Is Your Business Like A Leaky Bucket…Full of Holes?

In my 37+ years in this business, I’ve found something that never ceases to amaze me.

People are more than willing to throw lots of money at new, unproven tactics when instead they would be better served spending the relatively small amount of time it’d take to fix the holes in their process that are leaking profits.

Usually directly into their competitors’ wallets.

Below I’m going to reveal the six areas I’ve found where you can quickly seal the holes in the bucket – and often double or triple your profits.

Profit Maximizer #1: Lead Generation – Most people give little to no thought to an actual lead generation strategy. They may spend, at times a lot, on advertising, but that does not equate to a lead generation strategy.

To have an actual strategy you need three things…first, a clear idea of EXACTLY who you’re trying to attract. Second, a lead magnet that instantly attracts your ideal prospect. Third, a way to measure the effectiveness of any media that you’re using.

Simply getting clear on these three things will save you thousands of dollars while putting more of the right prospects in front of you.

Profit Maximizer #2: Lead Capture – I recently went to a new restaurant in St. Louis. I heard about it from a friend and I enjoyed it quite a bit. My waitress actually asked if we’d been there before and, when I said “no,” went on to tell us about the restaurant in a well-scripted presentation.

But at no time during my visit did they even attempt to capture my information so that they could continue to communicate with me and provide me with a reason to return.

They, like many businesses, are operating on a strategy of “hope” and that’s a BAD strategy. They HOPE that I liked it enough that I’ll return. Thing is, I did. But I like a lot of restaurants, and the chance of me returning to their restaurant next time I’m going out diminishes each and every day that I don’t have contact with them. And they have no way to contact me specifically because they didn’t even attempt to get my information.

Capturing people’s information is a MUST. You can do this online, in person, or by phone. It’s easier than ever, yet most make NO attempt and it’s costing them tens or even hundreds of thousands.

Profit Maximizer #3: Non-Buyer Follow-Up – This is the BIGGEST area of opportunity for 99% of businesses I work with. They don’t have a systematized, automated strategy to follow up with prospects to turn them into customers, clients, or patients.

Once you’ve captured their information, you now have the ability to put a campaign together that consistently moves people who don’t immediately purchase towards the sale. This is more important the higher the cost of your product or service.

You need to put a well-thought-out, online AND OFFLINE follow-up campaign into place for those who are initially interested but not yet ready to say “yes.” This could include: emails, texts, phone calls, postcards, newsletters, and should probably include all of these items. If you don’t have this you’re most likely letting 30%-70% of your potential customers, clients, and patients buy from your competitors.

Profit Maximizer #4: Conversion in Customers, Clients, or Patients – This is an area where you can add to your bottom line without adding a single dollar of expense to your business! Imagine each day you currently have 100 people coming to your website, contacting your office, coming into your store, or however people reach out to you. Can you tell me out of those 100 people what percent will do business with you? If not, you should figure that out fast.

Then you need to put in strategies to increase that number. Many times it’s as simple as putting simple processes into place to help that person buy from you, or buy MORE from you. Imagine you’re a dentist and someone comes in for teeth cleaning. Do you have scripts in place to sell them other products or services? If not, you just let them dictate their dental care. Do you assume they have the best toothbrush, the best toothpaste? That they don’t need fluoride or want whitening? How much is it costing you in lost profits to make those assumptions?

Profit Maximizer #5: Repeat Business – Domino’s Pizza has an app that customers can use to order pizza online, but it also sends notifications to those subscribed, with special offers. This allows them to turn slow nights for their stores into busy nights.

EVERY business should have in place a campaign to consistently keep in touch with their past customers, clients, and patients. This is another demonstration of how most businesses run on “hope.” They hope you’ll remember them when you need another widget and not have been attracted to a competitor in the meantime.

This too should be a multi-media campaign using online and offline pieces to consistently provide value and give them a reason to return.

Profit Maximizer #6: Referrals – Almost no business does this well. While many stumble across ‘referrals by chance,’ almost none generate a steady stream of ‘referrals by design.’ Yet if I asked most business owners who their best leads are they will almost inevitably say it’s those that were referred to them by a past customer, client, or patient.

What if you weekly, monthly, or even just quarterly provided your past customers with the tools they needed to actually become an “unpaid sales army” with useful reports, emails, or gifts AND specific instructions on exactly how to introduce others to your business? It’s such an easy strategy, but virtually no one gives this the smallest iota of thought or effort.

Plugging these six holes in a leaky profit bucket will much of the time provide all the growth a company can handle and many times MORE than they’re looking for. Be warned, this is not SIMPLE, but it’s not hard. It just takes committed time and effort on your part to layer in each of these six strategies.

Reach out if you’d like some help. A quick strategy session could identify some other holes in your bucket.