Bad Sales
Everyone wants more business, right? And everyone wants to see a good ROI on their advertising dollars too, right? Well here is a situation where I was a prospect READY to buy and the company lost the sale.
I called an ad in the Ladue News (not inexpensive to put an ad in there) about resealing our patio. It’s poured, crushed river rock and I was told it needs to be resealed every 3 years. It was time. The ad was there when I needed it. I called and talked to a lovely young lady who took my name and number and said a sales person/estimator would call to set up the appointment to come out and give a quote. I NEVER heard from that company. Why would any company waste valuable advertising dollars and then drop the ball when an inquiry came in…just the result they wanted? And, I’m sure she never put me in a database to email me periodically. Of course, we don’t know if she ever gave him the message or if he got it and forgot to call me. I found another company. The job was $650. I would think in this economy any small business would welcome a $650 sale. The lessons to be learned:
1) Capture every inquiry in a database
2) Set up a system for every inquiry to ensure that the prospect is called, quoted, offered, reclosed and sold or added to informational communications (mail or email) to stay visible until the next time. Don’t drop the ball! Prospects from expensive advertising are too valuable to waste no matter what the economic environment is!