As owners of a Call Tracking company we are constantly looking for ways to improve the amount of phone traffic that our customers receive. Many would say that the best way to improve call count is to increase the amount spent on advertising or accelerate the rate of outbound calling activity that either your sales people or telemarketers provide.

Good ideas, but at Capture the Call we know the best way is to effectively manage both. Focus the amount spent on PRODUCTIVE advertising(as measured with a call tracking technology) AND get the team on the phone more often. Our idea, though, requires a different "bag of tricks" to help keep your ads and the sales team invigorated.

The key is to add something to the "cold" offering that is different than what the other competitors are offering in your market. Differentiate yourselves by providing your prospects with a real benefit of doing business with you. After all once they hire a company, they will get what they bargained for ~ your services performed by a competitor. What can you affordably offer IN ADDITION to the basics?. Create excitement with something that the prospect can touch and feel. Provide an offer that is compelling for them yet inexpensive for you. Generate something that the prospect is bound to talk about at the water cooler tomorrow. In that way your single cold call will not inspire one call but many calls. Basically, instant referrals.

The answer to all of these challenges is Incentives. Our basic premise was developed for our Mortgage Industry customers to support our ~ For Sale By Owner ~ program but it applies to every market and company. The concept is this. Trade a $560 incentive promotion(which costs as little as $6) for a 15 minute appointment, where you get to sell your product to the customer.

It is especially good when leaving messages to get the prospect to go to a website or give you a call back. Remember the only time they get the incentive is when your sales person does the appointment. You never give them anything until you have the opportunity to close a deal.

1. On the phone the approach sounds like this ~ Mr customer this is Bryon with Capture the Call. We are a call capture and advertising tracking company and we have been extremely effective in helping business owners and sales managers increase sales and reduce advertising expense through the use of our Call Capture technology. We are so sure that you will like the program that we are willing to trade a $560 incentive program for 15 minutes of your time to explain what we do. If you decide that we would be a benefit great, if not the $560 incentive program is yours to keep and use as our gift.
2. The exciting thing about this "Get Up & Go Program" is that I can buy this particular incentive program for as little as $6 per promotion.
3. The program offers a drive away get away with 21 super locations to choose from. Get Up & Go will provide over 600,000 incentive packages this year alone. It is a top notch and highly respected company with tremendous customer service practices. In the time we have been using the concept we have had a tremendous response.
4. For those of you who think it this is "to good to be true". Do yourself a favor and do research. Your competitors may be using this idea against you in your market right now.
5. Imagine the benefit of giving away a gift with a $560 perceived value to your potential customers. It truly does make them talk about you at the water cooler.

In closing I have one more idea that can be used to get that "shopping" prospect back to your company for the "last look".

• When the prospect calls for "information" train your sales people to provide them the information that they need BUT offer a reward if they call back after the research is done.

1. The call sounds like this: Mr customer I know you are just information gathering right now. When you are done and you are ready to buy give us a call back for "last look" to see if we can provide you a better option. If you will do that we will give you a $560 incentive just for your time. If we can beat the deal great, but if not you will still get the incentive just for giving us the final opportunity to earn your business.
2. We have found about 20-30% of the shoppers call back at the end their research. This is a much better process than asking them to call back when they are ready to buy. Yellow Pages research shows that the average caller will dial 5-6 companies before making a buy. If everyone offers basically the same thing they will usually buy from one of the last calls they make. Great, if you are the last call ~ not so good if you are the first. This is the reason it is critical to offer an incentive to return.

Of course all of these processes can be tracked using our Call Tracking Technology . Finally, you can know for sure what is working and what is not!

And so it goes with call tracking. More ideas later ~ Peace!