Are your systems stopping your customers?

Are your systems getting in the way of growth?

How much effort and money are you putting into generating enquiries - and what happens when you actually get one?

It's easy to focus on attracting more potential customers when growth isn't happening quickly enough. But sometimes the problem isn't generating the opportunity at all. It's what happens next.

Let me give you an example.

They'd done the hard bit

I found a company online that provided something I needed for a client. It was after 5.30pm, so I used their “Click here for a quick quotation” link.

Great. I expected the quote to arrive the following morning, allowing me to get the job ticked off my list.

Instead, I received an email before 9am asking for my company name, address and phone number. I replied, then received another asking whether I or my client would be invoiced.

I explained that either was fine, but that I needed the quote urgently.

Then I heard nothing.

Eventually, at 1.30pm, I called. I was told they were busy and some people were away. When I asked why the quote couldn't have been dealt with first thing that morning, I discovered the problem:

I couldn't be given a quote until all my details had been entered onto their system.

The marketing had worked

This is the important bit.

I had found them. Their website had given me enough confidence to enquire. I had a genuine requirement and was ready to buy.

Marketing had done its job.

The obstacle was the process behind it.

Their system required information that wasn't needed to answer my immediate question. Their website hadn't collected the information the system required anyway, so somebody had to chase me for it. And the promise of a “quick quotation” had created an expectation their internal process wasn't equipped to meet.

Individually, these might seem like small things. Together, they made buying unnecessarily difficult.

Where is the friction in your business?

It's worth looking at what happens after somebody responds to your marketing:

• If your website promises a quick response, can you genuinely deliver it?

• Are you asking potential customers for information you don't actually need at that stage?

• Do your systems help people respond quickly, or dictate a process that gets in their way?

• Does everybody know what should happen when a new enquiry arrives?

• How quickly are leads followed up?

• What happens when the usual person isn't available?

• Are the expectations created by marketing matched by what the business actually delivers?

None of those questions is particularly glamorous. But if you're spending money generating leads only for poor processes to get in their way, spending more on marketing isn't going to solve the problem.

Sometimes the marketing problem isn't marketing

This is why I don't like looking at marketing in isolation.

A website can work. A campaign can generate interest. The right potential customer can arrive ready to have a conversation - and the business can still lose them because something elsewhere isn't working properly.

Before deciding you need more leads, it is worth understanding what happens to the ones you're already generating.

If you're investing in marketing but growth still isn't following, let's have a conversation about what's actually getting in the way.