The Single Biggest Waste In Advertising

Brandon Welch: 0:06
Welcome to the Maven Marketing Podcast. Today is Maven Monday. I’m your host, Brandon Welch, and I’m here with Caleb, Dad mode, Agee.

Caleb Agee: 0:14
Dad mode.

Brandon Welch: 0:15
Dad mode. He’s about to be in Dad mode. Hey, one thing about Frank and Maven and our culture and the culture you should do your very best to create is that family always comes first. We don’t just say it, we mean it. And that means if there’s a game, if there is a mom or a dad in need, if there is a doctor’s appointment, you take it.

Caleb Agee: 0:35
You got to get there.

Brandon Welch: 0:36
Your team will make it happen for you around here.

Caleb Agee: 0:39
Yep.

Brandon Welch: 0:40
And I think, as business owners, it’s easy to think about well, what’s that costing me? And I would strongly urge you to say what is it costing you to not do that? Because, people don’t want a job, they want a life. Yeah, and when you can incorporate your mission and your values and your shared values as like a business with a family or an individual that has a life, that is I mean, we’re just being honest is the most important thing Make your business exist to prop that up.

Caleb Agee: 1:10
Yeah.

Brandon Welch: 1:10
And so that’s good. Caleb’s got to run out of here in just a minute, which is why we’re bringing you a super snappy but impactful episode.

Caleb Agee: 1:19
That was my snappy.

Brandon Welch: 1:21
Yeah, yes, amen on a Wednesday.

Caleb Agee: 1:23
Amen On a Monday morning.

Brandon Welch: 1:24
I mean, it’s Monday morning, monday morning, right yeah, behind the scenes. You never know where we’re recording these, but it is a Wednesday today. So, hey, this is the place where we help you eliminate waste in advertising, grow your business so you can achieve the big dream. And uh, hey, we’re all about that wasted advertising part. We’re all about that wasted advertising part, we’re just going to come right out with it. I don’t think there’s a single bigger waste in advertising than what we’re about to talk about today.

Caleb Agee: 1:48
That’s a bold statement.

Brandon Welch: 1:49
That is a very bold statement and everybody’s going, ooh, what is it? I know it’s probably it’s got to be direct mail or it’s got to be penny power. I don’t know why I just came up with that.

Caleb Agee: 2:01
Yeah, some old newspaper that you shouldn’t buy anymore or something like that.

Brandon Welch: 2:05
All that stuff can actually work remarkably well. Hey, the biggest waste a lot of mirror it’s probably you and the way you yeah, there I said it. Oh man, what did he just do? The way you choose to answer your phone.

Caleb Agee: 2:24
Yeah.

Brandon Welch: 2:24
Poor phone etiquette is the biggest single waste in advertising. Did you know that 80% of business communication is still done on the phone?

Caleb Agee: 2:33
80% of your sales have some sort of phone interaction.

Brandon Welch: 2:36
Yeah, I believe it.

Caleb Agee: 2:37
Yeah, I believe it. I think there would be some people who are like I don’t know.

Brandon Welch: 2:42
Yeah.

Caleb Agee: 2:43
But I would say, yeah, Think about your large yeah.

Brandon Welch: 2:45
If you’re a brick and mortar, if you’re in a town and you’re providing a service to real folks and not like robots and things like that, that’s still phone driven, yeah, and if it’s not, it should be.

Caleb Agee: 2:54
Yeah, unless you’re selling software or something like that.

Brandon Welch: 2:56
Can I get a hold of somebody right, likely to switch? To a competitor or away from you to a competitor if a phone interaction is poor, and it happens. Lickety split, it happens yeah did you know how she talked to me? Like well, they ought to know better than that, or you? Can you believe that like just all you gotta do is say one person, one wrong thing, to send somebody the wrong direction, and they’re out on the loose buying from somebody else, right? Yeah uh, what else do you know about phone etiquette?

Caleb Agee: 3:23
Oh, on average, it takes six times more to gain a new customer than to retain one through good service.

Brandon Welch: 3:30
Six times more. If you lose that customer today, it’s going to cost you six times what it costs you to get them in the first place or just to keep them happy.

