Call Management

4 Questions to Ask Before Choosing the Perfect Vanity Number

February 21, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

You know you would benefit from using a vanity number for your business – now ask yourself a few questions before determining which number you want.

Do you make important business decisions on the fly?

Who cares about budget, right? Just sign off on it!

Kidding – I don’t think you do that (or at least you shouldn’t).

Just like with any business or financial decision, you must first plan accordingly before moving forward with any key choices. Well, this is important when considering a new vanity number as well.

Ready to choose a vanity number for your business?

Before following through, here are some vital questions to ask yourself and set your expectations before deciding on the perfect vanity number for your business or next campaign.

1. How much am I willing to spend?

Vanity numbers are an added expense – but they can bring in more calls to your business. Prices vary depending on the coverage you want (statewide or nationwide), the commonality of the word you are looking for, and the prefix you choose.

Common words are more expensive since they are more sought after – especially number combinations that spell more than one word or phrase. Set a price range; this will help you narrow your choices.

2. What word(s) do I want?

Now that you know how much you are willing to spend, what word or phrases are you looking for in your vanity number? Remember, if you want something popular such as “BUY-CARS” or “PLUMBER,” a low monthly budget probably isn’t going to be reasonable.

Also, take a look at the number of letters in the word or phrase that you want. Ideally, you want at close to 7 letters so that you won’t need many numbers in front of or behind the word, and no more than 10 –it gets excessive and unnecessary to dial (and also harder for consumers to remember).

3. Is a repeater number a better option for me?

If you aren’t quite sure if you want or need a word, or perhaps cost is an issue, then a repeater number might be the choice you are looking for!

Repeater numbers have a repetitive, easy-to-remember pattern. Some examples may be numbers like XXX-333-5555 or XXX-225-2525.

Again, repeater numbers have some options that are higher quality than others – the easier to remember, the more sought after it is! Make sure to have some parameters when requesting a repeater number, since the options are almost endless!

4. Do I care what the prefix is?

Another factor is the different prefix options that are available. True vanity numbers are toll-free, and have a few different prefixes to choose from:

Most people are familiar with 1-800 vanity numbers since they are the oldest option out there. But yes, other options do exist! Some businesses may prefer the 800 since it is more recognizable, though others may want to choose an 833 prefix since it is the newest of the bunch. Not sure what that means for you? We’ve talked about the benefits of using a newer prefix, such as getting a cleaner number, here.

Now you are ready – what else are you waiting for?! Search for available vanity options here or call to speak to a vanity representative now by calling 855-GOT-VANITY.

Strategic Approaches for Calling Back Missed Opportunities for Home Improvement Businesses

February 15, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

(FREE APPOINTMENT FOLLOW-UP TRACKER SPREADSHEET!)

Had an interested lead call in looking for service, but didn’t get the appointment set? Consider these approaches when making your call-back attempt to recapture that missed opportunity.

Securing an appointment from a prospect on a first attempt can be difficult and requires a certain skill set to do it at a high success rate. Although it is possible to set a high percentage of your prospect calls (especially with Call Coaching – just take a look at how this HVAC & Plumbing business increased their conversion rate) and you can certainly work internally to boost your appointment-setting techniques, there will inevitably be times where an interested caller slips away.

So what can you do?

Well, call them back and try to recapture their business, of course! It’s always worth a second try. (And with CallSource’s DealSaver program, you can be almost-instantly alerted when a prospect doesn’t set an appointment).

Outbound-calling, especially when calling someone who has already spoken to your business recently, requires a different approach than inbound calls do. Although some of these approaches should be used for inbound calls as well, here are tips when making outbound calls to recapture a missed opportunity.

You need to have a firm strategy in place before making the call. Know what you can are willing to say or give to set the appointment.

First, make sure to listen to the original call; identify the point where the caller did not make the appointment to understand what their objection is. This will dictate how your approach when calling him/her back. Choose from some of the approaches below to successfully gain the commitment.

Authority

Introduce yourself as a manager or some type of authority. This provides a feeling to the caller that they’ve been elevated to the next level.

Empathy

Create a same-team mentality. For example, if a caller did not book due to wanting an estimate price over the phone, you can say, “I understand you want a ballpark price over the phone; I’d want the same for my own home.” This demonstrates you understand the initial request and you can relate personally to the caller’s need while also putting them at ease.

