Every one of your employees has a contract and a role. Maybe not a job title but a job description, an area of responsibility and a list of essential functions. That’s why you employed them. Every time you drag them away from one of their designated duties, that’s a duty going unfulfilled.
But sometimes you need an errand run on the spur of the moment. Or you need someone to fill in for an absentee. Or an emergency has arisen and you need bodies to help.
So you turn to that person sitting over there who is quietly getting on with sales lead management. They are there to contribute to the profitability of your business but surely they can spare some time – they don’t look that busy.
‘Rachel, can you just run these invoices down to accounts?’
‘Charlie, can you just show the intern how the filing system works?’
‘Karim, can you just run out for sandwiches and bring them up to the conference room?’
And it’s done. The urgency of the moment has stolen precedence. Lead management will have to wait. The trouble is, every time you do this your lead management suffers. There are already more than enough ordinary office interruptions to compromise performance, but consciously taking someone away from this vital task is just compounding the problem.
If your business relies on following up sales leads it’s absolutely vital to keep focussed on every prospect: new approaches, repeat enquiries, referrals, cross-selling opportunities, returning clients, lapsed customers. If your business is doing well then keeping on top of all these leads ought to be a full-time job. Which is why you hired someone to do it. Full-time.
You may be familiar with some of Parkinson’s Laws, those terse, witty observations on the accidental but unavoidable realities of the world of work. Cyril Parkinson’s first law, ‘Work expands to fill the time available for its completion’, is the most famous. We at The Farm Process Management would humbly submit our own law:
‘The greatest obstacles to the fulfilment of an employee’s duties are those three words “Can you just…?”.’
Wouldn’t it be nice to be free of this dilemma? Think of the peace of mind you’d get from knowing that someone is working on this job without interference? Imagine 100% attention daily, from 9 till 5. Five days a week.
But why settle for that? Why not 9 till 9, or 8 till 10, and six or seven days a week? Not possible, you think? Think again.
Instead of the inherently flawed in-house model, why not look at what we can do for you at The Farm Process Management? We are specialists in growing profit from customer service. It’s our business to pursue and convert sales leads, round the clock, with no distractions. It’s what we do: all the time. If you let us help you then the next time you say those three words you can rest assured they’re not going to cost you sales.
Give us a call, email us or use our contact form to get in touch today.
