Every marketing program has blind spots. Senior executives, sales, and marketing leaders alike need to uncover as many of these as possible. Many times the smallest problems and successes can lead to the largest outcomes. For instance, years ago I worked for a home services company that had multiple service lines. Even though they were located on the same campus, each operated as if they were their own business. One of the issues that came up repeatedly was that customers would mention to a service technician that they needed help with another service, but because they were busy many of these cross-sell opportunities weren’t being reported back to the home office.
This was a black hole of leads and a very inefficient process. Of course, to collect these leads we could build a form online and have them fill it out. But for these service professionals weren’t all outfitted with fancy phones and they didn’t have much time to spare. So we created a call in lead line and incentivized them for every lead they called in and reported. This one change led to over $300,000 in sales in just the first quarter.
This is just one example of identifying a missed opportunity in your process and creating an efficient system to drive sales. Now let’s talk about how you can do the same.
Most missed opportunities can be found in at least one of these four places:
Black Holes: Where you can’t see data and measure results.
Inefficiencies: Where things are taking far too long than they should.
Dropped balls: Where customers are complaining.
Small wins: Where you’re seeing success now.
Identifying what’s really going on in your organization
You have two audiences It’s important to note as you try to identify missed opportunities that you need to focus on two audiences: those outside your organization (customers and prospects) and those inside (employees).
Subscribe to everything Make yourself a prospect and a customer in every system. Create an email account to monitor all emails. Make sure you get all direct mail sent to your home. You should be on every list so that you can see what your customers are seeing.
Listen in You’ll never know what your customers are experiencing until you listen in. Listen to both sales and customer service calls on an ongoing basis. Remember, it is illegal to record calls unless you get permission. But you can set your phone system up so that you can listen in live without your team knowing. You’re not trying to catch them doing something they’re not supposed to do. Instead, you want to hear them as they naturally communicate without outside pressure from “the boss.”
Ask your team Your team is most likely aware of many issues. They may assume that it’s the status quo. That you’ve already thought of the issue and decided it wasn’t important. Encourage them to share ideas and take you step-by-step through their process.
Recreate reports Imagineyou were a Venture Capital group trying to decipher what’s happening in your organization. Create a map of your reporting from beginning to end. Ask yourself: Where am I missing information? What questions would I be unable to answer someone from a VC firm?
Get feedback Survey your prospects and customers at different along the customer journey. Surveys can easily be built into your web experience.
