This post is part of our CEO’s Corner series.
Sales are the lifeblood of nearly every business and leads are the roots of all sales. You need to get the leads and then convert them into paying customers. It’s two processes, acquiring the leads and then converting them into sales, that every business aims to optimize. To that end, I’ve integrated the following four practices into AudioTranscription.Org’s operations and seen great results:
- The Lead Response Management Study. Read it. Read it now. It’ll tell you amazing statistics about the likelihood of getting in touch with a lead as a function of time. Wait five minutes, what happens? What 20 minutes? What about an hour? A day?
- Personalize your automated confirmation responses. You can do this easily using Wufoo. Instead of saying, “Thank you for getting in touch with Acme, Inc.,” say, “Dear Thomas, Thank you for getting in touch with Acme, Inc.” This won’t lead to more leads per se, but it will lead to “hotter” online sales leads.
- Send the web leads from your site to multiple people. Sure, you’ll want them to go to your VP of sales or a similar position, but it’s more important that — at least in uber-competitive niches — that someone, anyone, responds quickly. Thus, why not have the notification email that your website’s contact form generates sent to 2 or 3 people? The first person to respond should CC the others, so the lead is only contacted once. This too won’t actually generate additional leads (perhaps this wasn’t the best title after all), but it will help you close a lot more of them.
- In setting up your web form, only ask necessary questions. Filling out a web form is work. Potential clients — unconsciously or consciously — look at it that way, so your goal should be to minimize that perception. Every additional question you ask of clients (even if it’s optional) means fewer people will fill out your form. Thus, instead of obtaining all of the info you’ll eventually need from a potential client, focus only on one thing: What questions do I need to ask them to get to the next step of the sales process (probably a phone conversation)? I like name/email/phone/company/”how can we help you?” and nothing else.
What helps your business generate additional or hotter online sales leads?