How To Lose A Fortune

How To Lose A Fortune

By

Eric M. Twiggs

“It’s not about having the right opportunities. It’s about handling the opportunities right.” -Mark Hunter

The story is told of a recently retired Dentist in the Midwest named “Jack”, who was looking to start a second career. 

He had spent over forty years as the owner of a dental practice that was so successful, he was able to sell the business and ride off into the sunset of retirement without any financial worries.  Jack’s motive for starting a second career was to teach others the tactics that led to his success. 

He began his new career as a sales consultant to the dentists in his area.  His business model had a unique twist to it.  He didn’t teach his clients how to sell and market to new customers.  He didn’t teach them how to sell to walk in customers.  He didn’t teach them how to do anything!    

Jack would visit the area dental practices and offer to contact all their inactive customers for them.  Here’s the unique twist: If the customers came in because of his calls, Jack would get 5% of the sales as a commission.  Sounds like Jack is getting the short end of the stick, right?  WRONG!

The area dentist were so bad at following up with their inactive customers, that Jack made more money making follow up calls, than he did when he was a dentist! 

This proves that the fortune is in the follow up!  If this is where the fortune is, and you aren’t doing it, you risk losing a fortune!    Is there a retired shop owner in your area, who could make big bucks from the customer you aren’t contacting? 

At times, getting shop leaders to focus on the follow-ups is like pulling teeth! 😊   You may be thinking: “Eric, I don’t have time for follow up!”

I challenge you to consider this statistic from the American Marketing Association: In a retail selling environment, 68% of all business is lost due to a failure to follow up!  Still not convinced?  OK, stay tuned to learn two things you can do to lose a fortune.

Don’t Exit Schedule

“Everybody’s slow and all the bays are empty!” This is what the parts vendors and tool suppliers are telling Samantha, who is the service manager for Scotty’s Auto Repair, located in Riverside California.  I have spoken with other shop leaders in her area who have told me the same thing. 

Samantha however, is up 40% in sales and averaging $5,300 in Gross Profit lift over the past four weeks!  What’s she doing to grow, when everybody says its slow?   She consistently exit schedules.

Samantha has been so consistent with this process, that she has at least one customer scheduled to come in per week, every week for the rest of the year!

 In addition to scheduling the exit appointments, she calls the customers that are already scheduled in advance to remind them about their appointment.  Since she is doing the follow-ups, she has experienced good fortune!   

At the end of each transaction she makes the following presentation to her customers: “Mr. __________we refreshed the oil service sticker in your window, and your next scheduled service will be on August the 19^th.” 

She then hands the customer an appointment card.   If you prefer to sit around and complain about everyone in your area being slow, then don’t exit schedule.   After all, a 40% sales increase isn’t for everyone.

Only Focus on New Acquisition

“Eric, you don’t understand, I need NEW customers!”  I get this request all the time from shop owners who are new to the ATI program.  After getting this question last week, I wondered:” How much does it really cost to acquire a new customer?” 

And then I had a conversation with "Mike", the owner of a shop in Southern California, that cleared things up for me. 

Mike had hired a “marketing guru” to run this exotic new acquisition marketing campaign for him.The campaign included targeted mailers, Google Ad-words, targeted Facebook ads and an email blast to specific vehicle owners.

The targeting was so detailed, that Mike would know what the customer had for breakfast that morning!   The campaign cost him $4,000 and resulted in three phone calls and ZERO customer visits! 

By comparison, how much would it cost you to call your customers who have declined previous estimates during the last 90 days?  How much would it cost you to call a listing of customers who haven’t come to your shop in over six months?  How much would it cost you to call your customers to thank them three days after their visit?

It’s also important to note that the average response rate when marketing to your existing customers is around 15% The average new acquisition marketing rate is 1%.  So, if you send an email to 100 existing customers, 15 will respond. (15/100=15%) 

If you email 100 new customers, you will get 1 response at best. (1/100=1%) I have nothing against having a new acquisition strategy that is a PART of your plan.  But Mike’s story teaches us that only focusing on new acquisition can cost you a fortune.

Conclusion

If you don’t exit schedule and only focus on new acquisition marketing, you can lose a fortune.  If you focus on your existing customers, your visits to your accountant won’t feel like a trip to the dentist’s office! 

Eric M. Twiggs

The Accountability Coach

www.autotraining.net

Are you unsure of what to say when you make a follow-up call and get the voice mail?  Email etwiggs@autotraining.net to receive a "voice mail script."