Reassurance

Let them know up front you’re calling back because you’re confident you can provide them a solution. Communicate that this is the reason for the callback.

Reciprocity

This tactic may not need to be used at all – save this for when you have exhausted other resources or feel that the customer is upset, or will not commit without some tradeoff. This shows you’re willing to give something up to gain their business.

Reduced trip charge, % off service, an extension of an expired coupon, etc.
Consider increasing your flat-rate fee to create wiggle room

Likability

The main objective is building trust. You do this by helping the customer (driving them to the benefits of your business). This means seeking the interests of the customer over your own.

People say yes to those they like and relate to (trust garnered from a feeling that you have their best interest in mind).
Effective for overcoming price-shoppers when combined with the Professional Expert approach (see below).

(Tip: See the impact of online reviews as a home service business from this article).

Scarcity

Limited availability communicates that customers find your product valuable. Placing a deadline on an opportunity adds urgency which increases appeal.

Time: “The schedule has just opened up” (can only be used if trust has been built first).
Money: “After reviewing this month’s budget, I’m able to offer <product/service at reduced rate> through Saturday.”

Social Proof

As a means of survival, we look for shortcuts (social cues and patterns) to tell us what’s best.

Share number of overall client-base, percentage of repeat/referral business, percentage of your local market share, or direct them to testimonials on your website or reviews online.
Always: Follow a shared fact with the reason behind it.

Professional Expert

When a doctor writes a prescription for a diagnoses he or she doesn’t consult with the patient; he/she is confident in the knowledge and experience.

Ask the caller technical questions, so they experience there’s more to their inquiry than they realize. However, you don’t want to alienate the customer; ask questions and share your knowledge, so they understand the breadth of your knowledge.
To do this, the team member making the callback must have done his/her homework.

Going the distance

If you are not at capacity, what are you willing to do to get your tech to the door?

Roll up your trip charge into the overall price (if normally separate fees)?
Reduce or waive a diagnostic fee/trip charge all together?
Offer a discount on your product or service? If so, to what degree? Communicate these to your callback team.

Now, are you ready to recapture that lost business? It is not lost until you’ve made every attempt – and I am confident that you can recapture those lost calls! Want to be able to track your efforts? Download our free appointment follow-up worksheet and track your success!

What to Pay Attention to When Choosing the Right Vanity Number for Your Business

February 9, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

There may be more to take into consideration than at first thought.

If you are familiar with vanity numbers, then you know that they are telephone numbers that spell out specific keywords, or have a repetition of numbers for simpler, easy-to-remember marketing numbers.

Before choosing a vanity number that is right for your business, you should consider that something you deem “easy to remember” may not be so for others. There are a few factors to take into consideration or at least be aware of before choosing the perfect vanity number.

Spelling

The conventional way of spelling in a particular language is called orthography. Although this may not be a word you hear in your typical day-to-day, orthography does affect our daily lives.

The ability for adults to spell is a lifelong skill – one that often carries bad habits learned at a young age along with it. Tools such as autocorrect, grammar checks, and spell-check help to get by most of the time, but even the best of these tools are not perfect. When choosing a vanity number for your business, a big question to answer is – does the spelling ability of adults impact the vanity number you should select?

Put simply, yes. You should consider the spelling ability of your audience when you are shopping for a vanity phone number – it can make a difference! Remember, vanity numbers need at least 7 letters/numbers in them (after their prefix), and anything past 10 digits is not recommended. The simpler the word(s) used, the better.

Choose the vanity number that’s right for you!

How Do We Spell?

Knowing the way people spell may help you better choose words that are simpler for most people to spell. Here are a few step-by-step ways that we spell words.

Create and maintain an accurate visualization of a word in your mind from memory.
Analyze the word order and decode it into letters and sounds based on rules.
Relate the letters and sounds analyzed into a lasting order in short-term memory.
Recite the order from your analysis.³

What about Dyslexia?

Childhood dyslexia problems persist into adulthood¹. Dyslexia data suggests that this group misspells about 1 in 40 words¹. Most adults learn to compensate for earlier problems in reading, but spelling remains a difficult and persistent issue for dyslexics even into adulthood².
Point being – most likely, a dyslexic person may misspell words, but most likely will not have as much trouble reading, so they should be able to make out words easier than if they had to spell it themselves – especially if it is a word that they are already familiar with and don’t have to put too much effort into figuring out.

Pick out your easy-to-remember phone number now.

