Believe Me, It’s Costing You!
We work with numerous businesses to help increase their productivity and lead generation by making wise business and marketing decisions. We are still surprised that even in our digital world, as we start generating leads for a business we quickly find out that no one is properly tracking the leads that are being generated. Ouch. It’s a bad combination that makes everyone look bad at the end of the day.
Why is tracking leads so important?
Do you know how much potential revenue hung up the phone without scheduling, or walked out of your office today without purchasing your product? Can you identify to the penny the amount of revenue your marketing campaigns produce? If so, you are the exception.
For clarity’s sake, we define lead tracking more broadly as the process of precisely identifying any and all people/businesses that have made or attempted a direct contact with you who express at least a small interest in your business. Market IQ is your demonstrated acumen and understanding of what’s happening in your business and industry.
Are businesses tracking their leads? Let’s see what the numbers say.
We directly polled more than 70 businesses to confirm the deficiency in lacking lead tracking and Market IQ. When asked:
- 57% of respondents claimed they track leads.
- 92% of that same group also admitted that they still use paper or a business management system that does not report to them the key metrics required to know the effectiveness of their sales and marketing effort. Calls into question the veracity of the previous bullet point!
- More than 50% of the respondents demonstrated that tracking leads was not priority enough to do it, or do it well (only 15% actually claim they do it and do it well).
- A mere 23% reported knowing the year-over-year change in lead generation and conversion rates.
- Only 18% claimed to know how effective their marketing campaigns over the past four years have been.
- More than 70% couldn’t state with surety what their phone to sales appointment and sales appointment to conversion rates were.
Every day we meet and work with businesses that are somehow willing to spend thousands of dollars on staff salaries and advertising campaigns without giving a second thought to how effective those expenditures are. We are seldom surprised to find businesses who fail on this front. However, the results we learned from the survey responses were shocking!
Perhaps most telling was the lack of confidence in the quality and accuracy of the reporting their present systems provided. More than 70% of attendees were unwilling to confidently stake a significant sum that they were adequately informed (thought I’d try to earn a quick buck since I live in Las Vegas), with 90% reporting that their system lacked necessary accuracy & security. Not only were they not tracking well, they didn’t trust the results.
It is hard to know which is worse – poor accuracy or gross insecurity.
Why don’t businesses track their Leads?
To find out why these answers prevailed, we sought answers from this group and others. Here are the three primary reasons for the lack of lead tracking and metrics gathering:
- Fear: As we discussed the importance of lead tracking with willing respondents, we could see the fear wash over their faces when we showed them the ways they were losing money each month by not tracking leads. In fact, one honest manager was willing to reveal that she has avoided adding a lead tracking system because she was afraid for her and her staff to be measured! A fear of reality was stopping their growth. Don’t allow your fear or your staff’s pushbacks to measurement keep you from improving. Success follows improvement by measurement. Demonstrate your leadership by embracing changes that will positively impact your business.
- Cost: Don’t be fooled by yourself or anyone else. You are already spending the money a lead tracking system would cost you, maybe more! The real problem is you don’t know how much you’re spending because it’s tied up in inefficient use of your staff’s time. Believe it or not, if you are not using a lead tracking system designed specifically for your industry you are almost surely spending thousands of dollars every year on wasted productivity and costly inefficiency. Plus, you’re still making suboptimal marketing decisions based on guesswork. Don’t lie to yourself about your wasteful spending. Change it by investing in a high Market IQ with advanced lead tracking.
- Double Entry: “It’s More Work Than It’s Worth”: This is perhaps the most dangerous and fallacious reason of all for not investing in an advanced lead tracking system and high Market IQ. First, the right lead tracking system will integrate nicely into your current system – eliminating any excuse a staff member may have. Second, an advanced system will make you money and shine a spotlight on those members of your team who are committed to your success. Third, isn’t a little more work worth a lot more money? The right system will start turning the wasted hours and dollars into real profit gains, even if it requires a few more minutes of staff work. Don’t be mislead. The additional work required by an advanced lead tracking system will prove it’s worth in a short period of time.
What benefits does lead tracking really provide?
Measurement will expose weakness. It will also highlight performance! If it makes it seem as though you haven’t been doing your job, embrace the opportunities it exposes to impress with new initiatives. Rather than cowering, running for cover, or pretending that everything is fine, avoid a crisis by embracing measurement and accountability for your team and watch them grow. You can lead the charge and add real value (we mean bottom line profits) to your business by adding an advanced lead tracking software right now.
How do I convince the owners of my business that lead tracking is worth it?
If your management responsibilities make you a middle-man and you’re concerned that your principals won’t back your decision, share with them the following case studies from our clients.
Business A was new in business with low to no elective surgery volume. Their lead generation was unplanned and unfocused. Their internal measurement was non-existent. Their volumes were flat for the previous three consecutive years. They engaged us to correct internal processes, train on sales and customer relationship management and generate new lead volume. Within three months of incorporating lead tracking and improving their business, they quadrupled optometric referrals and quintupled elective surgery volumes.
Business B (20+ years old), with the same deliverables, implemented the same model and doubled their surgical volume and revenue during the peak of the 2000’s recession.
Be in tune with your business and make it great!
No great business has ever grown by not marketing itself. But, the great businesses have always grown faster and better because they were in tune with the key metrics that make their Market IQ higher than their competitors. Being a top-level leader in today’s competitive business landscape requires you to take steps to make you and your teams shine and put real profits back into your business. Today’s lead generation capabilities and advanced lead tracking systems are the solution you are missing.
How do I get started with lead tracking?
The pathway to success on incorporating an advanced lead tracking system really is easier to navigate than you might think. The first step is identifying and accepting your known and unknown weaknesses. The second step is attacking the deficiencies head on with digital solutions designed to perform. The third step is doing whatever it takes to persuade your principals to invest wisely in raising your Market IQ and leverage your returns to produce significant growth. There has never been a time in the history of business when creating more impressions, modifying your strategy, and increasing lead capture and conversion have been more accessible. There really is no excuse for underperforming with the volume of digital resources available.
We have been helping businesses improve both their lead generation and lead tracking for 15+ years. If you have any questions or need any help implementing a lead tracking solution with your business, give us a call. We can help make sense of the process and show you what to do next.