No-shows cost my client $283 328 a month. Here’s how we turned them into $185 150 worth of new business every month - without spending more on Google Ads.
This client's sales process requires a face-to-face meeting with the lead. We couldn't cut this step out for two reasons:
Nobody buys a $10 000 legal service without talking to someone first.
Not everyone who wants the service qualifies for it. The meeting is as much about making sure the wrong people don't buy as it is about selling the service.
But, we had a problem...
A no-show means you've wasted the cost of the advertising that generated the lead. In Google Ads terms, that’s the CPA. For this client that was about $25 per lead.
Wasting $25 76 times a month (that’s how many no-shows we started with) is painful but it gets worse.
The client has 200 appointment slots for new leads every month. In the beginning we struggled to fill them. But, we've optimised and scaled up the Google Ads over the last year. We're fully booked 2 weeks in advance.
Now when someone doesn’t arrive for their appointment it’s not just the $25 advertising we’re losing. We've also lost the opportunity cost of the empty meeting slot.
The business currently closes 1 sale in every 2.7 meetings. If you do the math, at about $10 000 per client, that makes every sales meeting worth $3 703.
The true cost of a no-show when you're fully booked the $25 advertising + the $3 703 opportunity cost.
76 x $3 728 every month is a problem worth solving.
We had to figure out how to beat:
Inertia. The booking happens when the lead's motivation is high, they've searched Google, they've clicked our ad, they've filled in a few forms. There is momentum. But, that momentum is gone by the time the appointment rolls around.
The friction of getting to the appointment. Taking time off work, getting a baby sitter, driving through traffic finding parking and so on.
The apprehension about what will happen at the meeting. We know from talking with leads that they were expecting a high-pressure sale. My client doesn’t operate like this, but you don't know that till you're at the meeting.
Status quo. This service is expensive and worth doing, but doing nothing for a few months doesn't produce immediate pain.
Send an automatic SMS confirmation with the appointment date, time and location as it is booked.
Send an automatic email confirmation with the appointment date, time and location as it is booked.
Send an automatic SMS with a link to an appointment information page a few minutes after booking. More about the appointment information page later.
Send an automatic sequence of reminder emails in the days leading up to the appointment. More about the content of the reminder emails later.
Send an automatic SMS reminder the day before the appointment.
Have a member of staff call to confirm the day before the appointment.
Send an automatic SMS reminder 2 hours before the appointment.
It might seem like an overkill but we've reduced the no-show rate from 38% to 13%. That's 50 more sales meetings a month.
With each meeting being worth $3 703 it works out to $185 150 of new business.
We started with email only but a small but significant percentage of our email never arrived. People make typos with their email address, ISPs classify reminders as spam and so on.
We're sending more than 10 000 emails a month. Even if 95% were delivered safely that’d still be 500 messages a month that got lost.
SMS is great because the messages still command a lot of attention. But, it's a text only format and doesn't work well for long messages so we send an SMS with a link to an appointment information web page. The page lets us do things we couldn't do as easily in an SMS.
It has:
We considered, and rejected, the following:
Making people pay a nominal fee for the appointment. We didn't test this but thought it would put more people off booking than it would save on no-shows.
Overbooking like airlines do, expecting that some people wouldn't arrive. It'd keep the sales team at capacity but be horrible for anyone who gets double-booked. We decided airline practices are not the gold standard for customer service.
Calling people who didn't attend their appointment. The thinking was that if they were interested enough to book an appointment we might get them to book again. We decided against it because not showing up once didn't make them any more likely to show up than someone who is booking for the first time.
I thought calling might give us useful information we could use to improve the system. In the end we decided that most people wouldn't tell the truth about why they didn't attend so we're not doing this at the moment.
As you can see, a most of this happens automagically. Setting up automation takes time and a bit of money, but in my mind it’s far more reliable than hoping a human will do it.
This sort of work is never feels hair-on-fire urgent so it gets put on the back burner. You don't notice that it's not being done until enough people don't arrive for their appointments. By then you've lost thousands in missed sales.
The reduce no-shows is a sub-system of the sales engine I've built for the client.
Building a sales engine is a collaborative effort between the client, the client’s staff at the coal face and me.
I programmed the sales engine using Laravel. We use Mailgun to deliver the emails and Twilio to deliver the SMSs.
When an appointment is booked we add a series of SMS and emails to a queue. Each message has a send on date. A cron checks the queue and sends messages when they’re due. We merge lead and appointment details into the message template just before sending.
I offer 1-to-1 mentoring and consulting. You’ll get help, advice, support and answers without having to commit to a long-term contract. Details here.
Over the last few years I've done deep work with a handful of clients to increase the number of sales they made from their Google and Facebook leads. I've put what I've learned into a 9-lesson email course.
You’ll learn:-
My experience has been that it will deliver more sales if:-
Creating an elevator pitch that makes people want to talk to you. I've always answered the question What do you do? with something like I'm a Google Ads guy. Daniel Priestly changed how I think about answering this question.
Why book-an-appointment conversions are so difficult with Google Ads Why wasn't this wedding photographer getting calendar bookings from Google Ads?
Most Google Ads advice is wrong for small businesses A small account needs a different setup and different management. You see, something that improves a $50 000 a month account might tank a $500 a month account.
Why you might want to pay Google to show an ad when someone searches for your business. It can sometimes be useful to pay Google to show your advert when someone searches for your business by name. Here's why and how...