Memory

The point of vanity numbers is to make calling to your business easier for your customers to remember your phone number. Most words require memory, even for largely arbitrary spelling information⁵. The actual spelling is rarely compared to the incorrect memory of the spelling – in poor spellers⁵. It’s not all about memory, but about the ingrained knowledge of the rules that govern how to spell particular words in a language – defined as orthography⁴.

Many high-quality vanity numbers require consumers to spell – or remember how to spell – a particular word or phrase. Since most adults who would be your customers and calling your business should have some memory of spelling the particular word(s) you would choose to use in your vanity number, this should make it easier for them to remember rather than memorizing a random set of numbers.

Choose a vanity number consumers will remember.

Reading Ability

Does consumers’ reading ability matter?

Mostly no, the inability to read results in a minor impact: disabilities in reading and spelling results from a lack of specific skills in perception, memory, or analysis of speech³. Some adults are poor spellers despite having above average reading experiences¹.

This is where their memory will come into play as well – if consumers have read the word(s) before and can remember them, it will make it easier to read now. Also keep in mind that it’s reported Americans have, on average, a 7th or 8th-grade reading level. So, they should have no trouble reading, and consequently remembering your vanity number. Besides, one or two words should not be too difficult of a word since the whole point of a vanity number is to make it easy for consumers to remember.

Ready to choose the right vanity number for your business? Go check out what’s available and/or speak to a representative at 855-GOT-VANITY to get a quote now!

How to Make Sure Consumers Remember You When They are Ready to Buy

January 30, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

Everyone in business knows that it takes more than one or a few touches to make an impression – here’s where to focus on ensuring you’re first in new consumers’ minds when they’re ready to buy.

As I sit here thinking of what to write, hands on keyboard and eyes on computer screen, something pops into my head.

A song, of sorts.

But it isn’t any normal Top 40 song you’d listen to on the radio – although I do hear this song on the radio (quite frequently, apparently).

It’s the phone number jingle for a local plumber in my area.

Now, I don’t ever spend my spare time researching plumbers. And to be honest; I don’t know the names of any other plumbing companies in my city since I have yet to need to have one at my house. But I do know this particular plumbing company’s name and phone number.

Why?

Well, if you are in marketing or advertising, the term effective frequency may be something that you’ve heard of before.

(This plumbing company has a lot of effective frequency on my brain).

If you aren’t familiar with this term, according to Wikipedia, effective frequency is “the number of times a person must be exposed to an advertising message before a response is made.”

Right now, my response is singing their phone number jingle in my head at my desk, but you better believe that in the future when I have a plumbing need, my response will be to immediately think of this company that I am already aware of and familiar with.

What does your company embody that you want consumers to know about you before they know anything else?

So how do you make sure that consumers know about and remember you? When it’s reported that the average consumer is exposed to up to 10,000 brand messages a day, what are you doing to make sure your brand stands out amongst the noise? There are a few key areas to pay attention to when it comes to gaining attention and retention from consumers.

Brand Logo

If you’ve been paying attention to brands you love over the past years, you’ve probably noticed slight changes in their logos. Whether it’s Google’s easy-to-read Product Sans font they created in-house for their new logo, or Dunkin Donut’s switch from the full name in their logo to just the orange and pink “DD” letters, one thing is for sure – logos are getting more and more modest. Just think of these easily-recognizable brands that you can effortlessly identify by their simple logos:

Nike’s simple black check mark. (more on Nike for slogan)
McDonald’s iconic golden arches
Apple’s bitten apple
Adidas’ Trefoil slanted bars
Starbucks’ green crowned mermaid

Just search “iconic brand logos,” and you’ll find copious more brands recognizable by their logos alone. You’ll also notice that the majority of these iconic logos have evolved into more simplistic versions of their starting logos over the years, and many have eliminated the brand name from their logo altogether.

Make your logo work for you – while it should be tied into the business name somehow, of course, do some research and make sure that it has something that stands out, yet is easy to remember.

Advertising Slogans

This one takes a bit more effort but can truly be the push that brings your business more to the forefront of consumers’ minds if clever and catchy enough. “I’m Lovin’ It,” “Just Do It” and “The Quicker Picker Upper” are three that you probably will recognize immediately (McDonald’s, Nike, and Bounty, of course).

