TONY RUBLESKI, GUEST BLOGGER
I’m often asked by challenged CEO’s, VP’s of sales and marketing, and non-profit leaders within many organizations the same question when it comes to marketing. “Tony, how do we get people to pay attention to us?”
This to me is often a three, five or ten year problem in the making that I can’t solve with a simple five-minute solution. I often throw back when asked this the question: “How are you tracking and handling leads?” I do this not to confuse, but more importantly to get a quick read on a potential problem that’s much deeper than the best marketing could ever help to solve.
While a number of answers are often given to my question there’s usually a bigger problem lurking within most organizations as it relates to marketing. Here it is. There are often few if any systems for accountability or tracking in place to improve the lead process within the organization. Astonishing! Kind of like playing blind archery. A dangerous proposition indeed. Seems like common sense, but I’m not kidding. I’d like to share with you a recent true story to prove my point.
A local client has brought me in to do marketing consulting and specific customer service and referral related training for their staff. With walk in traffic being a big part of their business, I recently decided to conduct a mystery shopping experiment and sure enough a major marketing gap was identified. I began my mystery shopping experience by asking for information about the firms services and saying that I was considering moving and needed to learn more about them. After about a minute I was given a brochure and told “here you go.” I took a few seconds, glanced at the brochure, said “thanks” and moved on. I was hoping there would be some questions asked regarding my inquiry, but none came. There was zero attempt to engage or ask me any questions.
So what was wrong with my experience? There were two simple, yet very critical, things that should’ve been done differently if a system had been in place by all front line people at this company. This system would only be made to stick via training and ongoing enforcement to make sure it became a policy and not an option.
One, the person helping me should’ve asked “how did you hear about us?” This is valuable marketing information to have. Was I referred there? Did I see there billboard, hear there radio ad, read one of their mail pieces, or hear about them from a friend or co-worker? The answer will never be known. This is critical to know, because if you can’t track your leads you’re playing an expensive guessing game with your marketing and often letting a fortune walk in and out of your business net.
Secondly, once it was identified that I was not a customer, a simple procedure – not an option - should have been at the ready to make sure that before I left additional information was gathered about me so proper follow up could be made. Some simple, non-intrusive ways to get information include offering them a small gift for stopping in, to having them fill out a quick questionnaire right there with them. I can hear the naysayers, “but Tony, we don’t have time to do that.” My answer’s simple, make it a job requirement and train the entire team to do it and build in a policy to regularly audit the process and reward those doing it and discipline those who don’t. Harsh? I don’t think so one bit. Capturing leads is critical and marketing is often an expensive and frustrating exercise for many organizations. When you get a lead, you need to capture information, cultivate it and not let it simply walk out the door into the land of lost customers.
The learning lesson here is that proper training is critical within all organizations and should be a continual habit and not a one-shot deal every few years. If your average client is worth potentially thousands of dollars in future or ongoing business and you’re losing two, three, five or more leads per week it’s costing you a fortune in sales and lost referral opportunities.
This is why TOP organizations, despite what the economy’s doing, see training as an investment and not an expense.