Caleb Agee: 3:39
Yeah. And phone-trained employees generate 20% higher revenue per call yeah.

Brandon Welch: 3:45
This is done. All this data came from RingCentral, a phone gurus, gurus of phone etiquette and all that. So we’re going to give you everybody knows this, this is not new information. Everybody has had their own personal experience. This is backed up by your life and how you prefer to be treated personal experience. This is backed up by your life and how you prefer to be treated. But just in case you haven’t heard it in a while, or in case you have a team that you just want to say hey, let’s make sure we’re doing these things. We’re going to give you some no dust stuff, but I guarantee you that you are probably you have an opportunity to polish at least one of these things.

Caleb Agee: 4:19
I think when you reiterate your standards and your expectations, then you have it clearly spelled out and then when somebody falls below that, um, we all can help. It’s not obviously you could have a correctional conversation, but we can all help each other. Rise to that standard, right? Think about like Chick-fil-A they have very clear standards and I promise you it’s not a manager every time who’s saying hey, don’t forget to say my pleasure. After they say thank you, the guy or gal in the next lane is saying hey, you missed that.

Brandon Welch: 4:46
Yeah, To the new guy, you know. And so Zig Ziglar said training is a lot like bathing. We recommend it daily.

Caleb Agee: 4:55
That’s good. Yeah, that’s good.

Brandon Welch: 4:56
So, in the spirit of Zig, we’re going to recommend you do these things daily. Reinforce these standards. Hey, number one is Run to the phone.

Caleb Agee: 5:05
It is money ringing. It’s a bag of money ringing over there on that desk in the front of the office.

Brandon Welch: 5:13
Just yeah, when you hear that phone, that means dollars are falling from the sky and are you going to grab them. And it’s like the analogy I’ve done in some sales trainings and we’ve had some clients that had some pretty poor phone experiences. And I walk up to them and I hand them $200. And I say, if I handed this to you and you wadded it up and went and threw it out on the street, would that be in any way reasonable? Would you ever do that?

Brandon Welch: 5:39
No you’d probably put it in a safe place, wouldn’t you? Well, it’s the exact same thing that happens when that phone rings, because it probably cost 150, 200 bucks to make that phone ring if you’re a service-based business.

Caleb Agee: 5:49
Yeah, Especially if you’re doing any kind of paid advertising which I assume you are because you’re watching this podcast, so you need to expect you call that a hundred dollar bill every time that phone rings. At least we have a friend.

Brandon Welch: 6:04
He’s been on the podcast before. He had a $100 million service company and I have known him to fire people just because they disrespected the money he was spending. He’s like you’re allowed to have a bad day, you’re allowed to mess some things up, but when it comes to the money I’ve spent to make that phone ring, so you have a job and you don’t respect that red in the face, yes, that’s crazy.

Brandon Welch: 6:34
So, number one, run to the phone guys. Hey, that’s money, that’s a cash register ring and we’ve already spent. That means that Mike or Keith or Tyler has spent at least $100 to make that dang thing ring.

Caleb Agee: 6:45
Yeah, so I can have a job, make a game out of it, right, I’m never going to let that ring more than twice or more than three times or something like that. You kind of have this standard. It will never go to voicemail first of all, but it rings what? Five, six times before it does. Yes, let’s beat it to three.

Brandon Welch: 6:59
Yes, you know. So you pick up that phone. What’s the first thing you’re going to do? Number two Smile, smile, wow, what an opportunity. Thank you for coming in today. Yeah, you have shown up to give me your money.

Caleb Agee: 7:14
Does that make me blah? That’s not what you’re saying, by the way. That’s just the signals you’re giving. Yeah, well, it’s gratitude, right.

Brandon Welch: 7:19
Yeah, that is a gesture of like it is nice to see what things in the universe had to align, that I got the opportunity to talk to you today, yeah, and you got the opportunity to deal with the best company on planet Earth at doing X, y or Z right.

Caleb Agee: 7:36
Yeah, and there is there’s psychology involved in this. There’s also just good voicing. When we do recordings, it’s actually these are like studio mics. If we’re recording a radio commercial, or even a TV commercial, but especially a radio, you can’t see the people that are recording that, but the tone changes if they smile as they’re delivering it. So unless we’re doing some sort of dramatic telling of something, we want them to smile because they’ll. You, on the other end, will feel the difference. That’s right.

