Fishing for leads
A lot has changed within the past 5 years. We have gone from cold calling and direct mail pieces to the rise of social media and blogging.
The buying habits of consumers has changed.
Remember when catalogue ordering was a big deal? Now you just head straight to a website or you “Google” a product you are looking for and you can find what companies are selling it and for the cheapest price. If you are lucky enough and SEO strong, your company will be shown on the first page of that consumers search and a possible sale could be made.
As marketing online continues to shift consumers buying habits, your company’s sales process should respond accordingly.
Sales professionals often wonder how and when they should react to sales leads online. When is the appropriate time to respond to the lead and how do you close the sale?
Here are a few tips on how to develop leads online and make sure you turn those leads into customers.
- Get social
- Don’t be presumptuous
- Qualify the lead
- Timing is key
- Be consistent
HubSpot, an inbound marketing software platform for small to medium sized businesses, offer statistics that support the importance of social media and blogging.
- 57 percent of businesses say their blog helps recruit new customers, while companies that blog get 55 percent more Web traffic than those who don’t.
- 67 percent of business-to-consumer brands have gained a customer via Facebook.
If you are not blogging or on Facebook etc., start now.
Once you get fans and customers following you however don’t presume that just because the lead has come to “follow” you, that it’s a qualified lead. In fact some of these leads may just be a waste of your time. So remember to think of these online leads as “cold leads” that need to be qualified.
If you do qualify the lead however – timing is key.
Studies have found that Wednesdays and Thursdays are the best days to call a prospect, between 4 and 6 p.m. Be careful however to qualify the lead as pitching prospects too early may turn them away and squash the possibility of a future sale.
Having a consistent, organized online sales process will help turn to prospects into customers.
When you have an organized process, the more likely you are to close the sale. Having a sales process will also allow you to test and measure what’s working within the process and what’s not working. It will allow you to tweak the process for optimal results.
Are you ready to turn your online sales leads into customers?
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Simply click the link below to schedule your free 30 minute phone consultation. We’ll focus on your #1 concern, and at the end of the call I’ll give you one tip or strategy that you can immediately use.
Does that make sense?
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