Why we lost sales. Losing potential sales always hurts. But, if you know why you lost the sale you can make changes that'll help you win more sales down the line.
"Forget about reducing the CPC" In money terms my client paid Google about $1 400 per client he contracted with. He could live with spending $500 per new client. Here's how we're going to hit that target.
An easier way to sell services. Bigger value projects take a lot of work to sell. You have to have the discovery calls, meeting notes, customised proposals and quotes. And, you often need several follow-up meetings. There is another way.
Why I don't just delete fake leads from my inbox If the only thing you do with fake leads from Google Ads is delete the lead delivery email you risk getting swamped by fake leads. Here's why and what to do to improve lead quality.
Leads ghosting you? A business owner complained that his leads were ghosting (ignoring) him after initially showing interest. As we worked together we uncovered a mismatch between lead temperature and his response.
60 leads a week and no sales Their first instinct was to change the adverts. It sort of makes sense. Adverts aren’t producing sales so the adverts must be broken. Fix the adverts and you'll get more sales. But, they could change their ads, spend a load more money and get no sales. This is because the adverts might not be the real problem
About 25% of online leads are lost before they speak to a sales person. Losing 1 in 4 of possible sales before the process even starts is a huge waste. It's also a huge opportunity...
A warning about Google Local Service Ads for doctors, lawyers and other professionals I investigated using Google Local Service Ads for a law firm client. Turns out that there are some privacy issues which were of concern. They may be of concern to you too.
The one number you must know if you're going to use Google Ads to generate leads. How much can you pay for a lead and still be profitable? It is obvious, and it should be advertising 101, but I've lost count of the number of people paying Google who don't know the number.
Ever get to Friday and feel like you’ve accomplished nothing? That's been me for many months. I’ve been busy but not productive. I've felt burned out, tired and bored. This all changed after I implemented time blocking.
How do you get value from "low quality" Google Ads leads? One kind of "low quality" Google Ads lead is a genuine enquiry for something adjacent to what you offer. Here's how I helped one client make sales to them.
Do I really need 7 websites? Two groups of people visit your website: people who know what you sell and strangers who don't know you but want what you sell. One website can't serve both groups effectively.
Does PPC work for accountants? The short answer is “Yes, but only sometimes”. Google suggests that AdWords will work for any business but this is not true in real life.
Google Ads for industries with long sales cycles A client installs billboard size video screens. Here's how we used AdWords to get him in front of the decision makers early enough.
How do you test a business idea? You don’t want to invest time and money on a business idea unless you’re sure that it’ll get traction. Read on to learn how to use Google Ads to test an idea before committing to it.
How much is a Facebook like worth? I've just run a quick calculation and can confidently say that a Facebook like is worth $0.007. Let me explain
"I have no idea if his recommendations will increase my conversions..." A friend is trying to hire someone to manage her Google Ads. She's worried that they'll cost more than they bring in. Or, worse, they'll kill the flow of leads her business depends on. Here's how to reduce that risk.
Is AdWords scaleable? There are a finite number of people who want what you sell, can afford what you sell and are in an area you can reach. Some portion of those people will use Google. That number is the upper limit of AdWords scaleability.
Is AdWords worth it? "Is Google Ads really worth it? I have found that through tracking my CPC, I am not having that much success." was asked on Quora. My answer saved below.
Nobody is buying! Can’t you write better ads? Nobody is buying! Can’t you write better ads? That's the last thing you want to hear in a meeting with a new client...
Selling to strangers is different Ask 100 small business owners how they find customers and 99 of us will say "word-of-mouth". What we won't tell you is that our word-of-mouth marketing is not well tuned engine that spits out a steady stream of great prospects. They arrive by luck or magic.
Should I use my competitors' names as keywords in Google Ads? Should I use my competitors' names as keywords in Google Ads? The answer is, it depends. Read on to find out how to make the right decision for your business.
The cost of zero. Every small business owner needs to understand the cost of zero before they next invest in marketing. It does not matter what medium it is: Google Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, magazines, radio, or anything else. The reason these campaigns fail so often is never as obvious as you might think.
Things you should never advertise on Google. Making money advertising identical branded goods on Google is really hard.
Which are the specifically right targets for a small paper pallet company? This question was asked on Quora. Saving my answer here.
Will Google Ads work? Thinking about advertising on Google? There are thousands of people who've used Google Ads and never made a sale. You don't have to be one of them. Read on to learn how.
Zombie Hunting Wednesday 3pm. You in? We’ve all got zombie leads. These are people we’ve quoted who haven't said yes. They haven’t said no either. Instead they’re ignoring us - our emails go unanswered and they’re always too busy to talk.
I can’t get to the decision maker. "I‘ve got a great product but I can’t get to the decision maker." That’s a problem we smaller business owners face a lot. Can I tell you about how a former client of mine got the decision makers to come to her?
How to turn leads into sales. Two businesses in the same industry. One converts 5% of website leads into sales. The other converts 60%. Read on to find out why.
Make more sales from PPC leads by understanding why people enquire. Understanding why people buy is key to making more sales. Here's how you can get started right away.
Marketing Lessons from a Chimney Sweep There was nothing special about his customer-finding system. But, his customer-keeping system was the best I've ever seen for a small business.
How do I know which of my leads came from Google Ads? Here's the problem... Conversion tracking or analytics can tell you how many leads you got, but not who they are. Read on to see how to fix this.