Brandon Welch: 8:10
The most successful call center companies put a mirror in the cubicle where the person’s calling so you can see your body language right, because you can hear it. My dad always told me cheapest thing you can give anybody is a smile.

Caleb Agee: 8:22
That’s a good one.

Brandon Welch: 8:23
What a gift, right? Love you dad. Hey. Number three yeah, insert Zoolander references here. Hey, we don’t have time for that. Caleb’s in dad mode. Put your brand phrases in your phone intro or in your phone etiquette. This is fun, this is the. I think this is one of the best versions of alignment, like if you have a campaign, as we’ve been teaching you to do for the last almost 100 episodes on the Maven Marketing Podcast if you have a campaign and you have this more than just a series of ads running, you have this persona and personality and these characters you’ve put in your television or TV or website or social media ads. The person is calling with that persona in mind and make them get it. It’s like when I go to Disney World, I don’t see different characters, I see the same characters. I’ve seen my entire life saying and doing the same things that they’ve always done.

Caleb Agee: 9:14
Could be a different person playing that character, but they look the same and they sound the same and I know it’s the same place and that’s what you want to do. The owner is not going to be. Maybe if the owner is your spokesperson on your TV commercials and you’ve got this branding, this presence, that’s happening. The owner is not answering that phone call. Yes, but you can give them a signal that says this is where that owner is.

Brandon Welch: 9:36
You can use their catchphrases.

Caleb Agee: 9:37
Yes.

Brandon Welch: 9:38
From some of our campaigns. You guys know Randy and Dee by now. We use them a lot because they’ve just done extremely well doing all the things we talk about here. But they have this thing called the D guarantee and in her commercial she’s saying that’s a D guarantee right.

Brandon Welch: 9:54
And so when they answer their phones, wouldn’t it just make sense? And they do this like thank you for calling the window source of Kentucky home of the D guarantee. And people come up to them at the supermarket and all their home shows and all their in public and mention this stuff anyway. So why wouldn’t we just read that back to them? It just confirms, it validates that oh yes, you’ve come to the home of whatever right.

Brandon Welch: 10:16
Yep, Geico I haven’t done this anytime recently, but I guarantee you somewhere in their phone script is welcome to Geico. You could save 15 or you can save 15% or more on car insurance in 15 minutes. 15 minutes can save you 15% more on car insurance, Sorry now I got it right.

Caleb Agee: 10:34
If it was a sales line, they’d probably ask it as a question Would you like to save 15% or more in 15 minutes today? Yeah, let’s see if we can save you 15% or more.

Brandon Welch: 10:43
How about 1-800-GOT-JUNK? All you have to do is point. I did call them recently and everything that’s in their commercials it’s like welcome to 1-800-GOT-JUNK. All you got to do is point. And their people are trained to say that, oh yeah, so-and-so will be out there. And remember, all you have to do is point and their junk goes away. Right, I guarantee you you do, but you just haven’t. You haven’t boiled them down. Put those things on paper and yes, uh, there should be room for personality and nuance in your phone scripts. But that government, let’s have a training session and say this is how we, this is how we’re going to do it.

Caleb Agee: 11:21
Yeah, yeah, yeah, this goes with it. Clearly state the name of your company. So they didn’t call Brandon. They might be calling for Brandon, but they called Frank and Maven. So we’re going to make sure we answer the name of the company and then, if I answered the phone, I’m going to state my name yeah. And so what we want? To want to make sure that they have a personal connection with me, the person who’s answered the phone, because I’m going to help them today.

Brandon Welch: 11:47
Yes.

Caleb Agee: 11:47
And so we’ve heard different people answer the phone without their company name, which I don’t like at all. It’s like hey, this is Donnie.

Brandon Welch: 11:56
Yeah, you’re like this is Donnie, no, my goodness.

Caleb Agee: 11:59
Or if you have sales people who have direct lines that answer the phone.

Brandon Welch: 12:03
Yeah.

