3 Ways Your Receptionist is Costing You Sales

Your receptionist is one of the most important employees on your payroll. They’re your first impression with prospective clients and – unless they know what they’re doing – your last impression. Their performance determines whether your leads become customers or just another guy on the street you wish was your customer. Getting leads to call you costs money, so every lead you lose is costing you money. Losing money is the WORST, isn’t it?

Let’s talk about how your reception process could be losing revenue for you, so you know how to stop it…

1) No Call Tracking or Quality Evaluation
Call tracking is a fantastic marketing tool for analyzing both the response of your postcard marketing campaigns and the quality of your reception process and sales tactics. For our topic today, let’s focus on that second part…

Call tracking allows you to record the phone calls your postcards generate. You use a unique number for each campaign, so you know which campaigns are generating the most calls. When a prospect calls the number they see on the card, their call will also be recorded. That means you can go back and listen to how your receptionist handled the call, as well as how the sales staff interacted with the prospect. Which sales strategies worked well? Which ones didn’t? Maybe from evaluating your sales calls, you could see a trend. A certain product generated more interest from prospects. You can now look at who those prospects were, make a mailing list of people like them and send out a targeted direct mail campaign for that specific product. You know these are highly qualified prospects who are already interested. The postcards just give them that extra nudge to become a customer. Evaluating your calls gives you a wealth of great information you can use to maximize the results of your sales and marketing efforts.

2) No Lead Database and Follow-Up
This is a big one. You NEED to put every person who calls your office into a database. Get as much information as possible (name, how they heard of you, contact information, etc.). All of this is useful information that converts them from a nameless prospect into a full lead. That means you can follow up with them— and following up leads to SALES.

80% of sales close on the 5th through 12th contact. So, following up is REALLY important. You’re leaving money on the table by giving up after one or two tries.

Another thing you need to track in your lead database is each prospect’s status in relation to the sale cycle. Did they become a customer? Did they have general interest or did they call about a specific product or service? Once you know this information, your follow-up efforts can be really personalized, because your sales rep knows exactly where you left off with this lead. This makes your follow-up even more effective.

3) Hanging Up Without Another Contact Opportunity
Your receptionist should be proactively trying to solve the callers’ problems. If the caller has a specific problem or is interested in a particular product or service, ensure your reception gets them set up with an appointment or consultation. If they merely have a general interest, establish another contact opportunity. It’s as easy as saying, “When can I give you a call back?” Or offer to follow up with them in a week or so with some more information on the topics you discussed. Just find another chance to interact with them. Always remember — more follow-up equals more customers.

Want more strategies on how your receptionist can maximize lead conversion? Download our 4 Ways Your Receptionist Can Increase Sales report for FREE!

Best,
Joy