Time For A Pointless Rant - Don't Bother To Read

Are you selling him leads and getting paid based on sales?

bad mojo.

If not, why sweat it? Not your prob.

If so ... "life lesson".

Haha...had a client that I sold leads to that stopped answering his phone...he was letting them go to his voicemail and then calling them back. Guess he thought if he didn't answer he wouldn't have to pay.

When I sent him his bill for one month his reply was, "no way in hell I got that many calls. I am smarter than you think so I write down all the calls I get from you and there is no way I got all you claim."

How anyone can try to refute printed call logs and actual recordings is beyond me but he did.

Yes, I did have a contract with him that spelled out how things work.

Some people are so short sighted.

DABK, Maybe it's like what TheCG experienced, some people are going to try to not pay you and think letting it go to voicemail will do the trick?

That or since the reason he hired your services was because he was in need of help to get business, now you know one of the reasons why.

Give the client some time - he may not have been prepared for or expecting the results.

If the problem persists, drop him ... doesn't matter whether he's paying you or not. YOUR reputation depends on your customer's ability to close the leads you provide. If you're giving him business and he's dropping the ball, you won't ever get a testimonial out of him. The leads you're sending him would be better off going to another firm who will actually take care of the customer.

In fact now that I think about it ... that's a heck of a hook for lining up the replacement customer. You could find another firm that does what he does, call them and explain the situation, and ask if they want the leads instead.

Send them this:

Consumers Expect Local Businesses to Pick up the Phone

Hey, I've worked for Inc. Top 1000 firms that don't answer their phones.

"First In Wins"

If you can answer when your prospect calls, you have a much higher chance of getting the order. If you don't, odds are they'll never call you back. And by the time you call them, if you do, they'll have found someone else.

Here's an idea.

Create a white paper about the effect poor phone management has on revenues and use it as one of the first hooks in your marketing funnel. This will get the clients thinking about the issue and the possibilities, and you can hit on this again by initiating a "phone discussion" before you start your campaigns, reiterating to the client the role this issue will play in the results of your efforts - or more specifically, in their profit generation.

Be sure to deliver this white paper to all of your existing clients as well, bringing them up to speed while emphasizing the ongoing value you deliver. And of course, if white papers aren't your thing, you can communicate this in other formats.

The problem here is that the clients need to be educated. They are not just leaving money on the table with the things you've been doing for them - they've been losing money because of bad phone management all along...

By waking them up to the issue, you can add to their bottom line instantly, creating a big opportunity for building credibility, closing deals, and landing the type of clients that you want.

I can't comment cos I didn't bother reading the post!

I agree with what you are saying and don't have hardly any
information to go with, but I wonder if you might be inadvertently
putting out a negative attitude towards him that might lead things
to becoming unnecessarily adversarial and self-fulfilling. Not doing
his job of answering phones, anticipating that this won't end well...

What's he like when you consult with him by phone or in person
(coming across as the family marketing doctor) instead of contact
via email?

Trying to help here anyway. All for dropping true PITA clients.

Dan