“Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy, but here’s my number. So call me, maybe?” — sung by Carly Rae Jepsen (This Jimmy Fallon/Roots version is the only one you should ever listen to).

So what do these bad but catchy pop song lyrics have to do with vehicle graphics? I thought you’d never ask.

The industrial packaging distributor I work for recently underwent a re-brand. During the process, we determined it was a must to emblazon the vehicles in our fleet with the new branding. Hopefully your company comes to the same conclusion and calls TKO Graphix, but I digress. The next order of business was to determine what info to put on our vehicles. That key question led me to a big takeaway:

ASK & LISTEN

One big mistake I see in online marketing is the assumption that what YOU like is what your prospects or customers will like. I’m sure this pops up in numerous other areas of business and life, as well. I initially made this mistake when determining what information to include on our fleet graphics. I assumed since I’ve never called a number I saw on a truck, that no one else had either. In my hunt to only include necessary info, it made complete sense to remove the phone number, right?

Wrong.

How did I find out I was wrong? I asked. I’m lucky enough to have a great group of online contacts who are willing to answer questions I post on various social networks. I figured I’d find out if anyone I knew had ever called a phone number they found on a truck. I got responses like:

•    “I haven’t called from my phone right then, but I have written the number down to call later!”
•    “Never.”
•    “Yes, actually, quite often.”
•    “I’ve taken a pic of back of truck with number to call later.”
•    “Nope.”
•    “No, but I have texted myself a url to look up later.”

And finally, too many versions of, “I called that 800 number to report bad driving,” to list here.

I was surprised at the numerous people who said “yes” and the ways in which they called numbers found on trucks. If I’d made my decision based on my preferences and actions, I would’ve left a big lead generation opportunity on the table. It’s one thing to ask for help and answers from your customers, prospects and contacts, but it’s entirely another to actually listen to them and to act on their responses. If you go through the exercise of sending out a formal survey, or do it more informally like I did, do yourself a favor and actually utilize the data you were just given.

So Carly Rae was right. Give someone you’ve never met your number and they will call you… maybe.

Do you agree with what my informal data collection unearthed? Have you done any research or have you any data from your own fleets to share? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below so we can all improve.