Some companies end up being known by their slogan more than their name, or they become so intertwined with one another that you almost cannot hear or see one without the other. Now, this may not be the case with your company and certainly is not how it works for everyone – but it is worth considering for your business. What does your company embody that you want consumers to know about you before they know anything else? What kind of emotion do you want to evoke when thinking of or hearing your brand name?

Perhaps you don’t have a specific slogan for your brand (or don’t want one), but how about for specific advertising campaigns? These can be switched up depending on the advertisement, and you can test out to see which seem to elicit more of a response than others. It can be the differentiator when it comes to consumers remembering something specific about your company.

Phone Numbers

In the digital day and age we are living in, you may not think of a phone number as one of the most important aspects of your branding – but that is far from the truth. If your company relies on appointment-setting for sales, then you need to pay attention to your phone numbers even more so. Do you want consumers to contact you for a particular service? Then you better be sure that you have a memorable way for them to do so. This is where vanity numbers come into play.

Some companies make their phone name their brand – or vice versa. Just think of 1-800-FLOWERS or 1-800-CONTACTS. Ever heard of them? I’m sure you are nodding your head yes. These two companies utilize vanity numbers to their maximum potential. And who doesn’t recognize these easy-to-remember brands?

But maybe there is no way to incorporate a phone number into your company name – and that is fine. While it is great to have your phone number reflect your brand or company name, vanity numbers can also be useful to advertise any specific product(s) or campaigns. Just think of campaigns that you advertise in mediums that clients may see/hear in passing but have a difficult time remembering. Vanity numbers are great options for ads that may appear in these places:

Radio
Television
Billboard
Podcast
Landing Page
And more…

It was found in a Chicago Tribune advertising survey that advertisers using vanity numbers were getting ten times the amount of response to those advertising with a local numeric number. Why? Well, what is easier to remember, a random assortment of numbers or a word? When about 84% of ad viewers are able to recall a vanity phone number after seeing it in an advertisement, I think you have your answer.

But don’t just take my word for it – CallSource’s vanity numbers are also trackable, so you can see down to the lead and if the appointment was set off of a vanity number to ensure that it is working efficiently for your business. Check out our vanity options here.

See why an 833 vanity number may be the best option for your business.

Now get to work on building your brand to be as memorable as it can be – through your logo, slogan(s) and phone numbers…soon consumers will be singing your praises in their daily lives before they even use your products or services!

Want more information on how to better your business to get more customers and help keep them coming back? Talk to a CallSource specialist today on how we can help.

Managing Client Acquisition Constraints

January 29, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

The ultimate goal of your business is to acquire new customers and make sales – but how do you figure out the areas of your business that may be preventing this from happening to its best capacity?

Business exists in a world of big data.

This sounds exciting on the surface, but what does it really mean? The more information we have available, the easier it becomes to make the right decisions – or so it seems.

Unfortunately, big data all too often leads to clutter. Instead of clarity, we have noise. Instead of using data to guide the business we find ourselves working in the business reacting to events.

“The capacity [of your business] is equal to the capacity of its bottlenecks”
-Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Focusing on the metrics that matter is the remedy to the weight of big data.

In Eliyahu M. Godratt’s book, “The Goal,” he introduces us to the theory of constraints. Though the book reads like a novel and uses a factory as its business, this theory can still be applied to your business as well.

Basically, the theory of constraints states that the step within a process with the smallest capacity – the constraint – dictates throughput.

But what does that mean? Let’s get right into it.

Throughput and Business Growth

In the client acquisition cycle, the “throughput” is revenue (do I have your attention now?).

Revenue represents success in acquiring and onboarding new clients – the fuel to sustaining business growth. Businesses inevitably lose existing clients over time. Without actively working to acquire new clients, businesses will eventually contract.

Avoid Throughput Conflict

Organizations preferring to use a metric other than revenue as throughput need to identify the target.

Throughput must be an appreciable, objectively measured target that is the goal of a cycle or process.

Businesses that focus on high blended ticket value will shift their strategy to higher paying prospects. Marketing tactics will be altered to avoid lower paying prospects. Marketing becomes responsible for motivating the right prospects to respond and not the total prospect responses.

Client acquisitions will be reduced by avoiding smaller sales. This can be accomplished by an outright refusal to serve low need prospects or increasing basic service fees to dissuade lower paying consumers from becoming clients.

Setting goals of acquiring as many new clients as possible and simultaneously raising the blended average ticket value creates a conflict of Throughput.

