If you have ever heard of Pareto's 80/20 principle what you are about to read - should make good sense.    

    One of my main roles in our company is marketing. In the last year I have figured out alot of different ways to really make the phone ring. A typical day may yield 10 - 15 calls from prospective buyers. My partner fields the majority of these calls. As we have have gotten busier - our time has become more valuable. These days he finds himself waisting valuable time dealing with unqualified individuals. The reality is - you may need to talk to 100 people to get to 1 qualified buyer.

    I think I have found a solution. I have had this set up for a few months now, but the time has come to finally implement this system.

   Here's how it works - We  basically hired  an answering service. Its a company that specializes in REI phone answering services. I refined a script with them today that has about 12 key questions. And 10 more FAQ's. When someone calls from the marketing I do - it rings in to there office (not mine:)) and the operator that answers sees on her screen My company name, script, all pertinent details.  She then takes an application - Thanks the caller, hangs up, instantly in my email is a lead.

    I role played with the initial operator, and was pleasantly surprised with how professional she was. I then had some friends call - and they were all very impressed.

    I then called my local phone company and asked for a 2nd line. When I started asking for specific phone #'s like 444-HOME or 985-4444 the operator gave me some advice on how to know if these #'s were available. His tip was to hang up and call potential #'s. If i got "this is a invalid #" or any similar recording there was a good chance I could get the #. So I did this and within 30 minutes I had a great # for marketing. I instructed the phone company to forward this # to the appropriate # for the answering service.

     Initially I was nervous to lose control of this aspect of the business. My partner is a solid sales person and my thought was an operator would not be motivated to convert these calls into sales as well he does.  The reality is - he may miss 5 calls a day - that's 150 a month. Out of these 150 calls maybe 30 will leave a message. And from that group of 30 he may get back in touch with  10 -15. People want answers NOW. And NOW they will get them. 24/7

    In the next few weeks all of my marketing will have this setup.  I am excited to see it work. I will report back on how this works for me.

    Thanks for taking your valuable time to read this. Post a comment, let me know if you liked it. Or just grade it if you will.

    Think bigger,

Sean