Conversion Rate Optimisation · 3 April 2018
How to Increase Lead to Sale Conversion Rates
Expert Insights from our guest author this month - Ben Lai - Melbourne's leading sales trainer. Four simple tips to maximise conversions on inbound leads.
By Shane
Marketing exposure is inherently worthless. There, I said it! If you are investing in marketing, website visits can be a meaningless metric. They must convert into enquiries, which in turn must turn into actual sales. The sad fact is that many businesses are wasting their hard-earned dollars by being inattentive to their leads. Today I’d like to share with you three practical steps to increase lead to sale conversion rates.
Respond to leads ASAP!
One large study conducted on lead response times found that you can increase lead to sale conversion rates by responding quickly to them. Specifically, for every 5 minutes of delay, your chances of making the sale decreased exponentially! The finding is unsurprising – would you rather do business with someone who responds within 5 minutes, or 24 hours? It is baffling to hear that many companies consider the latter to be the acceptable standard.
In practice, this means ensuring your contact form requires the person’s best contact number. While this may decrease the total number of leads you receive, the quality of prospects and your interactions with them will be significantly improved. Phone conversations will always outperform email exchanges. You may consider having an alternative offer for other leads using a lead magnet.
The next step is to ensure that your internal systems allow you to respond quickly. You may consider creating a separate email account for interested enquiries. If you wish, you can enable email notifications on your smartphone to ensure you receive them in real-time. (As a side note, I don’t recommend receiving notifications for all emails, as this will inhibit your time management efforts.) All that’s left is to contact the incoming leads quickly, and enjoying the increased sales!http://www.digitalsquad.co.nz/improve-conversion-with-psychology/
Create a follow-up plan
You can also increase lead to sale conversion rates by following up with prospects. People will seldom buy on the first interaction. This means that you’ll need to have multiple touchpoints with them until they are ready to buy.
If you are worried about being “pushy” when following up, remember that you are actually providing a valuable service for them. Think of yourself as a guide. You are helping them to make an informed decision, where the terrain is a jungle of information. People tend to default to inaction, so by keeping them accountable and helping them to decide, you are helping them to be a decisive action-taker!
In practice this means asking for follow-up actions and setting dates for their achievement. Treat the next discussion as an appointment to reduce no-shows or playing voicemail tag. Finally, don’t forget to ask for the order at the end of the discussion!
Be bold – ask for their business!
If you want to increase lead to sale conversion rates, you need to actually ask for their business! A common mistake for ending conversations is to say “feel free to call us if you need more information.” Remember that if you don’t ask, you won’t get the deal! If left to their own devices, people will frequently put off their decision or get distracted. You will be doing them a favour by helping them to make a decision!
This simple step can be significantly improved if your belief in your products’ value is strong. If you truly believe that it will help your client gain enormous amounts of value, what reason would you have to hesitate? Your prospect will want to know that you are confident you can deliver what you are promising. If you don’t ask for the order, your buyer will know subtly that you can’t be trusted.
You don’t need any fancy methods for manipulating or pushing people to buy. Your selling process should logically point to the best decision for your client. At this point, all you need to say is “To proceed, here are the next steps…” Adjust the wording to how you like it, but the key is in the asking!
I love the phrase “Marketing makes the phone ring, but sales make the till ring!” If you want to increase lead to sale conversion rates, make sure you answer enquiries quickly, follow up with them, and close the sale by asking for their business. Try it, and see your marketing ROI soar!
Sales Ethos provides sales training in Melbourne, Australia. Led by Ben Lai, our vision is to inspire and equip sales consultants and entrepreneurs to sell with purpose, pride, and integrity. Our core belief is that Integrity + Skills = Success, and achieve this by providing startup business coaching, sales coaching, and sales process consulting.
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