Striking While The Iron’s Hot

My friend Sammy’s turning 65 soon, making him eligible for Medicare.

Folks like him face an onslaught of communication from dozens of medical service sherpas. Each offers to help you transition with free information, strategies, and wisdom.

They get paid by whichever service providers they guide you towards.

Replacing private insurance with Medicare will save Sammy money…an exciting proposition. He immediately tried scheduling exploratory meetings with several consultants, but nobody returned his calls.

Hoping for simplicity, he tried the same people again. And again. And he heard…nothing.

So these would-be service providers send out letters, brochures, and emails to generate information requests, but don’t answer those inquiries.

For weeks Sammy was inundated by additional offers of help. He’d failed to streamline the process, and was forced to speak with multiple other salespeople to get his needed information.

Eventually, the initial round of would-be vendors circled back with excuses like “I’ve been sick,” “I’m overworked,” and “The dog ate my homework.”

Only Sammy had already moved on, and that first-mover advantage those vendors had had was forever lost.

10,000 baby boomers turn 65 daily, so anyone looking to work in this industry must either have their act together or risk wasting everyone’s time.

Furthermore, anyone in sales should recognize these three truisms:

·        Regardless of your industry, you’ve got competition

·        The early bird gets the worm

·        You only get one chance at a first impression

Assuming you’re looking to grow your business by beating the competition to the prospect AND you have a message more effective than the other guy, you’d better respond to customer inquiries within 24 hours…or risk losing them.

COVID? Poor support? Aggressive canines? Sales prospects don’t care about your problems: just what you can do for them.

And with more ways of communicating today than ever before in history, there’s simply no excuse for ignoring a customer.

Even if your communication is to dash off an email saying “I’m ill. Please give me 48 hours to respond,” you’ll still remain in their good graces.

With luck, the economy will right itself in a few months, making this the perfect time to review your operations and respond to every opportunity quickly, efficiently, and profitably.

Because as Sammy demonstrated, if you don’t, the operative phrase is “NEXT!”

With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.

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