You might have heard the saying, “what gets measured gets managed.” Meaning setting a baseline, here is where we are, and tracking what goes into getting you to your objective is a way to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts. And very few businesses quantify anything when it comes to their business.

I don’t know how many times I’ve walked into a business, and the first question is, “can I help you find anything today?”

I wonder how many times this one question has lost a business’ money? Because it’s almost always asked by every store associate in the place, once they see you standing in an aisle.

Instead of asking, “can I help you find anything today,” maybe they can switch it up by asking, “Have you been in to see us lately?” A simple yes or no would reply. Then the business could begin telling them about the great new program they’ve just implemented. Of course, they would have to create a great new program to share with their customers. And maybe this great new program helped their customers save money. Even better.

Studies show that changing how you greet your customers can improve your sales by 10-16% almost immediately.

How do I know this? It’s called quantification. Like I said before, very few businesses quantify anything, costing them a fortune.

A tipping study done in New York by David Strohmetz and his colleagues showed that if a server provided one mint per diner, his tips would increase by 3.3%. If the server provided two mints per diner, his tips would boost 14%.

If you’ve been wanting to implement a new program for your customers and know the impact it’s having, start with quantifying your idea.

Your first step would be to determine how many people came in the door before you start implementing your new program. I would take headcounts for at least a month. Sorry, but everything takes time.

The next step involves determining how many people bought products or services. And what the dollar value of those products or services is. It would be best if you also recorded what was said to produce any sales. This step would be BEFORE you changed how you greeted customers.

After you’ve made the change, start counting the number of people who come in after you made the change. Also, measure the number of people who purchase something from you.

Determine the average unit value of a sale; this helps determine the precise value resulting from your innovation.

How a business interacts with its customers is more important than what it sells.