These conflicts can be navigated by carefully designing goals – defining Throughput – based on the best interests of your organization. Revenue works by establishing Throughput that avoids conflicts.

Other organizations may focus on a different metric. New client acquisition may be the right Throughput for organizations that are focused on increasing market share (e.g. a new business).

The key is ensuring that each departmental goal works in collaboration with the other.

The Relationship Sales Cycle

The client acquisition cycle can be broken into several linear steps. Any step can act as a constraint, straining efforts to grow the business.

A business’ ability to acquire new clients efficiently is reduced due to the constraint. Expensive client acquisition costs, missed growth targets, and reduced throughput are the results of constraints.

Client acquisition, and business growth, can be likened to a manufacturing assembling line.

Manufacturing requires each unit produced be processed by a series of individual machines before the end goal of sales throughput is achieved – sales throughput being the final sale of the unit to the end customer.

The machine with the smallest capacity dictates the number of units produced.

For example, if machines A and B have a capacity of 100 units, machine C a capacity of 50 units, and machine D’s capacity is 500 units, only 50 units can be produced. Maximizing machines A and B to their fullest potential will still yield only 50 units to throughput. Machine C cannot process more than its limited capacity.

The relationship sales cycle is a similar process. Client acquisition for businesses engaged in relationship sales tends to have a longer cycle, as opposed to transactional sales. Understanding the individual steps and the steps influence the process overall helps create a manageable process.

The steps include:

Awareness
Connection
Evaluation
Acquisition + Scheduling
Throughput

Each client acquisition navigates through these steps. Each step is measured discretely.

The above example demonstrates how a constraint negatively impacts new client acquisition and revenue. Each step is individually measured providing insight into where the constraint exists and where we should target our resources. The constraint is found in the second step of the process. The Connection step is dictating Throughput or the revenue earned.

All other scores remain constant. The number of Acquisitions remains at 85% of Evaluations, for example.

Awareness

Measurement: Prospects Calls

Generating leads is the first step in acquiring customers. Businesses cannot grow beyond the number of leads generated (this may seem obvious).

Any activity intended to create awareness of the business, including a website, digital ads, direct mail, print ads, networking, etc. comprises this step. This is the marketing activity.

Success in this activity means driving prospect response, or garnering prospect calls.

The marketing dollars are used to “purchase” prospect calls, appointments, and ultimately new clients. New client revenue can be expressed as the monetization of the dollars invested in marketing efforts.

Although the intent of marketing dollars is to drive revenue from client acquisition, prospect calls are the measurement of success for this step as all the other steps directly influence client acquisition.

Prospect calls indicate the effectiveness of marketing activity.

In the scenario illustrated above, the same volume of prospect calls based on the same marketing budget and activity occurs, yet different Throughputs are achieved. A common response is to purchase additional prospect calls with additional dollars to make up for the revenue drop off. This results in expensive client acquisition costs.

The ability to effectively monetize the marketing investment becomes out of balance. Marketing costs comprise a higher portion of the overall cost of gaining new clients.

Marketing as a Constraint

Marketing efforts, or the Awareness stage, acts as a constraint if all other steps are operating efficiently. As the first step in the client acquisition cycle, it effectively caps the number of opportunities.

If 100 prospect calls are generated, client acquisition opportunities are limited to 100 for the time period being measured.

Setting goals for each phase helps identify the constraint. If the organization is hitting its conversion rate target (Connection Phase) then this can be eliminated as the constraint. If it is determined that all other steps are meeting their targets, and the business wants to grow beyond its current rate, then marketing should be examined.

Even if it is determined that marketing is not the constraint, additional marketing may succeed in expanding the number of prospect opportunities. Careful analysis will determine if this is the appropriate option based on individual circumstance.

Connection

Measurement: Conversion Rate

Secondary Measurements:

Brand Experience
Outbound Calls

Setting the appointment is the second step in generating sales throughput.

The Connection phase is the first time the organization has direct contact with a prospective new client. If the opportunity is handled effectively the relationship advances by setting an appointment for an evaluation. Being ineffective may result in permanently losing the opportunity.

Some clients may focus on setting a specific number of appointments, but the conversion rate provides a clearer picture if appointment setting is a constraint.

The total number of appointments set is impacted, positively or negatively, by marketing response rates and seasonality.

Below-average conversion rates indicate appointment setting is a constraint. In the example above, even a relatively small drop will have a significant negative impact on client acquisition and revenue. The longer the constraint exists the more expensive it becomes.

