Call it the “instant 50 percent improvement rule.” You can make any bedroom instantly look 50 percent cleaner just by making the bed. You can make your office look 50 percent cleaner just by clearing all the junk off your desk. You can make your yard look 50 percent better just by mowing the grass. You can make yourself look 50 percent better just by styling your hair. You can make yourself look 50 percent more impressive just by carrying a briefcase, etc.

So here’s a question for you: what can you do to instantly make your marketing look 50 percent better? What can you do to instantly make your marketing perform 50 percent better at the same time? Utilize the same underlying principle. Identify an aspect of your marketing that’s relatively simple to improve that will make a big difference, then work on it.

Here are three “instant 50 percent improvement rule” ideas that should perk up sales almost immediately.

Instant Improvement Idea No. 1: Get a Better Follow-up System.

Doing more with the leads your marketing currently generates is fundamental. What’s the point of generating more leads with better marketing if you are not maximizing them in the first place. There’s really no excuse to not efficiently and effectively follow up on the leads you receive. You may already have somebody who calls the leads. And you might even have a series of e-mails that go out to harass them. But when I talk about a follow-up system, I’m referring to something a little bit more robust.

The real question isn’t: How often should I follow up with them? The real question is: How often can I afford to follow up with them? To find out exactly how often, simply run your numbers. And I’ll bet you a wooden nickel that you can afford to follow up more than you think.

Look at it this way. You’re going to sell a certain percentage of your leads right away — these are the “now” buyers. So everyone who doesn’t buy can theoretically be considered a “new prospect” from a willingness-to-spend-marketing-dollars-to-get-new-customers standpoint. If you count the original marketing dollars sunk on the people who buy, shouldn’t you be willing to spend extra dollars to convert those who didn’t buy right away?

It’s a bit of a philosophical question because your knee-jerk reaction might be to point out that the people who didn’t buy — uhhh — didn’t buy. Fair enough. And good point. But don’t assume that because somebody doesn’t buy right away that they’re not an excellent prospect to buy in the near to medium-range future.