Advertising for small to medium business is often a “hit and miss” scenario and many business owners can relate to the saying “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, the trouble is I don’t know which half”.

This brings us to testing and measuring. I can almost hear you yelling at me – “we don’t have time for that”, “we don’t know how to do it”, or “it’s too hard for us, we just don’t know where to start”.

Here is the easy way to test and measure, and once set up you’ll find that it takes almost no extra time for your or your staff. You will have your own way to answer the company phone when it rings. Good morning, Crunchy Catering, this is Joe speaking, how can I help you? Whenever you have new staff, you’ll teach them that this is the way you want the phone to be answered. Not too difficult. Just keep a note by the phone for any new staff and in no time they’ve got it “down pat”.  Now all you have to do is add one more line somewhere in this conversation with the customer to find the information you require. It’s best to ask the question very early in the conversation. I would suggest after the customer first speaks to you. So the conversation would go like this:

Joe: Good morning, Crunchy Catering, this is Joe speaking, how can I help you?

Wendy: Hi Joe, It’s Wendy Smith speaking. Just wondering if you can help me. I’m having a party next month and you know I’m not that good with food. I just  want someone to come in a do it all for me.  Do you do that sort thing?

Joe: Sure we do Wendy. Just before I help you with your party, can I ask you how you heard about Crunchy Catering?

Wendy: Oh, sure. My friend Josie had a party last year and she told me about you guys. She said you were really helpful and had great food!

Joe: That’s great to hear Wendy.  Thanks for that. Yes we’d be delighted to help you with your party …. etc.

Bingo …. you’ve got your answer. Of course Wendy could have said anything from “Oh, sure, I saw your ad in the Yellow Pages”, “Oh sure, I saw your ad in the Herald Sun yesterday”, “Oh sure, I drive past your shop on my way to work”, “Oh sure, I Googled catering and your website came up”.

Adding those few words (Can I ask you how you heard about Crunchy Catering?) into your conversation can literally make you thousands of dollars and at the same time save you dollars. It’s that simple.

Of course when a customer contacts you via email, or in person the strategy is the same. Ask the face to face customer as you would if it were a phone call. When you reply to the email, ask the customer the same question. You’ll be surprised how much the customer likes to tell you about themselves and how they found out about you!

So how do I implement this?

Easy!

1. Change your incoming phone scripts to incorporate the new question.
2. Advise all staff that all customers are to be asked the question at first contact.
3. Train all staff on the new script. Roll playing is great for this.
4. Prepare your book or sheet to record the answers.
5. Without fail, record every answer to every phone call (or customer contact). If you forget to ask the customer, record this as well. If the question is not being asked for every call, organise more staff training.
6. Make sure that no one is exempt from asking the question. This includes the boss, the bosses husband/wife, the son/daughter, the neighbour, and the family friend. Remember no one is to be exempt, and management has to lead by example.
7. Keep it simple.

What do I do with the Information?

At the end of the day/week just add up the numbers in the columns. Let’s say that your responses were:

20 customer contacts - 14 contacted you by phone; 3 contacted by coming to your premises; 3 contacted you via email

These 20 customers found out about you - 1 referral; 5 from your newsletter; 3 from your blog; 3 from Yellow Pages; 4 from your website; 4 from Facebook

You’ll need to know from this list how many contacts turned into sales and what the sales value was. With a bit of modification this can be done on this sheet, or alternatively you many have an internal sales sheet or invoices where these numbers can be recorded.

Then overtime you need to look where your sales are coming from. If you find that, for instance, over a six month period you have received 5 sales from people who have contacted you from Yellow Pages and the sales value is $2,000 and that you have spent $8,000 on your Yellow Pages advertising for a 12 month period, you might have to be looking at where better to spend your advertising dollars. Alternatively if you have received 10 sales from your email newsletters with a value of $4,500 and the newsletters were at a cost of $750, then you can see this has been a good return on investment.

This is a very powerful marketing tool that many small businesses don’t use. I urge you to implement this tracking method as soon as you possibly can. You’ll most likely be very surprised at the results.

And I’ve made it even easier for you. I’ve prepared a tracking answer sheet that you can download. Just change the headings to suit your business and your ready to go. Click here to download.

I’d love to have your feedback on how it works for you and your business. Good luck.

In my next post I’m going to tell you about possibly the cheapest and most effective advertising method available today for your business. Stay tuned!