Transcription
This is Dave. Dave owns a business that depends on leads, and he's put in a lot of time and hard work to generate leads. He's run Facebook ads, he's door-knocked, he's cold-called, he's run Google ads, he's done it all.
But when he speaks with these leads, he just can't close them. They either stop taking his calls, or they just flat-out tell him no. All that hard work is going down the drain because even though he's generating the leads, that doesn't matter if they're not converting into customers and clients.
Does this sound like a familiar situation? If so, make sure you watch to the end of this video because I'm sharing three things you can do in your lead generation process to convert more leads into customers. And in case you don't know, I'm Brandy with Life Marketing, the digital marketing agency that helps small businesses grow. We use these methods both for ourselves and for our clients every day to drive results like these: hundreds and thousands of leads every month at a low cost that's profitable for each business.
So, the first thing you need to do to make sure that when you get to the closing part of your sales funnel, they purchase, is to qualify and disqualify as much as possible beforehand. Qualifying means you're giving the lead reasonable expectations, telling them exactly what they're going to get from working with you. You're not over-promising and under-delivering. This qualifying means you're also ruling out if a lead is not fit to be your customer or client.
Disqualification is just as important as qualification, but it's usually the thing growing businesses don't want to do because sometimes it means turning away leads that are showing interest. And I know that's hard to do because you want to accept any and all customers right now. But here's why it's important: usually, the things that disqualify a lead are lack of budget, geographical location, or wanting something different or outside of what you offer. If you're nurturing a lead that doesn't have the money to pay you, isn't in the area you service, or is ultimately going to be dissatisfied with your service because it's not what they want, you're just wasting time and resources now on a lead that was never going to be a good, sustainable, or profitable fit for your business.
So, how do you qualify and disqualify leads? The answer is in every piece of content you put out, and especially in your lead form. With content, you know you should always provide value, but what's important is to provide the right value so that the right people follow you and engage with your posts. For example, let's say you own a car detailing business and you're running a giveaway to try and generate more social media followers. You could offer an Amazon gift card as the giveaway prize, which would technically be something of value. But what would be better is to offer a discount or gift card to your business so that you know all the people entering the giveaway are interested in what you offer. People who follow you for an Amazon gift card are going to unfollow you as soon as they don't win the giveaway. Whereas, if people are following you for a chance to get their car detailed for free, you know that they have a car that they're interested in detailing. And if the rest of your organic content provides value, such as how to take care of their cars between visits, or by showing awesome before and afters, those people are going to stick around because they want what you're selling, even if they didn't win the giveaway.
Think of your content like this: you're giving away specific value with the aim of drawing in specific customers. With your lead form, when you ask for their name, number, and email, include one to two more questions that will help you or your sales team determine if they're a good lead or bad fit. For example, if you're a realtor, ask them what area they're looking to buy or sell their house in to see if it's an area that you cover. If you work in North Georgia and they're interested in buying a house on the Florida-Georgia line, probably not a good fit. Make a list of things that you know right off the bat will disqualify a lead and figure out how to ask questions around those items in your lead form. And some disqualifiers may reveal themselves to you as you go along. For instance, we learned over the years that if a business owner does not have a website, then it's probably a little too early in their journey for us to work with them. We don't build websites, that's not a service we offer, but as soon as you do have a website, we will drive traffic, leads, and customers to it like crazy. So, just pay attention and be ready to adapt your lead form as necessary.
The bottom line with this step is to filter your leads. You want to make sure that anybody who gets to the point of receiving a phone call or email from you is somebody that can and likely will buy from you. If they're not likely to buy from you, boot them. There are too many qualified leads in this world for you to be messing around with unqualified leads.
All right, step number two is to follow up with them in a way that makes sense to you. So, if you're not following up with them at all, then that's a problem. And if you're following up with them in an unsolicited way, or in a way that's not natural based on your communication with them so far, then that's also a problem. This is not the '80s, the '90s, the 2000s, or, it pains me to say it, not even the 2010s. People today know when they're being sold to, absolutely, and they do not respond well to it. And you may think you're not being pushy or salesy, but studies show otherwise. One study found that while only 17% of salespeople think they themselves are pushy, 50% of their prospects think they are. And also, 57% of people said they would be encouraged to make a purchase from a salesperson who does not try to apply pressure or hassle them when following up.
So, the answer to this is not to not follow up at all. Like I said, you do need to follow up, but in a way that makes sense to you. Was there a lead magnet promised in the ad that sent them to your lead form? If so, then that needs to be the very first thing that they receive, and they need to receive it immediately. If you have an initial call with them and they need time to think about it or need to discuss XYZ with whoever, tell them exactly when and how you're going to follow up with them. Like, "Okay, great. I will send over a recap of what we talked about today so you have the material to look over, and then how about we touch base on Thursday? What time works best for me to give you a call?" A great metaphor I've heard of the closing process is comparing it to a relationship. If someone just met you, you wouldn't ask them to marry you without first learning about them, seeing if you're a good fit for each other, and so on. So, your dialogue and interactions with these leads should make sense based on the communication they've had with you so far, what they need from you, etc.
Step three is also going to help you be more of a help than a hassle to your lead. So, let's get into that. Step three is to be a master of your craft. Know everything about everything in your industry, your field, what your competitors are doing or not doing, what your audience needs, what their pain points are, why they're calling you, and how your product or service genuinely helps them. Any complaints or objections they may have to your product or service, all of it. The moment your sales call stops being a script and starts being an educational, helpful conversation, that's the moment you're going to start seeing your closing rate increase. Take away the sales language because studies show it deters leads anyway, and instead, make it a conversation to determine if you can help them or not. If not, on to the next. If so, great, then let's work something out.
If you're following step one, you should only be speaking with qualified, warm leads to begin with. And if you're following step two and three, you should be having a very direct but organic conversation with these leads that cause them to buy from you. Now, if you need help generating more leads to start with, then you should go watch this video next.