The secret to becoming wealthy has been expressed this way:

It isnt how much you earn; its how much you keep.

If you earn a big salary but the tax man takes the lions share, youre not doing as well as the person who zeroes out his tax liability through perfectly legal means and keeps the big part of his boodle.

The same logic applies to success in marketing. It doesnt matter how many eyeballs see your ads during the Super Bowl, if your real market consists of football haters who are tuned out.

Likewise, if your promotions make the phones ring off the hook, but the people you have answering the lines are poorly trained or unskilled, youll be wasting your efforts and budgets.

My company has been doing a mystery shopping campaign of cosmetic and corrective surgery centers. Many of these offices invest a ton in radio, TV, and print advertising and in very slick web sites and pay-per-click ads just to make the phone ring with a live prospect on the other end.

Yet, they very often employ minimum wage types who can barely handle the give and take of a five dollar fast food conversation, let alone speak intelligently about a delicate surgical procedure that can require an investment of thousands.

Medical centers arent the only ones that err by expecting unskilled people to staff their phones. Call most 800 numbers that advertisers tout on radio and TV and youll encounter people who can barely ask, Do you want fries with that?

This is marketings leaky pail. You can do a great job of filling it and re-filling it with prospects but if they fall through because of telephonic incompetence, your efforts are for naught.

The next time you ask prospects to Call this number, now! do yourself a favor.

Call it first, and ask yourself if youd place your trust in and order with the person who answers!