The Bucket Under The Bucket

“There’s a hole in the bucket dear Liza, dear Liza. There’s a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, a hole.”

Let’s assume you’re a business owner, a sales person, a revenue generator…

I want you to picture a bucket. Do you have it?  Picture water filling that bucket, slowly, but consistently.  These are your leads. They come from your high level of customer service – your customers “selling” for you. They come from your marketing dollars at work – branding and lead generation through various media like web, print, radio, social media, etc.  Then there’s the direct effort of your sales staff – you. All contribute to filling the bucket.

Now, imagine there are several small holes at the bottom.  How many opportunities have you or your team not responded to or not responded to quickly and efficiently? How many offers have not been properly followed up? How many have not been taken effectively through the full sales process? I read years ago that the number one way to increase closing percentage is pretty simple:  follow up. That’s easy, but oh, how inconsistent it is!

Now I’d like you to picture a bucket under the first bucket, catching these opportunities that are leaking out of the first bucket.  This bucket is the quantifier of what is being lost through lack of responsiveness, lack of attention, and that poorly executed sales process.  If we could truly quantify this lost opportunity with that second bucket we’d probably be pretty shocked – perhaps shocked into change.  We would really SEE what we paid for and GAVE away.

Keep filling the first bucket – yes, but for the love of good business, take care of what you have by closing up those holes.  Respond. Follow up. Build and follow an effective sales process. Test and measure.

As the classic children’s song I started with goes… “Then mend it dear Henry, dear Henry, dear Henry. Then mend it, dear Henry, dear Henry, then mend it.”

By the way, if you don’t know the song, you can check it out here.