This is just an estimate, but my experience leads me to guestimate that the average outsourcing company in India loses about 80% of their prospective clients due to not being READY when those prospects call or email. Most emails get ignored, and calls are either not answered, or are answered by someone too busy to talk, or too incompetent to answer questions.
Companies in America are better in this respect. They will have an uneducated receptionist answer the call and tak a message and MAYBE if you are lucky the manager will call you back when they are ready which is generally a time when YOU are no longer ready to talk to them. I will estimate that Americans lose 70% of their prospects by not getting back to people.
Do you keep track of how many calls your company gets and how many you miss? Do you assume that these people will call you back? If they have been refered to you or know you they might call back. But, if they are just “calling around”, then they will most likely not call back unless you have a web site that is so impressive that they feel that you are “the one”.
Can you put a dollar value or rupee value on the lost business that you incur through neglegence? What is it worth to you? Is it worth training someone who can answer a few questions? Or, are you simply too busy? Your company might be able to go from having 5 employees to 50 in a few years if you simply master the art of not missing calls from prospects, and other aspects of marketing.
Once you have mastered the art of not missing calls, then you can move on to mastering having an amazing website and networking skills.
Good luck! Oh, and by the way, I’m still waiting for you to call me back (hint-hint)….. (sometime in 2013 preferably — no rush, its not like I’m in a hurry).