IMPROVED ROI REQUIRES MORE THAN “JUST THE FACTS”

Hi, Richard Seppala, your ROI Guy™ here.  I just wrote about a new study in my article, “Increase Your ROI with The Magic ‘Touch”, that proved people were more likely to pay more for a product if they touched it. 

It’s one of those mental tricks people play on themselves.  In this case, the products used for the testing were a coffee mug and a toy Slinky.  Let’s be honest – who doesn’t know what either of those two things feel like?  But somehow, when you put your fingers on it, your mind suddenly thinks it’s worth more. 

We all know there are various marketing tricks that defy logic – and that an effective emotional approach always makes for the strongest sale and ROI.  That’s why someone handling your sales calls who just gives out information in a nonchalant I’m-filing-my-nails-as-I-say-this tone doesn’t make the necessary connection.  That takes some charm, some genuine interest in the caller and their situation, and some enthusiasm for the product or service that’s been sold. 

In other words, emotion.

Yes, I’m big on objective measurement systems and hard data when it comes to ROI, but I’m also big on doing what’s necessary with marketing content to improve ROI.  And that involves tapping into your potential customers’ feelings to make them feel good about your product or service – to make them mentally “touch” it.

If you still think most people have too many smarts to let their emotions rule their common sense, let me tell you about another study recently done by the same journal that did the “touch” study.

In that study, college students were given one of two menus.   One menu gave a choice of chicken nuggets, a baked potato or french fries – the second menu had all three of those items, plus a salad.

In both cases, all the students flagged the fries as the least healthy food item of the group.  But when the salad was offered as an alternative – three times as many students picked the fries than when the salad wasn’t offered.

In other words, when they were given a more healthy choice, they went three times as much for the unhealthiest item!

Even the researchers can’t explain that one, so I won’t try – except to say it’s probably good news for McDonalds and Burger King!

Until next time, I’m Richard Seppala, The ROI Guy – and another guy who should probably pick the salad option more often!

Hi, Richard Seppala, your ROI Guy here. If you’ve read my recent article, “Increase Your Marketing ROI with “The Human Factor”, you’ll know that I strongly believe that whoever takes your sales calls can help or hurt your revenues dramatically. Because I’ve seen it proven time and time again.

Again, taking customer calls is not just “answering phones.” That person needs to be your best sales agent, not someone doing their nails while they repeat “uh-huh” over and over no matter what the person on the line is saying.

That’s why I strongly believe in recording customer calls for quality control. It’s not a case of Big Brother watching over every word your employee says – it’s a case of improving job performance and can be a very positive experience. If you’re a one man band, you might even want to do it for yourself!

Just as it’s important to deal with what happens when someone answers the phone, it’s equally important to deal with what happens when someone isn’t there to answer the phone – especially when you look at it as another opportunity to increase your ROI and your revenues!

The traditional ways of dealing with phone calls during off-hours – or when everyone’s too busy to answer – is for the caller to simply leave a message. Well, I’ve taken that to a whole new level with my “ROI Guy Bridge.”

The “ROI Guy Bridge” automatically collects the contact information from the caller, transcribes the call content, and uploads it into your customer marketing database. That way you not only don’t miss a message, but you also have their invaluable contact details at your fingertips and ready to market to.

If that sounds complicated, it’s not – and it’s very affordable for small and medium-sized businesses. As a matter of fact, it will more than pay for itself quickly – you can check it out for yourself at www.yourroiguy.com/pdf/Infusion-Bridge.pdf.

Sales calls are the lifeblood of your business – so make sure you’re getting the most out of them. Until next time, I’m Richard Seppala, The ROI Guy, wishing you many happy returns on all your investments!

Richard Seppala, your ROI Guy here, with just a few more thoughts on my article, “Avoid Feast or Famine with a Steady Marketing Diet” 

I have a friend who’s a freelance designer.  He was in over his head for weeks on several major time-consuming projects, working night and day.  He didn’t have time to deal with other potential clients calling him and inquiring about his services – so he didn’t.

When he was finally done with all the big jobs, he suddenly realized he had absolutely no work lined up – a situation that went on for several weeks and caused him to have a nonstop panic attack. 

