	King Rat	James Clavell
55	Economics in One Lesson	Henry Hazlitt
56	Hunting the Jackal	Billy Waugh and Tim Keown
57	Fit for Life	Harvey and Marilyn Diamond
58	The Socialization Trap	Rick Boyer
59	The Undomestic Goddess	Sophie Kinsella
60	Black Dahlia Avenger: The True Story	Steve Hodel
61	Grierson's Raid	Tom Lalicki
62	Blood and Thunder	Hampton Sides
63	The Five Thousand Year Leap	W Cleon Skousen
64	Going Rogue	Sarah Palin
65	Choosing to See	Mary Beth Chapman
66	Angel Song	Sheila Walsh & Katheryn Cushman
67	A Blue & Gray Christmas	Joan Medlicot
68	The Covenant	James Michener
69	Chesapeake	James Michener
70	On Becoming Babywise I & II	Gary Ezzo & Robert Bucknam
71	On Becoming Toddlerwise	Gary Ezzo
72	Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours	Dr. Kevin Leman
73	Unbroken	Laura Hillenbrand
74	Scorpions	Noah Feldman
75	The Pursuit of God	A. W. Tozer
76	Slacks and Calluses : Our Summer in a Bomber Factory	Constance Bowman Reid
77	The Code: The Unwritten Rules of Fighting and Retaliation in the NHL	Ross Bernstein, Marty McSorley, and Tony Twist
78	The 5000 Year Leap	W. Cleon Skousen
79	Selling Change, 101 Secrets for Growing Sales by Leading Change	Brett Clay
80	Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us	Daniel Pink
81	Smart Moves For People In Charge: 130 Checklists To Help You Be A Better Leader	Samuel D. Deep
82	First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently	Marcus Buckingham
83	The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It	Michael Gerber
84	How	Dov Seidman; John Wiley & Sons
85	Linchpin	Seth Godin
86	Leading Outside the Lines: How to Mobilize the Informal Organization, Energize Your Team, and Get Better Results.	Jon R. Katzenbach, Zia Khan, Jossey Bass
87	The Referral Engine	John Jantsch
88	The Rudolph Factor: Finding the Bright Lights that Drive Innovation in Your Business	Cyndi Laurin, Craig Morningstar
89	Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. I
90	Cleopatra: A Life	Stacy Schiff
91	The Wake of Forgiveness	Bruce Machart
92	The Ninth Daughter (Starring Abigail Adams)	Barbara Hamilton
93	Walking on Broken Glass	Christa Parrish
94	Red Ink	Kathi Macias
95	John Quincy Adams	Paul Nagel
96	Walking the Gobi	Helen Thayer
97	Alone: Orphaned on the Ocean	Tere Duperrault Fassbender
98	Love & War	John & Stasi Eldredge
99	Tattoos on the Heart	Gregory Boyle
100	My Grandfather's Son: a Memoir	Clarence Thomas

By The Numbers - We Love Success Here At BTN!

What a fun day to spend a Friday relishing in the good comments of a customer. This morning I had the pleasure of taking a call from someone who started our lead/sales/marketing management software use just this past Fall. Today he let me know to pass on the good word that already he has been able to make decisions based on marketing that works and doesn't work. As well he is able to see past his salespeople "selling him" on how good they are and just pull up the brass facts. The truth of the matter is, folks, if you don't track it you have no way to prove it. WINNERS KNOW THEIR NUMBERS!

That being said, when business owners hand over so much cash for advertising, why don't they track it? We know. We've been there. In most cases, it's probably one of the following reasons:

1) They don't know how.
2) They don't see the need.
3) They think it's too costly.
4) They have horrific memories of a software "solution".
5) They have no time to learn a new solution.
6) They have more cash than they can spend.

Fact is: Businesses lose MORE money by NOT tracking than they would by tracking.

Good News: The solution is easy!

When you get hooked up with the right tracking system, you will be amazed that your solution does not require much time or effort from you, and will instantly make you money!

Understand the lead, sales and marketing management tracking issues is our specialty. For more information, click here to see more of how simple tracking can drastically increase revenues for your business.

Make this day a great success!

Susan