I need to get my car serviced so remembering a flyer I received from a garage in Maynooth I decided to give them a call to book my car in. The phone was answered after a number of rings by a guy called Gary. I asked him for details of their service. ‘Sorry’ he replied ‘you need to speak to Damian he deals with the bookings. He’s not here at the moment can you call back in 15 minutes?’

I was stunned, here this business had a hot prospect on the phone and he was asking me to call them back in 15 minutes? This is like flushing money down the toilet. How much better would it have been to say ‘I’m really sorry but Damian, the person who manages the bookings is not here. Please can I take you name, number and make and model of your car so he can give you a call back with a price when he gets back in the office’. Had this happened I would have happily given my details. Damian could then have called me when he was back and this garage would have secured itself something in the region of €300 worth of business.

All too often business owners focus all of their money and effort on advertising for new clients. When new clients do not materialise they blame the advert, however often the problem can lie closer to home.

There is not much point walking 5 miles to a well to collect water if you have a leaky bucket. In the same way there is little value in spending money to attract leads if you do not have a proper process to treat them properly and try and convert them.