“The leads are bad.” Every agency hears it, and sometimes it is true. But it is also the easiest explanation in the world, because it makes the problem someone else’s.
So when a vehicle dealership we were running ads for told us exactly that, we stopped arguing and tested it instead. It took one morning and cost nothing. It is the most useful fifteen minutes I have spent on any account.
The test
- 1Be your own customer.
Fill in your enquiry form the way a real buyer would. Real name, real number, a plausible question.
- 2Do the same on your closest rival’s form.
Same morning, 14 minutes apart, same question.
- 3Put the phone down and watch.
Who contacts you first, on what channel, how long it takes, and what they say.
- 4Keep going for a week.
The first reply is only half of it. Count every touch until they stop.
What happened
The rival called in 32 minutes. Their company name was on my screen before I picked up, which is the only reason I answered a number I did not know. Our client never called. They did reply, by email, and both times it went straight to spam. We only found it because we went looking.
That is the whole “bad leads” argument, gone. The same person, the same morning, the same question. One business treated it like money. The other did not know it had arrived.
What the rival got right
I want to be fair to them, because they did not do anything clever. They did five ordinary things, in order, and did not skip any.
- 1
Phoned inside the hour.Not an email, not a template. A person, who opened with “how can I add value to your day?”
- 2
Company name on caller ID.A name on the screen gets the call answered. A private number gets declined.
- 3
An offer 20 minutes after I sent documents.In writing, while the decision was still live.
- 4
WhatsApp, with real photos.The exact car I asked about, not a stock picture, in the app I already had open.
- 5
A friendly check-in on day four.No pressure. Just “still interested?” One more message is not pushy. Silence is.
Why this is a system problem, not a sales problem
Our client did not lose because their salespeople were lazy. They lost because nothing in the business made the first hour happen automatically. The enquiry went to an inbox. The reply went to spam. Nobody was told. Nobody followed up because nobody knew there was anything to follow up on.
The rival almost certainly had the same size team. What they had that our client did not was a sequence that runs whether or not anyone is having a good day: acknowledge, call, quote, WhatsApp, check in. Effort was never the difference. The system was. The same gap shows up in how businesses handle reviews: the ones who reply win.
Run it on yourself
Fifteen minutes. Your form, a rival’s form, then watch. If you are the one who phones in 32 minutes, good, you have a lead problem and it is worth fixing. If you are the one whose reply is in spam, you do not need more leads. You need the first hour to happen on its own. That is what Track. Nurture. Convert. is built to do.
Failed the test?
Tell me what happens after someone enquires with you today. I will reply with the one thing I would fix first. No pitch.
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