The longer the time lapse between initial inquiry and final sale, the less likely the latter will occur.

Good creative and stingy media buys can generate a high volume of calls, clicks, and store ups from Steam Heat Shoppers who may have money to spend but zero time to waste. 

I get two or three :60s to open a sale. Every second sells. 

Your in-bound telemarketers, CSRs, web designers, or sales reps get three or four minutes to meet & greet Impulse Shoppers, steer them quickly to the Thing you advertised, and seal the deal.  Every second counts.

Every second lost ("Ahhh...just a minute, let me look that up...") leaks customers.

In my system, we track total Media Cost Per Sale using 9th Grade Algebra:

is Media Cost per Sale. MCPS equals Response Rate times Media Cost divided by Conversion rate.

is the percentage of calls, clicks, store ups or other discrete actions that you convert to sales. 
Conversion rate exercises enormous leverage on Media Cost per Sale.

Conversion is King!

Think WYSIWYB: What You See Is What You Buy.  The Thing you talk about in the advertising should be the first thing anyone sees when your page loads. 

Send shoppers to a Product Page if necessary.  Recap your ad CONTENT.  Run gush from your radio.  Add two or three other rational reasons to buy now.  Link directly to your shopping cart.

If you write long-winded sell-copy listing every possible bullet-point you can possibly think of, and your web designer sets it in dense, but visually pleasing blocks of 8-point Verdana or Arial, there's an excellent chance that no-one on earth but you will read it.
I once had a client who put nine pictures of nine products on his home page. One pic -
of the thing we were selling - was in the lower right hand corner. It linked to an internal page that displayed a single 4,000 word paragraph of text and one bold face bullet point: $199.95. The radio attracted 894 HPH this first week. He made 6 on-line sales. Average TSOL was about two minutes. Just enough time to find the home page pic, load the "sell page," and bail out. The phone calls he got off the home page didn't do much better. His mom answered the phone.

If you cannot slickify your home page for radio, we'll build a separate URL or streaming landing page.

Track UV1 Conversion.  UV1C should be 8% to 18% before you launch radio. 

All callers are DOAs, info-seekers, or Ready To Buys.

Greet all radio-driven callers with a :60 to :90 loop tape that states who you are and what you sell in the first 15 seconds.  (This weeds out DOAs: kids, cranks, confused...) 

Invite callers to "Press 1" to speak to a human or stay on the line to "learn more."  Then feed CONTENT to info-seekers and juicy out-takes from your Real People Radio commercials.

A TM should answer each call about ten seconds after the Press 1 option. "Hello, my name is Peter Burkhard.  Thanks for calling Burkhard Works. How can I help you today?"  Listen to the callers' PROBLEMS.  Solve them.  That's why they called.

Do NOT launch into long-winded explanations of Your Thing.  Send info-seekers back to the loop tape, or to your web page.

Many RTBs will need a few extra facts to rationalize an actual purchase. They'll ask.  Scripted answers to FAQs are absolutely necessary. TMs who fumpher are fatal.  Small bonuses per appointment or upsell will boost C.

Every floor sales person should hear your radio commercials several times and know exactly what most Impulse Ups are likely to be looking for.

Meet, greet, and proceed directly to The Thing. Good commercials will often drive in people who are more Quality Conscious than Price Conscious.  Expect more cash buyers than get-me-dones (unless that's who you want).

In 1998 a Chevy dealer neglected to set that criteria and was mightily steamed when I sold off 18 loaded Camaros one weekend.  His 17 stripped-down models stayed on the lot, rusting slowly.

Potato Chip route reps fluff the bags every day.
If you want the Safeway stock-boy to keep your eight inches of shelf space full, pay him. Use a line from your radio copy on shelf-talkers, instant coupons, and the like to move product now.  If possible, split media costs with your retailers in test market stores.

Run your radio advertising during peak UPC hours, while people are driving to the stores. Compare benchmark averages to radio flight surges.  Good shopping-time radio can always give you a lower media cost per retained or new customer than prime-time TV.  

A finely tuned Direct Response, Retail, or Brand Support Radio campaign can quickly build awareness, response and trial.

Your long-term profits, though, will come from retention, re-orders, brand extensions, and upsells. I bring you a bird in the hand.  Birds lay eggs.

The better you do on the back end, the more you can afford to spend building the front end.  Your own customers will happily pay-as-you-go.

Are you ready to get started?