He eventually regrouped and learned from the experience – you don’t stop marketing to new clients ever.

I think we’ve all been through that drill – you’re working so hard for existing clients, you don’t even want to think about getting new ones.  You can’t really avoid those periods of too-much-to-do.  And when you’re in the middle of them, it’s incredibly hard to focus on Big Picture marketing or generating leads.  But that’s just as important as your current business obligations.

So consider having tested turn-key marketing solutions in place for when a tsunami of work sweeps you away.

By regularly employing reliable ROI measurement services, you’ll already have identified the best venues to place advertising and what generates the most leads.  By having that info, you don’t have to scramble to put together an effective marketing campaign – you’ll already know the best way to go to get the most results, and you can jumpstart the process instantly.  That’s a big plus when you want to increase your marketing  - and your time and attention are already stretched to the limit!

A crucial way to maintain your marketing mojo and increase your new client list in chaotic times is to simply make sure generated leads and referrals who call your office are handled correctly by whoever answers the phone. 

If they’re not trained sales personnel, it’s relatively easy to improve their skills – we have a program that does just that.   We all need to realize, however, the fact that those incoming calls are where a lot of sales are made – and a lot more are lost.  Not dealing correctly with a hot prospect means you’re literally throwing away potential revenue for years to come.  Those people are coming to you to ask about your business – not selling effectively to them and, at the very least, gathering their contact info is a huge blown opportunity.

We have the kind of ROI measurement programs and marketing training that can help keep your business profile visible even when you have to drop out of sight.  Visit me at http://www.yourroiguy.com to find out more. 

Richard Seppala, your ROI Guy here.  I hope you’ve had a chance to check out my article, “HOW ROI CAN BE YOUR OWN “STIMULUS PACKAGE” where I talk about how your business might benefit from ROI Marketing Measurement just as much as from a government stimulus package.  You could be losing thousands of dollars if you’re not actively analyzing how effective your advertising and handling of sales calls is.

That got me thinking…what if the government had used ROI measurement on all the corporations and banks that got the first wave of big bailouts?  What if they actually saw what the Return on THAT investment had been?  Maybe that would have helped with the current fine-tuning of the second wave of bailout money.  ROI is all about accountability and responsibility – not to mention researching ways to use your budget to create a positive impact on the bottom line.

Let’s go back further.  What if the stockholders who got screwed when Wall Street crashed and burned had been able to use ROI measurement to see what the companies they were buying shares in were actually doing with their money?  I bet they wouldn’t have made those investments!

And turn back the clock a little more to a few years ago, when banks and lenders were giving out six and even seven-figure mortgages like they were candy.  They didn’t even really care about the ROI on those bad loans, because they were too busy reselling the toxic debt to resell to other financial institutions.  If they had bothered to follow up, they would have seen that they had virtually no chance of getting those mortgages repaid – since the people they were issuing them to couldn’t afford them in the first place.

Face it - our economy wouldn’t be going through what it is today if (a) honest accurate ROI measuring was employed on a regular basis and (b) adjustments were made based on researching it.  Yes, ROI could have saved the world!

Your business can stay safe, solvent and even become more profitable in hard times, just by applying ROI measurement to your advertising and marketing.  I’ve got the proven systems to make that happen for you.  Visit me at http://www.yourroiguy.com to find out how. 

In the meantime, let’s petition the Obama administration to add a Secretary of ROI to the cabinet!

I’m sure you know lots of business people who are telling you what they CAN’T afford to keep selling in this recession.  So they still spend money on marketing and advertising – to try and keep revenues flowing in.

I’m also sure you hear those same business people saying they CAN’T afford to waste any money on additional services in these kinds of times.  You’re probably one of them.  Every penny has to count and you have to make sure it does.

If you’re looking at ROI Measurement as part of those “extras” you CAN’T afford, I’d ask you to try a different viewpoint.  As I wrote in my recent article, “Riding out the Recession with ROI Measurement,” ROI actually saves you money by enabling you to target your marketing dollars in the most effective way.

ROI Measurement also helps you optimize fixed costs, such as the salary of your receptionist or sales personnel who take customer calls.  Often, that person is your most effective sales tool, because the crucial one-on-one communication, if handled correctly, can close the most sales – or at least get a prospect in the door.

