by Jim Cantrell, President & CEO, SSD
 In the 1990’s, I was working late in my office trying to get some quarterly reports done and the phone rang. My first reaction was that customers don’t typically call this late. I noticed that it was a Houston area code so I answered. Much to my surprise it was a cold call from a customer that worked in the astronaut office at Johnson Space Center. Although I did not know this gentleman, he knew what he needed and was ready to buy. Apparently, some new solar panels were being added to the space station and this posed a possible danger to astronauts from higher surface charges. He needed a charge measurement system to mount on the station. He informed me that internet searches had revealed that my company had built and flown such systems before and wanted to know if we could build one for him. My answer was obviously affirmative. We responded rapidly the next day, developed a proposal within a week, and had a new contract for $5 million dollars within three weeks. Not bad!
A funny poster from depair.com mocks businesses that have poor customer service with a poster that shows a telephone covered with spider webs and has as a caption, “If we stop answering the telephone maybe our customers will stop bothering us”. This makes an important point: customers calling are bringing potential money with them and you have to respond to them to make that sale! It always amazes me when businesses forget the basic requirements of running a business. How many of us have had the familiar experiences of calling local companies for household services yet never receive a return phone call? I had a personal experience where the business owner returned the call, came to my home to give me an estimate, and never bothered to show up to do the work. Why would anyone not return an interested phone call? Why would someone not find a way to finish a job even if his or her plate was full?
One of the basic methods for getting new business is answering the telephone or other inquiries. While many people may think of customers calling into a place of business as the main source of new business leads, the reality is that customer inquiries are the result of other forms of marketing and are simply bringing a new business lead to your door. In fact the very use of the phrase “letting the phone ring” is antiquated and ignores an increasingly important source of new business inquiries: the internet. In the end, all of these ways for customers to contact you result in a lead that must be followed up before the sale can be made.
Telephone and internet inquiries are two important sources of new business but are rarely adequate to provide the entire revenue stream of the company. In my experience working with aerospace and high-tech companies, the percentage of revenue coming from “walk in” customer via telephone and internet inquiries varies from 20% to 80% of gross revenues. Typically larger organizations will see revenues of 20-30% resulting from repeat customers, referrals and new inquiries from advertising. However, I worked with an aerospace client who was smaller but derived nearly 90% of referrals from internet inquiries. The secret was a combination of design and content on their website. They would post videos of rocket launches, which became very popular media even outside of the aerospace industry. These videos also illustrated their product in a high impact way. Before solidifying requirements of their own, most of the customers that viewed the online video were nearly sold on the quality, functionality and value of the product before even contacting this company. The fact that this content drove so much web traffic to their site also drove search engine rankings to the top of most relevant searches. This is an excellent illustration of the power of external media driving customers to your door. However, it is very important to realize that someone still must be involved in making the final sale.
There are few absolute rules that apply to customer inquiries whether they originate from the telephone or from the internet. These ‘rules of thumb’ are as follows:
- Respond quickly to the inquiry
- Understand the real need driving the inquiry
- Persuade the prospect of your value proposition
The number one factor in converting an inquiry to a sale is the speed of the response. Simply put, a rapid response puts forth an image of being interested in the customer’s business, being attentive to their needs and having some modicum of organization within the business. On the opposite side, a slow response gives your potential customer the impression that you are either too busy or too apathetic to care about their business. We understand this basic response from our personal experiences with customer service. So what then is the appropriate time is for returning an inquiry? This really depends on the industry and how fast business moves within that industry. For most of our readers, if the inquiry is answered in the first 24 hours after it is sent, this will be both adequate and considered good practice. I have worked with some individuals and businesses in the high-tech industry where the standard is within one hour. This may not be a practical number to achieve but nonetheless serves as a good benchmark goal.
The second important factor in converting your lead to a sale is your ability to understand the real need or requirement behind the inquiry. Often potential customers are looking for a solution but may not understand the underlying problem. It is your job to uncover that hidden need or requirement and to drive your value proposition. I can assure you that there is much more money to be made in not selling something that someone thinks they need and instead solving the real underlying problem. You are building a relationship with the customer based on trust and developing products or services that solve their problems. The bottom line in this kind of thinking is to create an image of you and your company as the one who delivers solutions rather than the ones who just fills the order.
The third factor is really the core of selling: being able to convince the customer of your value proposition. In this category, luck goes to those who are prepared for it. You always need to be prepared with the standard “elevator pitch” where you can describe your company’s value proposition in one or two sentences. You also need to be ready to back this up with a rapid response where you send them the appropriate supporting brochures, catalogs, capabilities statements or other relevant information. Once the conceptual agreement is made with the customer, your proposal should then consummate the agreement that you have made with the customer.
It is tempting to ignore the telephone messages that seem to pile up and the emails asking for information. It is very important to first realize that these are the life blood of your business and you should welcome them into your world. In my experience, well prepared businesses should be able to close more than 80% of walk-in business. When you factor in how little such leads cost to develop, this is the best kind of business to have. Remember first and foremost to respond rapidly to the inquiry, understand the real requirement, and then translate your value proposition into new business.
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