How to turn sales leads into dollars

One of the most difficult things for any business to do is to generate and convert sales leads. Sales leads are the heartbeat for any organisation. If you have no sales leads, you do not have sales, and that is not a good state for your company to be in. 

Having leads which don’t convert can be the most frustrating thing about running your own small business.  Lets be honest its actually pretty easy to attract attention to your business these days.  The internet has made it simple to give your business marketing presence and online advertising or search engine optimisation drives traffic to your site.  However the key to successful business is not just attracting prospects or traffic but converting these into revenue.

Converting leads is the life blood to any organisation the following tips should help you:

Track and measure - First you need to know how your business currently performs.  Set up a simple system to monitor the number of leads your business gets and where they come from, then compare these figures to your sales figures and look at  your conversion ratios.  For example you might find leads from direct advertising turn into business, where as only 10% of visitors to your website make a purchase.  Differences such as this can give you an insight into why different marketing methods produce different conversion rates. Once you have the facts you can work on improving these areas. 

Identify you leads - Categorise each lead into three categories, "A" category are the ones most likely to purchase something very soon, "B" leads are those that are most likely going to buy, at some point. And "C" leads are the ones that you are not sure about, but want to keep in touch with just in case. Contact your "A" leads the most often, perhaps weekly, while "C" leads may only get a monthly newsletter.

Identify your target market - You need to know who your most likely buyers are. Marketing to everyone doesn’t work, because no product or service appeals to everyone.  Marketing to an irrelevant audience has the effect of weakening your conversion rate. That’s because these people are attracted to you but rarely buy. You have wasted time and resources on them. Find out who really buys, then tighten your marketing efforts to fully focus on working closet to the dollar.

Under promise and over deliver - Review your marketing materials to see if they promise things your business cannot really deliver. Low conversion rates can be an indication that prospects are being attracted by marketing materials, but when they chat to your sales team just don’t believe the business can live up to its promises.  Do something special for your lead. Immediately upon meeting or speaking with a new lead, make it a priority to do something special right away. If it is their birthday or anniversary coming up, send a card. Maybe you have extra tickets for a local sports event?  Remember its the small things that make a difference.

Make sure sales staff know how to present -  Do they really understand the benefits of the business and how to communicate them to buyers? Are they making it easy for potential customers to say yes?  Define your business in a single sentence. Generating leads requires marketing messages that communicate what it is that you do, make or sell. The more succinctly you can define it, the more effectively you can communicate it. Sometimes it can be beneficial to get an outsider to act as a mystery customer and try to buy from your business. Are there too many hoops to jump through or barriers to have to break down? Over time your sales process can become complicated without you realising it.

Overcome Objections -  If a lead is threatening to walk away, you need to find out why. Can you overcome their objection? Often times a lead may have more questions or will let you know why they are saying no at this time. Is it cost? Can you offer them financing or another option? Whatever their objection, work on overcoming it.

And Finally -

Ask for the business - I have seen many talented sales staff over the years become complacent they do all the ground work but forget the crucial question, ask the potential customer to buy from you. So many businesses forget to do this! Ask questions about their needs, work out how you can fulfill these needs, then ask if they want to buy. If it’s a “no” right now, put in place a system to keep asking until they say yes. Don’t be ashamed to do this; often there is money on the table and all you have to do is ask for it.

While these are just a few tips… hopefully they’ll increase your conversion ratios.

Good luck

Louise