How Lisa Got New Clients To Start Calling Like Crazy…

How can you get your phone ringing with eager buyers?

Here’s what one savvy small business owner did.

Last summer, I got a call from Lisa, who runs…a gym for young children, right here in my hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut.

It’s a place for kids from toddlers to middle schoolers, where parents can sign their kids up for tumbling classes, a gymnastics team, or for hassle-free, sure-to-please birthday parties.

Parents and kids alike love the gym, but not enough new customers were coming in. A few referrals were coming in but the phone hardly ever rang.

Lisa explained that while her business had been growing gradually, things had been tough since 2008. She wanted to know if we could help her get the phone ringing so she could get back on a more profitable track, growing her business and helping kids tumble their way to fitness and fun.

Lisa was convinced that the recession was killing her business.

When my partner and I looked at her business and her sales, we saw that although the economy had had some impact, her biggest problem was that you couldn’t find her gym online. Her business was essentially invisible to parents looking online for kids’ gyms in her area. And Lisa is convinced — as we are — that a lot of her potential customers are searching online.

Here’s what we did over the next few months.

We took a look at her website. It was lively and cute, which was fine, but nothing on the site was set up to generate a lead or to get visitors to pick up the phone, so we redesigned it and rebuilt it.

What happened next?

New customer calls for month 1 – zero. (Hold your breath – Rome wasn’t built in a day)

Then we started writing articles, blog posts, tweets, and facebook updates, submitting videos and pushing customized, relevant content out to the 100 channels we use to build an online presence for our clients.

New customer calls for month 2 – one. (Well at least someone noticed.)

During the third month, we stuck to the plan, continuing to write and distribute content for Lisa.

New customer calls for month 3 – three. (Web marketing takes patience.)

In the fourth month, we started to see the momentum build, and this is typical of the results we get using our online marketing system and doing what we know works to generate qualified leads. It takes a few months to get the word out online, but once all the different communication channels, articles, blog posts, social media, video and the others we use – get activated for you – people find you and call you.

See the following progression:

New customer calls for month 4 – 38 calls.
New customer calls for month 5 – 56 calls.
New customer calls for month 6 – 102 calls.
New customer calls for month 7 – 256 calls.

Of these 165 were unique calls and 91 were repeat calls. Talk about eager prospects.

No, the results weren’t instantaneous for Lisa, but imagine if 6 or 7 months from now you had 165 prospects a month calling who wanted to do business with you.

How much more money could you make?

(Not only that, we trained Lisa’s staff to close the deal once prospects were on the phone, and we can do that for your front desk staff, too.)

Creating your online presence is a little like a pregnancy. It takes time for that baby to grow and develop, but the wait is well worth it.

And while every mother I’ve talked to tells me that their pregnancy was two months too long, I’ve never found one that didn’t say the rewards make it all worthwhile!

165 new, eager buyers calling you each month – imagine the rewards!

Ready to get your phone ringing? Leave your comment below and let’s talk.

Charlie
MarketingForSuccess

P.S. Some people get scared when I share the above numbers. They say they couldn’t handle all the new business! But that’s exactly the idea.

Every business owner wants to have a surplus of clients, rather than a deficit. Having a surplus of prospects is a “problem” that could allow you raise your prices or expand your business.

Imagine you had a surplus of clients. Think you could live with it?

Let me know if you’re interested.