You can stop losing sales in less than 5 minutes

Today’s post is simple, straight to the point and IF you actually do this, you’ll stop losing sales IMMEDIATELY…

It’s answering and responding to your e-mails more quickly. This is one of my pet peeves and every year I SPEND AT LEAST $10,000 LESS in products and services BECAUSE the people I deal with don’t get back to me quickly enough.

That means that these suppliers LOSE AT LEAST $10,000 just from me – if there are 10 of us, that’s $100,000 lost, gone forever – never to be spent with those suppliers. The easiest $100,000 to make is to sell to EXISTING CLIENTS…

The constant delays undermine my confidence in them, reduces my expectations of their delivery capability and substantially distances them from me in a personal rapport perspective.

Don’t you FEEL closer to someone who responds quickly? I mean c’mon an online chat is ONLY intimate BECAUSE it’s instant…

I don’t want to say who these suppliers are because some of them know about this and are taking action to improve whereas others well, they just don’t get it, never will – I have given up on some of them and am now seeking a NEW source = they are going to lose me as a client.

So not only will some of them NOT sell more to me, they will lose the EXISTING sales they previously counted on – during the toughest economic times we’ve had – OWCH, that’s gotta hurt.

Most people make the SAME decision I am making, but unconsciously.

Think about that the next time you push off those e-mails to tomorrow, the day after or the day after that.

Time is MONEY and the more you push off your e-mails, the farther down your Pathways To Profits™ you push your income.

We all get a lot of e-mail (even spam), but there is NO excuse for not responding more quickly. If you want to gain time in your day, watch this video that will save you 1 hour per day GUARANTEED.

4 Responses to “You can stop losing sales in less than 5 minutes”


  • Hear, hear!

    Pet peeve!

    I second what Marc says here, as a professional salesperson I have personally had to learn these lessons the hard way, and lost untold amounts of potential earnings in the process.

    You need to get back to clients fast, otherwise you lose them, even if you don’t have the answer to the question, contact them and let them know you are working on it and where you are at with it.

    Knowing all this now, and counting the cost, in turn makes me a much harsher critic!

    A colleague and I were only just today discussing a contractor whose work is excellent, the best designer she has ever seen, who simply cannot be relied upon to return emails.

    The contractor then loses the work, but worse, my colleague has to go elsewhere when she wants that work done, even though she wants to support this person’s work as she sees the value in what they do.

    My colleague is now in a position where she is essentially DARING this person to deal with her, goading, forcing the contractor to sell the services she needs, sheesh…

    Even when you WANT to deal with someone like this, even when the value of what they do outweighs the annoyance of the unprofessional behavior, sooner or later you tire of it.

    This sort of thing is maddening, especially when you consider this business’s clients are then FORCED to choose lesser quality work from someone who has the professionalism to at least provide service.

    How many prospective customers are turned away through these shortfalls, how much potential is wasted? It truly boggles the mind.

    There are so many pitfalls, so many “vortexes of mediocrity” like this and sometimes you need someone to show you the way through them all.

    That’s why I am so glad to be involved in helping people into Marc’s programs, where people who want more from their business congregate and make those changes and reap the rewards.

    Thanks again for the inspiration Marc.

    Gulliver

  • G’day thanks for the great advice it seems to me a lot of younger people want things delivered in their time frame, (now) somethings just take longer than others not every thing is (instant) somethings evolve, to go deep you have to dig fist, then plant the seed then wait,the environment then supports the growth, then success a result worth the delay, what is waste any way?

    Thanks MARC,
    Garry

  • Garry,
    I am not advocating that instant gratification is necessary, but the point is, and I sticking to it, that if YOU don’t meet your client’s expectations, someone else will.

    >>> Especially in a recession. I teach my clients to respond MORE QUICKLY in a recession by doing what I call compressing their Pathways To Profits which LOCKS OUT THEIR COMPETITORS.

    I will be writing a lot more about what to do in a recession in upcoming posts, but NONE of that matters if ‘you’ are not responsive and don’t keep them informed.

    Trust me on this – I know this to be the case. I know several of my suppliers who lost clients BECAUSE of this.

    No one wants to be or FEEL neglected. When someone treats you like a king or queen, why would you go anywhere else?!?!

  • I was wondering when you would get around to this one.

    To give you a practical example of how this is hurting my finances, I bought a piece of software for quite a large sum, after watching a preview of how it worked. Basically it is a lead generation software that pulls out relevant Craigslist, Yahoo answers and other postings, using relevant keywords. After using it for two weeks, I didn’t find that it did a really good job, and asked for a refund.
    My first couple of emails brought about a fast enough response, with offers to keep me on board. When I insisted on a refund, it took around 5 days to get a response and that too after 4 reminders.

    Finally, the company has agreed to refund the money, but indicated it will take them up to 10 days. It’s been 7 days since that email, and I’m still waiting. The refund amount is around $2,200

    How does this affect me? As my credit card balance is decreasing, with regular use, I keep away from topping it up in expectation of the refund. I wouldn’t want to top up the card, and then find that I’ve got the refund.

    So, yes. If I were this company, I would at least send an update to say, my money would be refunded in a couple of days.

    And remember, though it shows poor form, with social media it is so easy to give someone a bad name. Spread the word around in a relevant forum and it’s game over!

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