If I asked you about lead generation, your focus would probably be on how to get in leads. But how much have you considered what you do with those leads when you have them? Having a lead process in place can make a huge difference to your turnover.
What do you do when you get a lead? You need to be all over it. Whether it’s contacting them back or just putting them through your nurturing programme, you need to find a way to get this proactive action to convert.
Hot or Cold
A lot of businesses prioritise hot leads, but cold leads often drop off the radar. The difference is those who are asking for a meeting or have a definite need right now (a hot lead) and those who are just asking general questions or telling you to call back in six months (a cold lead).
We all love a hot lead. I hope you contact them back, get a meeting in the diary and convert. Hot leads are easy to deal with. But we get far fewer of them.
We tend to get more cold leads. And, yes, they could turn into nothing. “Call me back in six months” could just be a fob off. But they’ve also taken the time to contact you. And they’ve given you permission to call them back in six months. So don’t forget to do that. In the meantime, do you send them any sort of communication? Are they on your email list? If you run an event or a special offer, have you let them know out of courtesy?
When was the last time you had absolutely no interest in something whatsoever, yet you still told that person to contact you back at a later date? Something in their head is telling them that this might be of interest in the future. So take that tiny seed and nurture it.
Cold Lead Process
For anyone who contacts you for any reason but isn’t saying “I want to buy now”, we’re going to put on the cold lead pile. In reality, you should segment things far more, but for now let’s keep things simple.
Cold leads can also be people who have downloaded your “How To Guide”, regularly open and read your newsletter, or keep commenting on your posts on social media. Proactive action suggests an element of interest. So take that and see what you can do with it.
Part of your marketing plan has to look at what you do with these cold leads. You need to think in terms of channel and in terms of hook.
If we take hook first, what I mean here is what are you going to tell them to encourage more interest? You need to do more than just keep sharing what you sell. Are you going to an event? Are you running a special promotion? Are you hosting an exclusive webinar? Put things into your calendar that act as lead conversion tactics. It doesn’t matter what you do, but you need to find ways to keep the lines of communication open without irritating them.
Being boring and repetitive is irritating. Seeming interesting, with lots going on, and building that FOMO effect, is exciting.
Channel
Now you have your plan of action in place and you know your hooks, next you need to decide how you’re going to contact your cold leads to share this news with them.
Yes, you could email them. But do you know what always converts best? Phone calls. Getting on the phone is incredibly powerful.
There’s this massive myth that telemarketing is dead and digital is the way forward. But this is based on the old idea of telesales. In reality, speaking to people is and probably always will be the best way to build a relationship.
You want to sell to them in that moment more than they want to buy from you. If you just send out marketing communications, you’re relying on people coming back to you. You’re relying on them to make the first move to actually use your service. However, if you phone somebody and you use the right angles and techniques, they will tell you everything. They will give you an insight into who they’re using, the issues that they’re facing, the plans that they’ve got coming up, and they’ll give you an insight into what their need is. This changes everything.
From one man bands through to those businesses with large sales teams, the process of getting on the phone is losing focus. But I’ve seen first hand that so are sales conversions. I’ve worked with businesses where we’ve generated leads and nothing has happened to them. As in, they’ve not been effectively followed up.
Don’t then think you’ve got a second chance. If you don’t go back to someone who has shown interest, you will lose all trust in their eyes. You need to be all over your lead process, and give it as much emphasis as your lead building.
These are my top tips:
- Track every bit of interest that comes into your business
- Segment them into hot leads and cold leads
- Contact back hot leads immediately
- Put your cold leads onto a nurture programme – and get on the phone to speak to as many as possible
If you’re not confident on the phone, but you’re not in a position to outsource, then take a look at our guest blog from telemarketing agency Talk Results. This shares loads of advice on how to master those telephone follow ups.
If these changes improve your lead conversion by just 10%, wouldn’t that make a huge difference to your business? For any help at all on generating leads or building a rock solid nurture process, please get in touch. We can work with you on an ad hoc basis to get your ducks in line so everything converts better in the long run.
