How 10 Minutes a Day can make you $'000's more!

by Dennis McMahon & Narelle Stratford  

NOT returning phone calls is one of the best ways I know to throw time, money and energy, down the drain!

Just imagine [firstname], if someone you know (Steve or Sally) came and said to you, "I've just spent a lot of time, effort and money advertising my business, and I've got all these leads. Now, I think I'll just leave them on my desk because I've got all these other things to do.  I wonder why my business isn't going so well?"

What would you say to Steve or Sally?

Or worse still, what if Steve or Sally said this, "Yes, my Clients are always in touch with me - there's all their messages on my desk. I must call them some day. I wonder what I can do to generate more business?"

What can you say to that?

And yet, virtually every Agent I know has been guilty at least once of not getting back to me or Narelle.  Sometimes it's not just once...

How do you think those prospective buyers and sellers, past clients and clients feel about that?  Here's what I think about it.  In order to make that call, I have:

• Called when I did because that issue at that time was important to me

• Taken the time to consider what I want (min. 2 mins)

• Composed my call in my head (min. 1 min)

• Organised myself to locate the number (min. 1 min)

• Made the call (min. 1 min)

• Explained myself to either your voice mail or another person (min. 2 mins)

• Waited for you to come back to me (???????)

Time taken - 7 minutes.

Value of my time - $250 per hour

Cost of my time spent - $29.17

And you don't have the common decency to take about 2 minutes of your time to call me back after I made all of those efforts?  

You don't even know whether I am calling to buy a property, to list a property or to talk Sales Champions business with you....  Do you?

Now what if your caller who leaves a message (or doesn't, it's just a missed call and the number shows on your phone) is looking for a property and has the money?  Or wants to list their property?  How much money have you missed out on?  What opportunities have you missed to help someone actualise their dreams?  What excitement and fulfillment have you let pass you by because you didn't get around to following up that call.

And worst of all, what less than professional image are you presenting to everyone?  And does anyone who doesn't get a followup call want to do business with you?  You'd have to do a lot of convincing to make up the lost ground because buyer resistance sets in immediately.

You may not see it this way, but believe me, all those people who you haven't called back, think like this.  Here's the cruncher:  what do you think and feel when your 'message left' call is ignored?

It's a Costly Habit

And it's a habit - one that you have formed over time. It was formed as simply as the first day you looked at your messages and decided that you didn't want to call that person back today - so you didn't.  And every message after that became easier and easier to ignore for a while.

And then you rationalised your actions by saying "Well, I'm so busy, I just haven't got time".

What is astounding is that people return emails and not phone calls. When you take into account how long an email takes to prepare and write, compared to a phone call, it's just costing you even more!  Plus, when you send an email it's a good idea to follow up and make sure it got there, and that's double-handling.

Think too, of the cost of double-handling that call that you didn't return, or postponed dealing with..

You spend a minute retrieving and listening to the message.

You decide 'no', I'll get back to that later, so you don't write down the details of the caller's message.  You have an annoying niggle in the back of your mind that acts as 'energy down the drain'.  

You feel bad because you haven't done it, and that eats into you as well and causes more time to be lost because your focus is not where it ought to be - returning calls, making calls, and growing your business tree! The reason it eats away is because the value of your integrity level just slipped in your own estimation of yourself.  (Not to mention the person waiting to hear from you.)

You decide to make the call, but now you have to search out the name and number and the message, or, call up and have the whole story repeated to you.  What is the cost of your time and effort now?  The bill has just been trebled with the amount of time and energy wasted.

Putting a Value on My Time (Mine, not yours)

Would it make a difference if you were going to be charged for my time? 

If you haven't seen it yet, there's an ad on Australian TV where a woman is at a bank and she advise the Loan Officer that "My time is charged in 6 minute increments". And Lawyers charge like that too. These people know what their time is worth.  Do you?

Haven't you ever felt like charging a fee when you were confronted with:

• Tradesman that didn't turn up on time?

• Accountants who kept you waiting even when you booked an appointment?

• Buyers who didn't show?

• Vendors who couldn't decide to list?

Well, when you don't return my calls, I think about you in the same way as these people. 

And maybe I'm not looking to do business with you straight away, but rest assured, if I don't get a call back, not only will I not do business with you in the future, I'll also be telling quite a lot of people that you can't be trusted either.

So maybe you won't be hit with a bill for someone's time, but not returning calls WILL cost you!

Setting a Value for Your Time

So you can start placing a value on returning calls, I want you to think about this way:

Out of 20 messages on your desk or voicemail, a breakdown of the direct nature of the call-back will probably be something like this:

• Salespeople wanting your business (5)

• Current Clients wanting your attention (6)

• Personal Issues (4)

• Other Work-related Issues (4)

• Prospective Clients wanting your services(1)

Now, of those, you may think that the most important one is the Prospective Client. So if you return those 20 calls straight away, and you get the prospective clients business, (which we'll say is worth $3000 to you) each of those calls is worth $150 to you.

And you know what?  

Quite often, the prospective Client call may be hidden in any one of those other calls!  Because you never know where an opportunity will lead you.

Here’s a few basic reasons for how and why you should return your phone calls.

• It is just the right thing to do. 

• Get back to people quickly (handle the job once) and you will find it doesn't take much time at all

• You never know where that phone call will go - the person that you returned the call to is now your new client.

• Doesn't it annoy you when your calls go unreturned? 

• Relationships are everywhere. Even if you are telling a salesperson 'no' to their service or product, they are a person like you and me and are trying to do their job. Do you like getting the brush off when you speak to people?

• It’s not that tough to be nice to people.

Your attitude to people is reflected in everything you do. So by not returning calls, you show the world that you don't care about other people and their time and effort.  What does that do for your integrity?  What does it say about you as an unprofessional person?  

Do you think you'd rather win more customers with great follow-up instead? I know I would.

Because this article has been useful, and you'd like to see how you can improve your business with this type of thinking, go to the Sales Champions website www.saleschampions.com.au and check out the Champions Sprint Programme.  Then click on Coach Directory and find your nearest Coach. Or email Narelle at narelle@saleschampions.com.au.

A few more of our Champions Sprint Clients for you to contact

John Henry       (RE/MAX)                              0412 278 495 

Ian Baker          (Waterfront Only - Principal)    0409 570 231

Scott Hoskins   (Raine & Horne Toowong)         0410 169 031   Cheryn Appleton  (First National NSW)              0412 123 106

Deb McDonald   (RE/MAX Bayside Brisbane)    0414 319 599

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