Getting many leads through a marketing campaign is GREAT! But how many are you closing once the initial contact is made?
The first action made is the vital first impression you give a potential paying customer.
- Don’t make your leads wait!
Making leads wait for an extended period of time causes their level of interest to drop drastically! While also giving them time to consider your competitors offerings. This is why it’s important to be responsive and attend to leads as soon as possible.
- Qualify your leads!
Qualification essentially allows you to predict if the lead is going to be converted into a sale or just wanting to get additional information.
- Marketing Qualified Lead (MQL)
Marketing qualified leads are essentially a lead that has shown interest in purchasing your product or service however is still considering your offering as a solution to their problem. These leads genuinely can be identified through specific actions such as downloading information about the offering, adding items into their cart but not committing, submitting contact information to be approached for more information or subscribing to a newsletter. These are all actions which indicates there are interested and have a high chance of becoming SQL’s converted to customers.
- Sales Qualified Lead (SQL)
Sales qualified leads are high quality leads that have a higher potential of become customers. These leads most likely have been in contact with marketing/ sales departments or researched material which ultimately has helped shift their decision. These leads you need to pounce on as soon as possible and close! You can identify SQL’s through their actions such as approaching sales team to make a decision, coming back with a previously given quote and analysing their intent of making a purchase.
- Have a structured & trained sales team
Your sales team must understand the product/ service there are selling in order to help customers understand why your offering is the best fit for them. If your sales team do not understand the benefits and quality of the offering there is NO WAY they can convince a high number of customers to purchase. Your sales team is ultimately in charge of shifting those MQL’s and SQL’s into paying customers!
- Always follow up
Following up is essential! Only a small number of sales are made during the first point of contact, meaning your business stands to lose a high number of leads if you don’t follow up! The frequency of contact with customers also helps determine how quickly they will make the purchase while also building a customer relationship as the business efficiency is highlighted.
- Analyse data and understand the conversion process
By understanding where your leads are coming from this allows you to understand where to focus your marketing efforts and what content appeals most to the target audience. This gives you the opportunity to turn more leads and have a shot at converting them into customers. Don’t forget to also analyse sales data and what closing strategies are working best to generate paying customers.
