Greg Simpson, founder of Press for Attention PR, shares the importance of following up on leads.
I have a confession, which I was reminded of whilst casually watching The Masters recently. I am seriously considering taking up golf.
There, I’ve said it. That feels better now.
It probably happens to most people in the end, so why fight it any longer? The thing is…nobody wants my money. Or so it seems.
Just before the “P” word, Mrs S and I began golf lessons at a lovely little club up the road from us. We’re both pretty sporty and both a tad competitive so we wanted to learn the game properly with a pro. Then the P word hit and shortly after we moved 40 miles away.
We made a note that we should start again locally because we were really starting to get into the swing of things, and the handy thing is that there is another golf club pretty much a 3-wood away from us. Or at least one of the holes is, the clubhouse is about a mile in the distance.
I was reminded of our golfing goals during The Masters last month – mainly because I was admiring the landscaping not the golf. However, this then mentally nudged me that I’d dropped a note to my local golf club last year. In fact, I’d CALLED them because dropping a note via social media seemed nigh on impossible. Someone answered and we had a pleasant enough chat, confirming couples’ lessons should be feasible BUT the person who handles these enquiries wasn’t in that day. They had my details though so…well, nothing. Not a text. Not a call. Zero follow up whatsoever…no pitch.
This is over a year ago now and I was only reminded of this because the golf was on the telly. They should have been reminding me. The worst bit is they have a WHACKING great sign up on the main road as you drive by welcoming new member enquiries. Judging from my experience to date, that WELCOME will be lukewarm at best.
Now, they could simply have failed to take my details down properly or the chap who took my call just lost the scrap of paper he scribbled on for his colleague. The problem is, whilst this appears to be a SALES problem, it is actually a MARKETING problem.
I always refer to “Marketing and Sales” rather than the traditional vice-versa phrasing because marketing drives the latter.
This sales team (it may well be the same mystery person) needs to have warm leads. Well, you couldn’t have got much warmer than me proactively calling to enquire out of the blue!
Their problem is there appears to be no system when receiving enquiries. So it doesn’t matter what they do in terms of marketing outreach and spending a wedge of cash, because the leads will not be captured and/or not followed up on.
There’s loads they COULD be doing to improve the inflow of leads like me that doesn’t require rocket-science levels of marketing magic. For instance, when they see a For Sale sign go up locally note it. When it turns to SOLD, why not give it a few months then pop a flyer through the door? If curry houses and removals firms can crack this surely a golf club can?
However, please remember, you might have the smartest lead-gen campaign in the world with PR, Digital and Traditional Marketing all working away brilliantly, but if you can’t take an enquiry or follow up on one, you will be the one with bogey all over you. That’s putting it gently.
A former business journalist, Greg Simpson is the author of The Small Business Guide to PR and has been recognised as one of the UK’s top 5 PR consultants, having set up Press for Attention PR in 2008.
He has worked for FTSE 100 firms, charities and start-ups and conducted press conferences with Sir Richard Branson and James Caan. His background ensures a deep understanding of every facet of a successful PR campaign – from a journalist’s, client’s, and consultant’s perspective.
See this column in the May edition of East Midlands Business Link Magazine here.
