how not to handle inbound calls
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http:kevinoefelein.com Today’s message will be short and sweet, as there’s tons to do and not much time. That said, while I was reading the news this morning, a shocking headline caught my eye. It read… World’s Oldest New Dad is 96 96. That’s a nine and a six. That’s not a typo. Anyway, the first thing that came to mind about that was something I heard Chet Holmes talk about a few years back. He said that the human race is practically going extinct and that an average 75 year old man has a sperm count five times higher than an average 18 year old. Why? Nutrition. Chet talked about how the average serving size of spinach in 1940 had 158mg of iron in it, which decreased to 27 in 1965… And is now, it’s less than 2mg of iron today. So in order to get the same amount of iron today as you would in 1940, you’d have to eat something crazy like 80 cans of spinach. Anyway, I ate all this stuff up. And it made me think much more about my own nutrition. And believe me, if he was selling any type of supplements or healthy food, I’d be buying it all up. And that is exactly the point he was demonstrating. Education sells. Using “wow” facts and education in your marketing works so much better than just plain “knock-em-over-the-head” sales tactics. And it works for many reasons. First off, people really dislike being sold to. The average person is exposed to something like 30,000 commercial messages a day. And business owners and decision makers, like us, get hit with commercials even more-so. So when someone comes and says they want to educate us, it knocks the pressure down a ton. It’s kind of a nice refreshing change of pace. It also shows the prospect that they can benefit regardless of whether they do business with the educator, especially when it’s an education—and not a product or service—that’s being sold. And besides, it works because no one really wants to be ignorant. Deep down we all have a desire to learn and know more, especially if that learning has to do with our businesses, or if it benefits us in some other way. There’s many more ways educational selling works and we’ll dig deeper into the reasons at a later time. What’s most important now though, is this: Educational marketing works! Believe me, I’m not writing these messages every day for my health.TRANSCRIPT
How Not to Handle Inbound
Calls
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
Today we’re going to talk about something I see most businesses
doing terribly wrong…
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
Inbound marketing.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
But first a quick story:
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
Let’s say that a business spends their marketing budget trying to
generate leads through direct mail, place ads in trade journals,
and newspapers.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
And let’s say the call to action in all of these ads is for the prospect
to call in to the business.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
You with me so far?
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
Now let’s say that all of the ads and direct mail pieces had the same phone number on them.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
And let’s say that number on those ads and direct mail pieces ring through to a receptionist,
who then handles the call.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
That business is doing things exactly wrong in at least three
ways.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
First, the business should be testing which ads and direct mail pieces work best. This way, they
can ramp up what works…
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
And cut back on—or cut out— what doesn’t.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
A good way to do this is by using different numbers or different
extensions for each ad.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
This way you can see exactly how many calls each ad or mail piece is
producing.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
That said, you should then record every single bit of relevant
information from each caller, every time.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
Let’s say the business is currently running two ads, one in a trade journal and one in a newspaper.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
And let’s say they are recording how many calls each ad produces
and they find the newspaper is pulling in more calls at the same
cost as the trade journal…
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
Let’s say 100, whereas the trade journal is generating only 50 calls.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
Now, if you judge the success of the ads on call-ins alone, you
might find that the newspaper is the winner and the trade journal
is the loser.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
But let’s just say that the newspaper produces a customer with an average lifetime value of
$1000…
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
And the trade journal generates a customer with a lifetime value of
$10,000.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
Still think the newspaper won?
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
That’s why you measure everything you possibly can for
each ad, salesletter, or direct mail piece you put out.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
And you judge winners and losers on all criteria, especially how the
ad affects your bottom line.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
We’ll be talking about the other two mistakes later on in the week.
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
Believe me, you’ll want to follow this, as probably more than 90% of businesses out there handle
their inbound marketing incorrectly…
How Not to Handle Inbound Calls
And they leave a ton of money on the table.
Until Next Time…
Until next time,
Kevin Oefelein
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