Caleb Agee: 12:03
Make sure they just assume it’s a sales call and say the business name and then say their name. Yes, that’s important.

Brandon Welch: 12:09
I have a friend, his name’s Randy and he always answers the phone professionally. He knows it’s me like it’s a buddy. He’s like this is Randy. How can I help you? And I’m like, I know it’s Randy.

Caleb Agee: 12:20
Yeah, you saw my name pop up, right.

Brandon Welch: 12:22
Yeah, it’s funny. So that seems like a no-duh thing, but I guarantee you we’ve got. Probably even people that we talk about this regularly are just not doing that. It’s like thank you for calling Frank and Maven. It’s a great day at Frank and Maven. How can I help you? Yeah, where we eliminate waste in advertising. Yeah, hey, riley, are you listening? Yeah, yeah, so say the company name, say your name, and then like what can I do for you today? Right, number five.

Caleb Agee: 12:54
Once you understand what they’re looking for, get them answers quickly.

Brandon Welch: 12:57
It’s like where’s the no duh button? Again, this is a duh thing. But some people are like well, I’m going to have to get you with a blah blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Caleb Agee: 13:05
Yeah, it’s like hmm yeah, unless there’s a legal reason, you can’t answer that question. Answer the question.

Brandon Welch: 13:12
Answer the question or give a range. Yeah, and if you are a law firm or you’re a medical firm because sometimes they can’t do those sorts of things say well, I know that most people blank. Now, every situation is different, but most people tell a story and say so, I give them a range. They didn’t call probably so they could get an appointment.

Brandon Welch: 13:30
They called to get the next step of confidence that would allow them to move to the next step, right, yep, so if you’re just immediately saying, well, I’ll have a person get back with you that that’s like, eh, don’t do that, right, of course. So, man, you want a world-class lesson in um phone etiquette? Call Disney World at 2 am in the morning and get their 2 am staff. I’m sure their eight to five staff is wonderful. Yeah, hopelessly stuck in a very nasty situation in Florida with my entire family and it was just like one of those deals like screw it. We’re going to Disney and literally 2 am couldn’t sleep on this awful, awful thing that they called a bed, but it was like it was a torture chamber really.

Brandon Welch: 14:25
Futon Worse, literally worse. And I was like, screw it, we’re going to Disney. And so I called Disney at 2 am and that was the most unbelievable phone experience. Just do it. Just call and say I think we’re going in July. And what can you do for me and listen to how they read back? Well, I’m hearing you want this. Well, yes, mr Welch or Mr Agee, we believe you ought to have all these things and let me look that right up for you. Call Disney at 2 am, side rant over.

Caleb Agee: 14:55
But hey, give them the answer to the dang question so you might hear how much does this cost, does it typically cost? And give them the first You’re going to be trained to say well, it depends on whether we have to come out and give you an estimate.

Brandon Welch: 15:07
It’s like no. Our average person, needing what you are asking for, spends $8,200.

Caleb Agee: 15:14
Yeah, or you can say it’s between $5,000 and $10,000 or $7,000 and $9,000. If you can get it tighter. I think you need to just be as clear and quick as you can with all of that.

Brandon Welch: 15:27
Do not hem-haw.

Caleb Agee: 15:28
How long does it usually take If you’re booking four weeks out? Yes, you know you’re going to actually have a big problem on the tail end of this experience.

Brandon Welch: 15:39
Yeah, if you aren’t honest at some level.

Caleb Agee: 15:42
There’s a right way to say this. I want to be clear about that.

Brandon Welch: 15:44
Well, people who book in February typically get their jobs done in three to four weeks. When we get to May or June, that stretches out to six to 12 weeks. So it just depends on when you’re wanting to get it done. There you go, you guys taking notes. Yeah, exactly, and you know what this is called empathy. This is called looking through the world through the customer’s eyes, walking around in their shoes for a minute and just think about what you would want if you were in their shoes. Yeah, we have some wonderful empathy questions in the Maven Marketer and chapter eight called what you’re really selling. Sorry, chapter yes, chapter eight, what you’re really selling. But they revolve around what are their needs, pains, hopes and fears. How can your product satisfy those and what’s the most reasonable next step for action?