Call handler skills are likely lacking in one or more areas. Identifying opportunities for skills training is important. CallSource recommends setting specific goals for call handlers and reviewing scores on a regular basis.

Connection Outcomes

There are three prospect outcomes to the Connection phase: Fostered, Lost, or Nurtured.

Fostering the relationship is setting the appointment on the initial call. The prospect has the opportunity to become a client during the evaluation stage. The call handler succeeded. A positive brand experience was provided and the relationship is progressing, which is the goal of the stage.

A lost opportunity occurs when the prospect has a brand experience that does not meet their needs. A high risk of defection to a competitor exists.

Nurturing the relationship occurs when the prospect is not able to set an appointment on the initial call, but has a positive brand experience. This encourages them to book when they are ready to move forward. Some industries lead nurturing plays a small role and other industries it is essential.

Lead nurturing often occurs when the caller is conducting research on behalf of someone else, such as a parent or partner. Schedules will need to be confirmed prior to booking an appointment.

Conversion rate is a vital leading indicator of success even in industries with a significant lead nurturing need. Conversion rate is arguably the most important indicator of performance in most industries and especially those that must book on the initial call or lose the prospect.

A high success rate on the initial call translates into more appointments booked overall.

Brand Experience

Prospects form immediate opinions of the business during the initial call.

A positive brand experience means the call handler effectively communicated the value of the business.

If questions were not adequately answered, if the call handler sounded indifferent, or an appointment was not offered the prospect will likely not set an appointment. They may defect to a competitor or decline to seek service at all.

CallSource measures the brand experience using the Telephone Performance Analysis, or TPA. A strong brand experience has a higher likelihood of setting an appointment. Conversely, a weaker experience has a higher rate of missed opportunities. This results in a longer acquisition cycle or a constraint.

Outbound Calls

Recapturing missed opportunities is the second aspect of eliminating appointment setting as a constraint. Even businesses with strong conversion rates and provide a positive brand experience will have some missed opportunities.

Maximizing appointment setting to its fullest potential reduces limitations to business growth and maximizes marketing spends. Outbound calls to missed opportunities reduce defection rates and prospects that will not move forward any service.

A missed opportunity is a prospect that expresses an interest in a product or service but does not book an appointment for a specific day and time.

Should a poor brand experience occur, it is imperative to reach out to the missed opportunity and correct that experience.

Lead nurturing campaigns include outbound calling. These missed opportunities are prospects genuinely interested in a service but were prevented from booking an appointment on the initial call. Successful lead nurturing requires an active approach. Passively waiting for the prospect to call again is a lead nurturing strategy based on hope.

Outbound calling missed opportunities boost the effectiveness and expands the capacity of the Connection step.

Evaluation

During the evaluation step, the prospect’s needs are determined.

The evaluation may determine that some prospects do not require service. This is not an example of a constraint. This is a lead nurturing opportunity. When the person will benefit from being served there is a likelihood they will return to this organization due to the positive brand experience (or refer someone).

The Evaluation constraint typically comes in two forms: cancelled appointments and the inability to move the prospect to pay for a beneficial service.

Appointment Cancellations

A high rate of cancelled appointments undermines the effectiveness of the first two steps in the client acquisition process. The marketing provided a prospect response. The call handler moved the prospect to setting an appointment.

Appointment reminders may be effective. This is a valuable and low investment effort to motivating prospects to keep their appointments. Prospects booking future appointments (not same day) will benefit most. A simple call the day before may be all that is needed. If the prospect is required to travel to the business for the appointment, ensuring (S)he has transportation may be helpful.

Sales

Not every professional prefers to consider him/herself a salesperson. Yet every success business organization requires sales.

Sales is simply moving someone to purchase a product or service that benefits that individual. Moving the prospect toward a purchase requires effective communication. Communication is not complete until the listener receives – hears and understands – the message.

Communication may be the issue if the constraint is at the evaluation stage.

Is your communication effort unnecessarily complex (jargon or abstract language)?
Have the benefits of service been clearly articulated?
Do you understand the prospect’s reluctance?
Have you made a full effort to understand the prospect?

Improving sales requires altering approaches and experimentation. New efforts may not immediately gel. Being prepared to learn what works, and what does not, is a necessary part of the sales process.

Acquisition and Scheduling Capacity

Some businesses have grown beyond their ability to actually schedule the service for all prospects. Scheduling availability essentially determines or limits the size of the business in these cases.

