Let me tell you a short story about Sharon… *sorry Sharon*
Sharon is a receptionist for one of our clients in Brisbane.
She almost bombed a $20,000 account for our agency.
Why? It’s because she wasn’t calling anyone back. She was lying to her boss, saying “the leads were bad”, and “no one was answering the phone”, etc.
Here’s what happened…
Our client came to us around the 6-week mark. The conversation went a little like this:
“We aren’t getting enough leads”, “the front desk says they’re dead”, “we need to try something else”, etc.
Generally, they’re trying to hint that they want to cancel, but don’t know how to say it.
Meanwhile, we check their database, and there are 97 leads. Just sitting there. But they want to cancel?
This happens like clockwork for some agencies. Why does this happen, and how did we overcome it?
Here’s how this happens:
The front desk has a million things to do. He or she is doing paperwork, billing, emails, cleaning, greeting, talking to vendors, you name it.
Now, the owner says: “you’ve gotta start calling internet strangers. Be friendly, motivated, and get everything else done.”
See the problem? The receptionist couldn’t care less about getting more sales. It’s not part of their quota. They’re already overwhelmed as it is.
But, sometimes that’s the nature of business. So, let’s continue.
What did Sharon do? She didn’t call anyone. She didn’t stick to the script. She called leads three days later. And she lied to her boss.
How’d we fix this? We stumbled onto the magic survey idea.
All of a sudden, our clients stuck around 10 times longer and spent more money with us.
So what’s the formula?
- A: Send out a friendly human greeting to the client’s lead on behalf of the owner. Let them know Sharon will call soon.
- B: The owner follows up 14 days later: “Did Sharon get in touch?”
- C: Record all inbound and outbound calls for quality assurance
- D: Automate A, B, and C
Formula = A + B + C + D
Very quickly, we found some interesting things.
- People called but didn’t get a callback.
- People were called with an attitude.
- Sharon says she called but didn’t.
We also found other things:
- People loved the service they received.
- People forgot they signed up, but want to come in now that they are reminded.
So, why do businesses fail with leads?
Because they don’t call back their leads. And they don’t follow up.
I want to leave you with this:
If you had a “Sharon” on your team, and they let three new customers slide every week, with an average customer value (LTV) of $1500, you’d lose $234,000 every single year…
Make follow-ups a priority!
Sales conversions increase by 391% if you call within the first minute (Lead Response).
You are 100x less likely to convert a lead if you leave it for more than 30 minutes (Lead Response).
