We had reason recently to call up 103 EC members.
We split the calls into three groups and set the guys o ff to ring them.
What followed was hugely enlightening, but ought to be of huge concern to 76% of you reading this article.
Now, it is possible that you are in the 24% who can feel smug as a result of what you’re about to read, but it would be extraordinarily dangerous, not to say foolish of you to assume that you’re in the 24% and not in the 76%. Here’s why …
Of the 103 people that we had to call, 77 of those calls (made during standard working hours, on a weekday) were not answered. At all.
The majority, it’s true, went to voicemail. But guess what, just like your ideal prospect when they try and call you up, we didn’t leave a voicemail either, so you’d never know.
Given the amount of effort that we’ve gone to within EC to teach about the importance of doing the basics well, I genuinely was shocked at the proportion of Members who don’t even answer their phone.
All the fancy marketing in the world, the most sublime AdWords campaign, the most extraordinary direct mail piece, the flyers that have people clambering to their phones to ring you, all count for nothing if you don’t answer the bleeding thing!
It doesn’t have to be you picking up the phone, of course.
Call answering services are widely available. Indeed, there are two that we actually recommend and endorse within EC (you can fi nd their details overleaf) and their costs are pitifully small compared to the benefits that accrue in your business when you never miss a call.
Or, compared to the loss of that new customer, that new contract, that game changing enquiry that you never ever know about – because your phone wasn’t answered.
And I think that’s where the issue here really is.
Because of course, you don’t know what you don’t know.
So when you don’t answer the phone, you don’t know what calls you’ve missed.
You don’t know of the wonderful opportunities that you created for yourself through your marketing activity, but which you then pissed away because your phone was on divert to a standard Vodafone voicemail message.
It’s genuinely insane.
Imagine Rory McIlroy hitting the most beautiful drive, his iron play is magnifi cent, he can cope with the bunkers with ease, but when he gets on the green, he becomes inept.
Inconceivable?
But that’s what this is like. Failing to answer EVERY single phone call – there really are no exceptions, not now. It’s 2016, for goodness sake. It’s the equivalent of not being able to putt on a golf course.
And for the uninitiated, if you can’t putt on a golf course, then you can’t win. Ever.
Now, it’ll be easy for you to roll your eyes and smile wryly at the poor people that this article is obviously aimed at. It couldn’t possibly apply to your business, could it?
Do you know?
Do you really, really know?
Statistically, you’re much more likely to be in the 76% than you are in the 24% and not checking, and double checking would be bonkers.
Answer your phone. Please.
