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You probably pay close attention to the number of sales leads you get each month. But how much time do you devote to improving the strike rate on those leads? Here are some tips for getting the best results possible from your sales leads.
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After a challenging past 18 months or so, your venture’s growth has perhaps stalled. If so, it’s time to look for ways to get it taking off again. If you want your business to be around for the long term, it’s vital to find ways to keep it moving forward. Nonetheless, you need to be strategic with your time and energy as well.
This is where it pays to concentrate on how you and your team chase sales. You probably pay close attention to the number of leads you get each month. But how much time do you devote to improving the strike rate on how many of those leads turn into sales? If the answer is not much, or not enough to move the needle a lot, you can follow some tips for getting the best results possible from your sales leads.
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Utilize Analytics in Your Sales Lead Process
To reach your goals, your company’s sales lead process should be something you keep refining. To do this, test and measure all processes and outcomes often. Thanks to analytics programs, this is something that isn’t too challenging to handle. A quality web analytics tool for your website doesn’t have to blow the budget.
Invest in an affordable product. This will allow you to track information such as how many leads come into your website and other avenues. Also, you’ll be able to gauge how long it takes you and your team to respond. Check the number of leads that get turned into qualified prospects and, eventually, paying clients. Have software help you track this information so you can analyze it all for insights.
You can discover which target market(s) make the most inquiries and which convert most highly into sales. You can see which customer types buy from you repeatedly. Also, you’ll be able to spot if there are specific times of the year, month, week, or day when you get more leads. Finally, you can see if your response rates are improving or not.
Learn, too, what information is best at helping shoppers to complete actions so they can move further through your sales funnel. Maybe they ask for a quote, sign up for a newsletter, ask questions, click through to your social media pages, or place an order. Take what you discover to make your lead-handling processes more effective.
Make Sure Sales Leads Get Followed Up
If you want to improve the results you get from incoming sales leads, make sure every type of inquiry gets followed up. Additionally, ensure that this happens soon after someone contacts your business, no matter which touchpoint they use. It’s certainly easy to get caught up in day-to-day tasks. However, keep in mind that the sooner you check in with leads, the better your results are likely to be.
People expect fast communication turnaround times these days. What’s more, they will typically move on to source what they need from another business if they don’t hear from yours within a day or two. So if you can, follow up with inquiries, especially those made online, within an hour of them arriving. Each hour that passes without a response increases the likelihood that you’ll lose someone’s interest.
Keep in Touch with People Longer Term
Have you heard the term “recency and frequency” in business circles? This phrase refers to the idea that it’s vital to stay in touch with interested consumers often. This way, when they need to buy a product or service you sell, your brand and its offerings come straight to mind. This happens when you’re a company that recently got in touch with the consumer and when they hear from you frequently.
You’re more likely to turn leads into sales if you don’t just follow up with people once but multiple times over months and years. Show you’re there to help when people need you. While we all want sales as soon as possible, the reality is that customers will make purchases when they’re ready, on their own timeframes, not on ours.
To increase the likelihood you stay top of mind with shoppers, implement systems you and your team can follow so too much time doesn’t pass between communications with leads. For example, use software programs such as customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Then automate these tools to send reminders to sales staff when it’s time to get in touch with leads. You can even use tech systems to pre-fill email follow-ups or create text messages.
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Conclusion
These are just some of the ways to boost results from the leads you get each year. The more thoughtful and proactive you can be with how you handle leads, the more impressive your sales and profit outcomes should be.
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