What’s that sound you hear at this time of year? It’s retailers ringing in huge numbers of sales. So many in fact that websites have been slowing to a crawl over the weekends.
Want to discover how you can ring in more sales and sell more services all year long? It’s easier than you think. All you need to do is make one simple change… 
Ever been asked the question,
“If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?”
In business, the corresponding question would be,
“If the phone rings, and no one answers it, do you make a profit?”
In the first case, the answer is yes. If a tree falls in the forest, it makes a sound but in the case of your business…
if no one picks up the phone when a prospect calls, you don’t make a profit. It’s as simple as that.
Now this might seem obvious, but over and over I find smart business owners, who are letting prospects and profits slip through their fingers because they’re not answering their phone or doing it correctly.
I get this all the time. Someone comes to me because they are frustrated with the slow rate of growth of their business. Despite all their hard work, they’re not signing up enough new clients and they’re not making as much money as they want to be.
They sign up for our done-for-you online marketing and sales support system and as part of the service, we track all calls made, record them and score them.
And here’s the simple and surprising discovery we find all too often.
Despite, wanting more business, and having us ramp up their online lead generation system – our new client isn’t answering their phone.
For example, Jim recently signed up to work with me and he’s now getting 8 phone calls from prospects each week or over 32 a month from the lead generation site we built for him.
Which is great, but two-thirds of these, or 21, are going to voicemail during regular business hours and hardly any of the prospects are leaving a message.
So who cares?
Let’s take a look at the numbers. On average, when our client actually talks to a prospect, he signs up 50% for a $1500 program. And with 21 calls missed each month, he is letting over $30,000 of new business slip away.
In the case of Jim, when we showed him what was going on with all the leads he was actually getting, he explained he didn’t have anyone answering the phone because he didn’t want to pay for an answering service or train someone on staff to be responsible for incoming calls. His rationale was it was too expensive.
I’m sure you know that this is nuts. By saving a couple of hundred bucks a month, he was losing $30,000.
What happens when you don’t answer your phone?
Your prospects keep dialing until they find someone who does, and that would be one of your competitors. So if you don’t have a friendly person on staff answering your phone, get one – it’s a small investment in generating tens of thousands of dollars of new business each month.
Then, when you hear the phone ringing, it’s the sound of ringing in new sales or new money going into your bank account.
Want to talk about how to ring in more sales for your company?
Just email Lauren at Lauren (at) marketingforsuccess (dot) com with your phone number and she’ll give you call. And when she does, make sure to answer.
To your success,
Charlie
MarketingforSuccess
P.S. We’ll all be ringing in the New Year in a few weeks.
Do you have a plan to ring in more sales in 2012?
If not, let’s talk.