Caleb Agee: 16:32
That’s what they’re actually trying to do and so if you just wire your language around those you’re going to go far. So what’s number six? Make sure you sweep up when you’re done. So you’re going to want to. Really you’re kind of recapping the conversation, so have I answered all? Your questions.

Brandon Welch: 16:43
What I heard you say yeah, what I’m hearing is you’re shopping other companies right now and you’re just looking to get some prices. I’ve given you a range for that. Is there anything else I can answer? Is there anything else that you were curious about, anything else you’ve seen that you like.

Caleb Agee: 16:55
Yeah.

Brandon Welch: 16:57
What can I do to make this easier for you? Right, You’re sweeping the floor, right?

Caleb Agee: 17:01
Make it nice and tidy.

Brandon Welch: 17:03
Yeah. So that’s pretty self-explanatory. Just say, have I answered all your questions today? Right yeah, duh Right.

Caleb Agee: 17:15
Take as much time as it takes is the next one, which is um, I can’t. I can’t remember exactly which company this was, but they had somebody do a six hour customer service call. Uh, and they normally and it was a call center type of customer service place Normally you’d be disciplined for being on the phone that long right, yeah. Because you should try to get off. There’s more calls waiting.

Brandon Welch: 17:35
Yes.

Caleb Agee: 17:36
They rewarded this person because they gave such excellent customer service. Now, not every call should be that long or every time.

Brandon Welch: 17:44
You’re matching the energy of the person who’s on the other line right.

Caleb Agee: 17:47
Yeah, if they’re in hustle mode, hustle right up. If they are slow and easy, take it slow and give them the time. Hopefully you’ve got coverage that the next call that comes in isn’t waiting on you, but that’d be great.

Brandon Welch: 18:01
Yeah, yes, love it. Hey, cut down all your phone trees. This is, we’re on number nine now I think. Chop them down.

Caleb Agee: 18:10
Yeah, I don’t want to listen to a robot. Yeah, I want a human.

Brandon Welch: 18:14
Like, go back to that first thing. You’ve spent hundreds of dollars probably to get this person to your phones and you’re going to subject them to some cheap automated robot thing. Like, I know AI is getting good and I know there are times where the phone tree has to take precedent. But, like, if you’re sitting there wondering should I hire a another $15 an hour person to answer the phone or should I you know outsources to a phone tree hire the person? Yeah, that’s an, it’s a replaceable value.

Caleb Agee: 18:46
It will pay for itself, I think, in reputation alone. Yeah, and that’s the thing I think, even just hearing press one for sales. I don’t want to talk to sales. Yeah, you know what?

Brandon Welch: 19:00
I’m saying that’s when you put sales as your first press one for sales.

Caleb Agee: 19:03
That’s the door I have to open, then press 13 for service.

Brandon Welch: 19:06
It’s like well, you’ve shown me what’s important.

Caleb Agee: 19:09
Well, it’s like I think, even if I was trying to be sold, I wanted to buy what you’re selling. As soon as you said sales and I had to open that gate to get in there, I’m like, oh great, I’m about to be sailed, sold, yeah, and my guard goes up.

Brandon Welch: 19:24
Yeah, what you’re looking for is to talk to a consultant. Yes, talk to a specialist. Yes, a product specialist, a vehicle specialist, a service specialist or An elder law specialist?

Caleb Agee: 19:33
Cut down that stupid tree. Yeah, a couple really basic things. These two kind of go together Check your hold music. Yeah, what’s it sound like? Is it crappy?

Brandon Welch: 19:43
You know what Is it weird, it’s mind-blowing mind, but I’ve been listening to the same. Hold me, there was a. There’s a car dealer in town I happen to have a family member that worked there, so I called this um car dealership a lot and it had this but a bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, but a bum but a bum yeah, and that was like 13, 14, 15 years ago and I was like because I had sat on hold for a long time car dealership, go figure.

Brandon Welch: 20:05
But and it’s amazing to me how many people have that default that person who wrote that music ought to be getting royalties like crazy hello royalties, probably royalty free.

Caleb Agee: 20:16
Which is the problem?

