Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

A-ha, thought that would get your attention! OK, you'll have to work darn hard to earn millions, but what if you could make thousands of dollars - just by asking one simple question?

“Are you sure that’s your final answer?” asks the flaxen-haired and suspiciously smooth-skinned TV game show host.

The contestant wriggles and squirms.

His face is damp from anxiety, as well as the heat of the studio lights. He’s already used all of his lifelines: the 50-50, the phone-a-friend, and he’s already asked the audience too. And still he’s stuck.

And he’s only gotten as far as the $2,000 question. Oh, the shame of getting it wrong now and going home! His wife will be devastated that she still won’t be able to renovate the kitchen!

Most of us only dream of TV game shows and winning the big bucks

But what if you were to ask every single new customer and prospect just one question?

And what if that question made you thousands of dollars better off?

Sound like the stuff of day dreams too?

It isn’t. There is a magic question that really can do that for your business.

And the question is… (drum roll)…

“How did you hear about us?”

Yep, that’s it.

And no, people don’t mind answering. They don’t feel put-upon. Usually, they’re happy that you’re taking an interest in them. That it matters to you how they heard about you.

What to do with the information

Well done - you’ve asked the question: but now what?

You need to log and record the information, that’s what.

It can be as simple as keeping a paper tally and totting up the numbers each week and adding them onto a spreadsheet. Or you may have a database, CRM or accounting system that lets you log the data and run reports.

When you go back and analyse the figures, there are probably some surprises there for you. Something that you perceived as a waste of money and effort could be your biggest source of new business. Or there might be some ads that you can ditch or tweak as a result of what you now know.

It’s not in the least bit unusual for a small business to save thousands of dollars by consistently asking every prospect that one little question. And logging and analysing it.

How to analyse the data

A client I've worked with had been diligently logging this information for a year. Problem was they didn't know what to do with the data, so I crunched some numbers for them.

One metric that was particularly revealing was how much each enquiry cost them, by referral source. Unfortunately they didn't log conversion rates, but even this gave us a lot to work from, and more than paid for my consultancy fee.

This client was immediately able to slash $2,500 from their marketing budget; with another $1,500 under evaluation. That's quite a considerable chunk of money for a small business, and they were able to reinvest this in more worthwhile marketing campaigns.

Be brave, ask that question!

So if you make just one change in your business, make sure it’s asking “how did you hear about us”.

Remember, there’s no audience watching and no smarmy game show host: you’ll always be the winner :-)