Bad News: Telephone Responsible For Business Failure!

The good news is: it doesn't have to happen to you! Actually, neglecting the marketing needed to make the phone ring is the real culprit. Waiting for your phone to ring is a terrible marketing strategy that dooms you to failure!

If you want more sales, you can't just sit by the phone and wait for it to ring. The only things that will grow with that strategy are cobwebs on your phone, and your list of overdue bills. Obviously, you have to be proactive and take some action to make it ring. It is a case of simple cause and effect.

Whose responsibility is it to generate sales?

When I asked many struggling carpet cleaners what they are doing to get prospects or customers to call for a cleaning appointment, they don't have a very clear answer beyond yellow pages & doing a good job of cleaning.

Many carpet cleaners really seem to feel that the customer should shoulder the responsibility of purchasing cleaning services from their company.

Unfortunately, that's not the way it works in the real world.

Just like you, your customers have a lot on their minds. Their schedules are full and their days fly by. Before they know it the month is gone and they have another long list of urgent things to do. And guess what? Chances are you and your business services are not on their list.

On top of that, most people are die-hard procrastinators. Even if they currently need their carpets cleaned, they often don't take any action to get it done. They just keep putting it off while focusing their attention on more pressing matters.

But that doesn't mean that you can't get the sale.

Your customers need your help if you want them to buy again and again. They have so many things on their minds that they need to be reminded about your business and the valuable services you provide.

They need to be reminded again and again and again. Out of sight, out of mind

I was talking with a nearby business recently that was experiencing a computer problem that he would have liked to have fixed.

He had a computer technician who had done work for him in the past, but he hadn't heard a word from that tech for nearly a year. For one reason or another, as I just mentioned, he kept putting off calling the repair technician.

In the end, he met another repair tech at a chamber of commerce function and told him about the problem he was having. The new tech arranged to stop by and take a look, and fixed the problem quickly, easily and inexpensively. The nearby business now has a 'new' computer tech to service his needs.

The power of a label, sticker, post card, phone call, e-mail or a letter . . .

Since he hadn't heard anything from the original computer tech for so long, he didn't feel any loyalty to him, and it was very easy for him to switch to a new service provider without any pangs of guilt.

If the old repair service had just followed up with this customer periodically with a simple phone call, e-mail, or even a letter or post card to see if he could be of service to him, he would still have this local business as a customer. If he had simply attached a sticker with his name & phone number somewhere on the computer he might have received the call for service!

Apparently the old tech believed it was the businesses responsibility to make the sale, and not his.

It's pretty clear that his strategy is to wait by the phone and hope that it rings. I can picture the cobwebs on his phone, and the unpaid bills piling up.

I sure hope that's a marketing strategy that you'll never use.

If you want to grow your sales you need to be proactive in your marketing. You need to take simple and proven effective steps each month that will guarantee that your phone will ring off the hook - and you will have it answered.