Brandon Welch: 20:16
yeah, but like just delete that stuff out. Yeah, uh, go to your local recording studio if you have to, or you know what. Pull out your iphone and do a voice memo or do some pull up garage band on your computer or slightly hire some high school kid yeah, or you can go buy some like royalty-free stock music.

Caleb Agee: 20:33
Maybe that fits your vibe a little bit more.

Brandon Welch: 20:35
It may be a little cheesy still, but it’s not the default thing that the other guys down the street have guarantee there’s a company online doing this for a couple hundred bucks and doing it well, yeah, making sure your hold music is, yeah, is on point, and put your promotions in there. Hey, did you know that you could save 15%?

Caleb Agee: 20:52
or more in 15 minutes. This all comes with a caveat that you’re going to do your very, very best to never put them on hold, but just in case you have to.

Brandon Welch: 20:58
Well, you’ve got them there, right, this should work. Keep them stoked or tell jokes, wouldn’t that be fun?

Caleb Agee: 21:03
Yeah, there’s one that does like history like trivia. Yes, history like trivia. Yes, during the, it’s kind of like you’re waiting at the movies. Yes and uh, that was kind of fun. Yeah, um, also check your voicemail on the hour, on the hour. Well, I was gonna say also check the oh message that they hear before they leave a voicemail and make sure that’s not a robot. Make sure it’s special sounds like you.

Brandon Welch: 21:24
Hey, we’re so sorry. Uh, man, you got our voicemail that that never happens. Something must be really happening right now. But we are going to get back to you, not within one business day, we’re going to get back to you immediately.

Caleb Agee: 21:35
You are our first thing as soon as whatever we’re doing. I mean, you’re only open eight hours a day, nine hours a day, so that’s ringing.

Brandon Welch: 21:44
We didn’t put this in here. But hey, for your weekends. We didn’t put this in here, but hey, for your weekends, for times that are low peak, that you’re not going to have somebody on staff, hire an answering service it will cost you five or ten bucks a call, maybe, maybe, and at least have them have a real person answering.

Caleb Agee: 21:58
Yeah, yep.

Brandon Welch: 22:04
Last thing Secret shop your phones weekly. I want you to put a spot in your calendar where you’re calling your own business on a weekly basis and just seeing what that experience was like.

Caleb Agee: 22:14
Yeah.

Brandon Welch: 22:15
Like, why not? It’s really. It’s like checking your bank account. It’s like well, I’ve spent about I don’t know $5,000 on advertising this week. Let me see how that’s working for me and let’s make sure the first hole is patched right.

Caleb Agee: 22:31
That’s right.

Brandon Welch: 22:32
I mean, you make sure there’s gas in your car, you make sure there’s not nails in your tires. That’s basic stuff, right? Not sure if that analogy was tracking, but you get it. Hey guys, that’s the biggest waste and you can fix it for free. You just have to put a little bit of effort into it. I don’t want you lecturing your people, but you rally them around the Maven Marketing Podcast and I’m sure, dozens of others blogs, podcasts, websites or whatever. Just do some training on a weekly basis and say, hey, it’s Monday, what are we going to focus on?

Caleb Agee: 23:07
We’re going to get a little better today.

Brandon Welch: 23:08
Inspect what you expect, as they say.

Caleb Agee: 23:10
Yeah.

Brandon Welch: 23:11
Cool.

Caleb Agee: 23:11
Yeah.

Brandon Welch: 23:12
If you know somebody that needs to hear this, send it with grace and say hey, I found some value in this. I think you will too.

Caleb Agee: 23:21
Yeah.

Brandon Welch: 23:21
Not you need to hear this, yeah Right, but forward in this link and, while you’re at it, if it did something for you, please give us a little like and subscribe, because we’re going to be delivering more and more stuff for a really long, long time. We are here for you. We are in the game of entrepreneurs. Our heart bleeds for the small business, which is not all that small.

Brandon Welch: 23:44
No small business is a small thing, right? The owner-operated companies of America, these are the ones making the difference. These are the ones driving our cultures and our community, and so that’s who we’re here to serve. That’s why we’re here every Monday. We’ll be back every Monday answering real-life marketing questions, because marketers who can’t teach you why are just a fancy lie. Have a great week.