You know what really grinds my gears? A business that supposedly wants to grow and get new clients, but is never “open for business”!
I have been searching for a downtown loft. Last Friday, I ended my workday 2 hours early, so I could view apartments while the leasing offices were still open. To my dismay, 3 out of the 4 places I went to had no one attending their offices! I went back to my first stop, and a leasing agent finally came back to greet me. I called the numbers on the door of another building, only to get two disconnected numbers, and left a voice message on the third, which has yet to be returned.
Here is a second example. We sell business coaching to business owners of companies with an average of 1-5 employees. Most of the time, the business owner of a company that size is the point-person for business development. It amazes me how many times I have to call a client before they pick up the phone. They have no clue who I am (I typically don’t leave messages), so one would think, “Hey, if I want more business, I should probably pick up the phone – this could be a prospective client calling!”
How easy do you make it for clients to contact and initiate the sales process with you?
Do they have to figure out, work, and guess at how to buy from you?
Are you available and quickly respond to office phone calls, cell phone calls, email, web inquiries, twitter, facebook, tungle? If you don’t have the capacity to instantly respond to each of these methods of engaging you as a provider (or at BARE minimum, give them a same day response), then you need to create a new system to do so; immediately.
If you don’t, your business stands no chance of ever running without you.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard is the Vice-President of Business Development for reachmore, which teaches small business owners how to build a business that runs without them. For more resources on business leadership, please visit http://blog.goreachmore.com.