In these situations, the marketing is effective and connection phase is not an issue.

When 80% of scheduling capacity is reached, businesses start considering their options.

Many CallSource clients would love to have the problem of filling all available appointments. Appointment slots are a perishable product. At the end of the week any unused appointment times can never be sold. The revenue that could have been generated from those unused appointment slots will never be generated.

Businesses that reach their maximum scheduling capacity must turn away some customers. These unscheduled prospects may be permanently lost customers.

Expanding scheduling capacity may not always be feasible for any number of reasons. This is especially true if scheduling capacity is a constraint during brief peak seasons. It rarely makes business sense to boost capacity for only a short period.

Businesses Not Increasing Scheduling Capacity

Reduced marketing
Larger customers
Increased fees

Businesses purchase prospects with their marketing. The phone does not ring for free. Prospects that are turned away represent a wasted cost.

If a client does not wish to expand scheduling capacity they have some options. Reduced marketing is an obvious choice. Reviewing current marketing and eliminating underperforming sources is a worthy exercise. Cut marketing costs immediately improves the bottom line. The client no longer purchases prospects that are ultimately wasted.

Clients still need to market their business. Cutting marketing too much, too quickly, may lead to a lack of prospects. Any reduction in marketing should be a methodical process.

An overabundance of prospects allows businesses the luxury of being selective. Turning away low margin prospects to focus on higher paying customers may reduce scheduling constraints. Since there is a scarcity of appointment slots, the value of the appointment increases. Businesses should understand the value of their appointments and strategize accordingly. This will not increase scheduling capacity, but may help boost revenues by granting appointments to higher paying customers only.

Raising fees will need to be considered against market forecasts and branding concepts.

The prospect is not actually acquired unless they can be scheduled.

Shifting Constraints

Growth constraints may shift over time. This may be temporary, signal an emerging problem, or due to fixing a previous constraint.

Marketing or scheduling may act as a temporary constraint due to seasonality. Conversion rates may ebb and flow due to a number of factors. Acts of intervention are unnecessary for temporary issues.

Expanding the capacity in one area may make another area in the sales assembly line the constraint point, even if its capacity remains steady.

Marketplaces change overtime. A commitment to monitoring the metrics enables business leaders to identify constraints and take action.

Operational Capacity

Although not directly part of the sales process, a business’ operational capacity impacts growth.

Time resources are one example of operational constraint. A Business leader may only be able to successfully manage a business of a particular size. Business growth requires the investment of managers beyond this point. Business owners may be reluctant to invest in operational support due to the added risk. Talent limitation is another area of operational constraint.

As a business advisor, we may not be able to address these issues directly, it is important to be aware of such limitations as you work with clients.

Understanding Throughput

Throughput cannot be controlled. The end result of any process can never be controlled. It is a lagging indicator of the preceding steps in the process.

The leading indicators – the steps in the client acquisition process coming before throughput – can be controlled. Focusing time, energy, and resources toward correcting growth constraints will positively impact business growth.

4 Ways You Are Preventing Your Business from Succeeding

January 18, 2018 by Cassie Ciopryna Leave a Comment

Stop doing these 4 things if you want to improve your business.

A friend of mine likes to pull pranks on her co-worker.

From squirting water guns at her cubicle, to prank phone calls, and even a fake Craigslist ad for a yard sale at her colleague’s house (don’t worry, she didn’t actually publish it)…seriously, she doesn’t have many boundaries.

Recently, my friend sent me some videos of the most recent prank she was setting up for her poor, patient, co-worker before she was returning to the office the following day from her maternity leave. The videos processed my friend pouring Jell-O powder and hot water into various objects (think Tupperware, office coffee mug, etc) and proceeding to drop random desk supplies (think pen, stapler, etc.) into said future-Jell-O holders.

I have to admit, it’s pretty funny.

I know you’re probably wondering: “OK, but what does this have to do with me and my business? I thought I came to your blog for business insights, not random people’s office pranks.” And yes, I do have a point: do you have people or programs in place (or a lack thereof) in your office acting as barriers to getting work done?

What are your office Jell-O molds?

If you went to use your stapler and it was congealed in Jell-O, it would be quite obvious there that there is a barrier between you and the object that you need to use to get work done. But these figurative “Jell-O molds” may not be as transparent. So I’m here to help you figure out what they may be.

