Rocket Fuel - is your business open for sales?
Hi everybody, Julie the Sales Ace here, bringing you another skyrocketing sales tip! This week's sales tip is all about making your business open for sales.
Hi everybody, Julie the Sales Ace here, bringing you another skyrocketing sales tip!
This week's sales tip is all about making your business open for sales.
Uh... What does that mean, Julie?
Let me explain:
I've been doing some telemarketing every week for a client, and during this lockdown there's a very interesting anomaly I've noticed: I'm calling to speak to businesses, and I'm getting an answerphone (some with a message, too many without!).
There was one business I called, and their answer message was that the inbox wasn't being manned, and no one would be picking up the messages!
It's frustrating from a telemarketing point of view, but from a sales point of view you have all these people that are not open for business, and they're not making themselves ready for sales.
My guest this week is the lovely Lesley of The Office Genie.
So, Lesley, what's the downside of companies doing this, of just letting things bounce into answerphones and voicemails?
Lesley: If we look at each business and who's looking to gain new clients, do they realise that if somebody phones their number and hits a voicemail, around 70-75% of all potential new business will NOT leave a message.
Julie: Wow, that's a BIG stat, isn't it?
Lesley: It's a massive, massive number, and the reason why that should hit so hard is that if you were looking to outsource that potentially or ensuring that you had a system in place to answer all phone calls, you are gaining 75% of business that you otherwise would have lost.
Let's be honest, if you're looking for a service and that person doesn't answer their phone, you're not going to phone them again, are you?!
What you're going to do is go to the next business down on your Google search results list, and by the time someone actually answers their phone you don't care what it is that they're charging! Just the sheer fact that they've answered their telephone is enough to get you to buy from their business. That's why it's so important.
Julie: Good point! One thing I also found quite interesting is - even though people always say they'll return a call if they've missed it - after all the days of telemarketing I've done this week, only two people called me back.
Lesley: Yeah, and I think that's why people just don't leave messages - they know you're not going to call them back!
Julie: Yes! So, here's my sales tip for you to work on this week: if you're in lockdown and you're working from home, have you made yourself easily accessible to your customers?
Are you making sure your telephone number is on your website?
Are you making sure that telephone is being answered?
Because if you're not, you're going to be missing a trick!
