Читать книгу 99 Marketing Mistakes - Kenyon Blunt - Страница 14

Mistake #8

Taking No Action

This mistake comes in two forms: 1) not following up on leads and 2) not responding based on results. Inaction, in both cases, leads to wasted marketing dollars. The core philosophy behind “Lean” is “Build-Measure-Learn.” This iterative process does no good if action is not taken based on the learnings. Let’s look at each one.

Not Following up on Leads

Failing to follow up is the most significant marketing sin of all time. It never ceases to amaze me that the majority of leads generated by marketing are not followed up by salespeople. It’s a tremendously expensive mistake, and it makes absolutely no sense! At a minimum, leads should be put into an automated system for follow-up (see mistake #58).

Why does this happen? Research suggests that only one in every 50 deals occurs right away, yet many sales efforts are ditched right at the beginning. People don’t initially buy for a host of reasons: inertia, lack of time, too many other things on their plate, concerns about cost, etc. Often, prospects want to confirm their decision before they make the purchase.

Here’s a good practice to ensure this doesn’t happen:

The Five “No’s” Follow-Up Strategy

Introduce a rule in your company where you maintain contact with every prospect until each one of them has said “no” or “not now” at least five times.

Not Taking Action Based on Results

With the marketing tools available today (e.g., Google Analytics, CRM systems, etc.), it’s easier to track results than ever. What small businesses are doing with this data is less clear. A mistake that I see is having useful data but not knowing what to do with it. Checking your numbers frequently gives you a good idea if your campaigns are working or not.

Here’s a tip. Do not look solely at the numbers alone – always try to find the root cause of the results. Challenge yourself to action. The answer might be to wait for more data, but at least you’ve gone through the process of reviewing the results.