Why Shiny New Marketing Software Can Be Bad For Your Business

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Are you making this mistake in your business? Wasting money and time on unnecessary marketing software and techniques?

Last year was my first year as a bonafide business owner. Sure I’d managed teams in the past but I wasn’t the one paying the wages, losing sleep over customers or having all the other things running a business throws into your mind driving me crazy.

10 months into melt. Business was good.

We weren’t struggling for business at the time. In fact, we were struggling to keep up with the demand.

I still wanted to improve

One of the areas I was keen to improve was my competency as a sales guy – or a closer.

Not one of those sleazy used car type dealers but just a nice guy armed with more knowledge on the right questions, phrases to use, to build rapport and getting closer to the sale.

Part of being a better salesman is going after cold leads. I’m not a big fan of that idea but knew it was something I had to tackle to bring more sales into the business.

I’d read a few a few books and picked up a few tips from colleges and podcasts etc.

This is when I made a common mistake that most businesses owners are making.

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I started looking for sales tools and lead capturing tools.

I found this tool called lead forensics.

A little bit of code goes on your website – you login to your portal and then you can see who’s been to your website.

It gives you all their details bar their emails address and with a further dig on the company, you could figure out their management team and their financial state. This way you know if they can afford your service and who you need to talk to buy your service.

You can also see which lead source they came in from. Organic search, PPC, referrals facebook etc.

This is all great, powerful information. I signed up for 12 months and was convinced I’d found the tool to change the game. My only reluctance was the time and cold calling aspect.

But I figured we’d make it work.

At first, it was taking 2-3 hours a day spent looking at the traffic for the right leads, seeing if they were the right fit and then actually picking up the phone to call them. Over 1000 businesses analysed and 100 calls and I was unable to get anyone on the phone.

Also, the 2-3 hours a day was killing us on the production side of getting the currents client work done. We just didn’t have the manpower to lose me for 2-3 hours a day

And organically we’ve just got busier and busier as the months have gone on. I didn’t need the extra sales because we didn’t have the resources to deal with it.

When I originally signed up I was reluctant because I didn’t feel I could devote the time to using this tool effectively as we were so busy. I should have listened to myself.

All in all this 12-month commitment is going to cost £3400. One or two websites and that cost is covered – not a bad return on investment.

What isn’t included in the cost is the amount of time required to filter all the leads and make all the calls and send out the direct mail also. When you add this together you’re probably closer to the £10,000 mark

That’s £10,000 I could have spent on building leads of genuine people interested in us, attended a sales training courses and just becoming better at what I was already doing!.

Every time I get the monthly invoice – I shake my head in disappointment – not because of the money, but due to the bad judgement on my part.

All because I got sucked into wanting a shiny new toy to play with and to do something new when what I had was working.

In no way am I saying that lead forensics is a bad tool. I still see the benefits in using this tool if you have the resources to using it right. I’m even contemplating outsourcing the telesales side of this.

The sales lesson I learnt from them has been valuable.

Are you making the same mistake?

The annoying thing is – this is a mistake I see so many business owners making. They spend all their time on wanting to do the new things they read about. They want a new CRM, a new call system and squeeze page builder – and most of the time they don’t need it.

Conclusion

We love a shiny new toy – if you watch kids in a playground they all fight for the new toy. But the happiest kid is always the one playing with the box.

Investing in the right processes and systems for your business is crucial but please don’t make my mistake and jump in – think about it. Assess where you are and what you need. Can a new tool improve what’s already working? Is it affordable if it doesn’t work for you?

Chances are if it’s radically different you or your staff won’t stick to it.

I’m a lot wiser now than I was 6 months ago and a little more frugal where I spend my money. I advise you should be too.
Thanks for reading
Matt

The wannabe sales guy

PS. if you found this article interesting or valuable – Please hit the share buttons. I’d hate for people to be making the same mistakes as I made.

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