“Good organizations want to be more profitable and successful, and in order to properly do that, you have to compare where you were to where you will be or are now.”

Below are four ways that you may be unaware are actually hindering you from achieving goals, making more money, overall office productivity and, ultimately, keeping you complacent by not aiding in business improvement.

Not Setting Goals

Sure, you may be busy in your day-to-day activities, but why be happy when you are constantly putting out fires or “saving the day” with last minute fixes instead of having a long term plan and sticking to it?

You can be busy every single day at work, but unless the work you doing is actually propelling your business forward in some way, it’s not really helping you improve at all. Spending time getting a pen out of set Jell-O may be getting something done, but what is it really accomplishing to better your business?

It is far more productive to set goals and then reach those goals, rather than get caught up in the same types of duties every day.

Are there any consistent problems arising that you keep fixing? Why not instead brainstorm a way to solve the problem and create more time to focus on more important, business-serving tasks in the future to keep setting more goals and aiming higher?

In his article “4 Reasons You Need to Set Business Goals,” Michael A. Olguin states that the following are important reasons to be setting goals within your business:

Measure Success – Good organizations want to be more profitable and successful, and in order to properly do that, you have to compare where you were to where you will be or are now.
Leadership Team Cohesion – Everyone needs to understand where your leadership team is coming from and what the over-arching goals of the company are so that all teams and employees are on the same page.
Knowledge is Power – The more you know, the more you can grow. It is always better to have more information than not enough information, and setting goals ensures that you will have to do a bit more research and have more knowledge about your company.
Reassess Goals Mid-Year – Just because you set goals doesn’t mean you are done. You need to continuously be reassessing your current goals and seeing if any need to be adjusted, as well as how you are doing in achieving the goals you set, or if you are behind and have some catching up to do.

As you can see, not setting goals is a major barrier for business improvement.

Over-Tasked Management & Employees

Getting the tools employees need to do their jobs out of their Jell-O jail takes up precious time and adds another task to the already-full pile employees have.

While it is of course a great idea to have managers and employees cross-trained and informed with as much knowledge and skills as possible, it is still vital that job duties are focused and streamlined so that no one is overloaded with too many duties, prohibiting them from focusing and completing their most important tasks.

For example, while you may have a small office that requires a call taker to also be working on spreadsheets and other internal duties, they will not have the focus or time to really dedicate to answering their phone calls and having the best conversations in order to book the appointment as someone whose sole duty is to answer in bound calls and make as many appointments as possible to turn into sales for your company.

Usually the excuse for this bad behavior is that the business does not have enough money to hire extra employees to take on these additional tasks. But if you really do the math—how much would a few extra sales per month mean for your business? If an employee focused on setting appointments could make 5 extra sales a month, which could cover an additional salary PLUS some, don’t you think that will be worth it in the long run?

But don’t just take my word for it – multitasking has been proven to be a productivity killer in other scenarios as well. With effort and focused employees and job descriptions, your business will ultimately be more successful.

Not Tracking Your Data

It doesn’t mean quite as much if you set goals and make decisions to better your company if those decisions are based solely on opinion and gut feelings rather than actual data.

If you aren’t tracking your data, then you can’t say with certainty whether or not your employees are performing effectively, if you are making good marketing decisions, or if money is being allocated in the right areas for your business.

This is how CallSource helps our clients—by tracking how successful your marketing is performing you can tell if you are getting leads into your office and also how well your employees are doing at converting those leads into sales, as well as giving data on how well your employees are performing with the goals being set and where to focus for improvement. Just like you want to know where to perform better, you also don’t want to waste your efforts in areas that you are doing well in.

No or Low Focus on Internal Improvement

Hiring qualified candidates shouldn’t be where you stop with making sure that your employees are the best. Whether someone has 10 days or 10 years’ experience in their position, there is always room for improvement. If you aren’t focused on your employees’ improvement, why will they want to invest in their own improvement as well?

Better skilled employees make for more successful businesses. This goes hand-and-hand with setting goals—if your employees have specific individual and team goals that you are setting for them, these will force them to work on bettering their own skills. Investment needs to be an endless loop—invest in your employees and their success and improvement, and they will in turn invest more into working their best for your company. If you need incentive ideas for your team, we have a few non-cash ideas we’ve previously talked about here.

Ready to start helping your business succeed? That’s what CallSource is here for! Talk to a CallSource Representative today to see how CallSource can help you.