On the other hand, if you don’t measure your ROI by tracking your marketing expenditures or analyzing incoming sales phone calls, you could literally be throwing money away just when you need to maximize spending effectiveness the most. 

What’s the point of advertising when you have no idea if you’re reaching the right target group – or if your ad concept is having the right impact on your intended audience?  And what’s the point of driving prospects to call, when your customer service doesn’t positively represent your product or service to the caller?

I’ve developed systems to not only measure how well your sales operation is reaching potential customers, but also how to improve your sales results based on our ROI analysis.   That means you can spend smarter and boost revenues at the same time.

I’m Richard Seppala, Your ROI Guy.  Visit me at http://www.yourroiguy.com to find out more about how ROI research can be critical to your business.

Hi, Richard Seppala, Your ROI Guy here. 

If you’ve had a look at my new article, “HOW TO PUT YOUR BUSINESS IN THE ROI SUPER BOWL,” you’ll see how important I think it is to measure your marketing and advertising, and, even more importantly, how your customer service people deal with sales calls.  If you don’t, as I said in that article, it’s as if you’re trying to score with a blindfolded quarterback and a receiver who can’t catch a ball. 

The plain fact is you can’t achieve your sales goals without having an idea of what’s working and not working.  Which means you could be losing thousands of dollars in business and not even know it.

I got into the ROI measurement business because my wife is a dentist.  She was frustrated because (a) she didn’t know if the advertising she was spending significant dollars on was working at all and (b) whether the leads she was generating from that advertising were being properly handled by her receptionist when they called, so that making an appointment was actually encouraged.

I worked out a system where special phone numbers were placed on designated ads – and I could directly measure which ad was generating a particular phone call.  I also put in place a system that recorded every phone call placed by one of the leads.  That way, my wife and I could review whether prospects were being handled correctly on the phone in a proactive way. 

It turned out her ads were effective – they were generating phone calls – but her receptionist just had no idea what to do with those calls.   Once we retrained the receptionist, the problem was fixed and suddenly, my wife’s business profits were going through the roof!

Going back to the Super Bowl analogy, do you think any team goes into a game like that without reviewing the tapes of their own performance – and brutally picking it apart to make sure that crucial mistakes are NOT repeated?   Of course not.  Phone calls are your best opportunity to close the deal with interested prospects – and if they aren’t handled correctly, you could be losing a whole lot of potential income.

You don’t need a Super Bowl-sized budget to effectively measure ROI and make more sales happen.  Check out my site at  http://www.yourroiguy.com for my services and how they can boost the bottom line of your business.

Hey, everyone, this is Richard Seppala, The ROI Guy.

It’s a fact these days that you can’t totally rely on online click-throughs for all your ROI measurement, marketing research or lead generation. It’s just not reliable enough and you can’t get enough hard information out of it.

That’s why I really believe in “phoning it in”. By using specific phone numbers and targeted keywords associated with different aspects of your online marketing and advertising, it’s easy to get a better handle on what’s working and what isn’t – and just who your customer base is.

Let’s face it, anyone can just click on a link. If they don’t actually buy, you don’t know if it was an accident, someone trying to game the system, or someone who has nothing better to do than “window shop” on their computer.

Generating an actual phone call means actual interest – and is 8 to 10 times more valuable than an online click. Picking up the phone to actually talk to someone at your company means a solid commitment of time and energy – and that means a quality prospect.

That’s why I look for ways to generate those phone call leads from advertising and marketing – accurately tracking them - and nailing down ways to convert those calls to cash and get marketing info.

ROI measurement has never been anything close to an exact science – which is why that particular wheel gets reinvented every few years. In this case, I think it’s absolutely right to reinvent it again.

With the boom of internet marketing, everyone’s gotten a little too reliant on online data and forgotten the power of the personal connection – and that’s a real advantage a phone call has.

“Phoning it in” usually means someone’s not really trying and just going through the motions. But when you get a prospect to phone it in due to your marketing efforts, that’s definitely not just going through the motions. That’s a big ROI breakthrough.

Check out more news and views about ROI measurement at my site, YourROIGuy.com. Until next time, this is Richard Seppala, The ROI Guy wishing you a high ROI on everything you do.